SHIFT IN ASSOCIATIONS IN THE LEXICAL NETWORKS OF THE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

V.Kavitha; Dr. S.Padmasani Kannan

Volume : VI, Issue : I, January - 2016

SHIFT IN ASSOCIATIONS IN THE LEXICAL NETWORKS OF THE LEARNERS OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

V. Kavitha, Dr. S. Padmasani Kannan

Abstract :

This research paper is a study on the process of vocabulary acquisition of the learners of English as a Second Language. The psycholinguistic perspective of language acquisition suggests that in the ‘mental word store’ (Aitchison, 2003) or the Mental Lexicon, vocabulary exists in networks. The study of the lexical networks is being done consistently by psychologists, to study the networks, through a variety of word association tasks. In this study, the researcher has made a psycholinguistic study of the associational behaviour of a set of L2 learners, through repeated Word Association tasks. The participants of the study are a set of undergraduate students registered under various courses of Science and Humanities. The study has been conducted in 3 phases to observe the properties of the associations and changes in the association, with the increasing word knowledge. Significant changes and certain patterns could be observed with the increasing knowledge, which carries implications for the teaching vocabulary of English as a Second Language.