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The Influence of First Language Lexicalization on Second Language Lexical Inferencing: A Study of Farsi‐Speaking Learners of English as a Foreign Language
Author(s) -
Paribakht T. Sima
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.0023-8333.2005.00321.x
Subject(s) - lexicalization , linguistics , psychology , vocabulary , first language , foreign language , reading (process) , philosophy
This article reports on an introspective study that examined the relationship between first language (L1; Farsi) lexicalization of the concepts represented by the second language (L2; English) target words and learners’ inferencing behavior while reading English texts. Participants were 20 Farsi‐speaking university students of English as a foreign language. The results indicate that these learners knew fewer, and inferred meanings for more, nonlexicalized target words than lexicalized words. Although they used similar types and proportions of knowledge sources when inferring meanings for both groups of words, they were far less successful in decoding the meanings of the nonlexicalized words. Lexicalization in the L1 may be one of the factors influencing learners’ differential success in L2 text comprehension and vocabulary development.