This paper reports on a study designed to examine the effects of
L2vocabulary knowledge on
L2semantic processing for Chinese learners of English.Two experiments have been run within a conceptual framework of L2lexical competence,which was specially developed for the current re - search.Experiment1tested the L2vocabulary knowledge hypothesis,which postulated that L2vo - cabulary knowledge would affect efficiency of L2semantic processing for Chinese learners of Eng - lish.A primed lexical decision task was used to assess the learners ' efficiency of L2semantic pro - cessing and the Controlled Active Vocabulary Test was administrated to determine their L2vocabu - lary knowledge.The results showed that the learners of high-level L2vocabulary knowledge were significantly quicker and more accurate than those of low-level L2vocabulary knowledge regarding accessibility of semantic knowledge in the L2mental lexicon.Furthermore,semantic priming effects did not increase with the development of L2vocabulary knowledge.Experiment2tested the links hypothesis,which stated that links in
lexical networks of Chinese-speaking learners of English would influence the changes in efficiency of L2semantic processing.For this purpose,a task of restricted word association was adopted.The results showed that the pattern of responses in the lexical net - works of learners with richer vocabulary knowledge was significantly different from that in the lexi - cal networks of learners with poorer vocabulary knowledge.The findings from Experiment2lent support to an explanation of a weaker
semantic priming effect achieved by the learners with higher level of vocabulary knowledge,which attributes the weaker effect to better-structured lexical net - works in the light of the compound cue theory.These results are taken as evidence that L2vocabu - lary knowledge affects the efficiency with which Chinese learners of English process semantic in - formation and their patterns of lexical networks influence the changes of efficiency in L2semantic
Processing.
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