Semantic development in ESL vocabulary acquisition.

摘要

This study investigates the mapping of L2 word forms onto their meanings by attempting to estimate a threshold beyond which ESL learners can be said to have reached native-like semantic knowledge and by examining the processes the ESL learners go through in their semantic development of L2 vocabulary. The researcher also examined the relationship between selected ESL learners' background variables and their semantic development.; The Vocabulary Levels Test (Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.), a measure of vocabulary size, was adopted to estimate this threshold. The Chinese-speaking ESL learners were divided into two groups, depending on whether they had achieved the 5,000 word level. The Semantic Knowledge Test, developed by the researcher, represented the key instrument to measure the participants' semantic development in English vocabulary. Native speakers of English also participated in this study as the baseline comparison group to the ESL learners on the Semantic Knowledge Test. The Semantic Knowledge Test scores were analyzed to compare the performances of the native speakers of English and the two groups of ESL learners. The ESL learners' performances on the Semantic Knowledge Test were also analyzed based on their field of study, years of formal English language instruction and years of study in the United States. Furthermore, retrospective think-aloud interviews were employed to examine the participants' mental processes while determining the difference between word meanings used on the Semantic Knowledge Test.; The results indicated that the 5,000 word level was not high enough to be considered as constituting the semantic threshold level for the Chinese-speaking ESL learners. The ESL learners' field of study was associated with their semantic development as measured by the Semantic Knowledge Test, whereas years of formal English language instructions and years of study in the U.S. were not. The retrospective think-aloud interview data provided evidence that only some level of semantic restructuring had been performed by the high-level ESL learners, thus indicating that semantic development might be a very slow-developing process and not a stationary state. Pedagogical implications are discussed.