从词汇联想测试看低层次EFL学习者心理词汇之间的联系

Exploring the Connections within the Mental Lexicon of Low-level EFL Learners in China through Word Association Tests

本研究旨在通过词汇联想测试来探究低层次EFL(英语作为外语)学习者心理词汇之间的联系、表征特征及其组织形式,以期揭示出英语词汇习得的规律,进而帮助低层次EFL学习者更科学、更合理地提高词汇学习和词汇习得的效率。研究发现,受试者心理词汇的存储模式呈现出"横组合"与"纵聚合"的联想关系,并且从总体上来说,低层次EFL学习者心理词汇依照"横组合"关系存储的数量要多于依照"纵聚合"关系来存储的数量;同时,研究结果并不支持"中国EFL学习者心理词汇之间的联系主要是语音的"这一说法。

This paper aims at investigating the relationship within, and representation and pattems of the mental lexicon of low-level EFL （English as a foreign language） learners in China, organizational with a view to revealing the inherent laws of vocabulary acquisition and improving the efficiency of vocabulary learning and acquisition in more scientific and reasonable ways. The results, based on the elicitation of the participants＇ responses to the word association tests, shows that paradigmatic associations within the mental lexicon English words are stored in relation to their syntagmatic and of the subjects undertaking the tests, and that, in the main, the syntagmatic associations in the mental lexicon of these low-level EFL learners outnumber the paradigmatic associations by a considerable margin. However, the results of this study do not see eye to eye with previous researchers on the purport that the mental lexicon of Chinese EFL learners was mainly based on phonological connections.