摘要
This study investigates how orthographic,semantic and contextual variables—including word length,concreteness,and contextual support—impact on the processing and learning of new words in a second language(L2)when first encountered during reading.Students learning English as a foreign language(EFL)were recruited to read sentences for comprehension,embedded with unfamiliar L2 words that occurred once.Immediately after this,they received a form recognition test,a meaning recall test,and a meaning recognition test.Eye-movement data showed significant effects of word length on both early and late processing of novel words,along with effects of concreteness only on late-processing eye-tracking measures.Informative contexts were read slower than neutral contexts,yet contextual support did not show any direct influence on the processing of novel words.Interestingly,initial learning of abstract words was better than concrete words in terms of form and meaning recognition.Attentional processing of novel L2 words,operationalized by total reading time,positively predicted L2 learners’recognition of new orthographic forms.Taken together,these results suggest:1)orthographic,semantic and contextual factors play distinct roles for initial processing and learning of novel words;2)online processing of novel words contributes to L2 learners’initial knowledge of unfamiliar lexical items acquired from reading.
本文选取词长、语义具体性和语境支持度这三个因素,分别探讨了阅读过程中词形、语义和语境信息对二语者首次加工生词的影响。研究者招募中国英语学习者进行了一项眼动句子阅读实验,句中设置了二语生词,每个生词出现一次。阅读任务完成后,被试依次完成词形识别、词义回想和词义识别三项测验。眼动数据分析发现,词长在早期和晚期阶段对生词加工均有显著影响,而语义具体性仅对生词的晚期加工有显著作用。语境支持度高的句子比语境支持度低的句子需要更长的阅读时间,然而语境支持度对生词的加工没有直接影响。词汇测验数据分析发现,仅接触一次的情况下,抽象词在词形和词义识别方面都比具体词掌握得更好。此外,二语者对生词的总阅读时间越长,生词的词形识别表现就越好。以上结果表明:1)词形、语义和语境信息在生词的首次加工和初次学习中可能发挥着不同的作用;2)二语者在阅读过程中对生词的即时加工与他们习得的生词初始认知密切相关。
