María Pilar Agustín Llach is Full Professor in Applied Linguistics at the University of La Rioja, and a supervisor of PhD theses at her institution, at the Antonio Nebrija University of Madrid and at the Doctoral School of Linguistics at ELTE. Her research focuses on vocabulary acquisition and the development of lexical competence in English and Spanish as foreign languages. She has contributed widely to the field of lexical studies in multiple articles in international journals and in several monographies by exploring the impact of previous linguistic knowledge (L1/Ln) on the acquisition of additional languages, and its variation with time, age and other variables. Her most recent publications include lexical availability studies in English and potential mathematical analyses of associative networks in the mental lexicon.
The mental lexicon in the additional language of L2 and L3 EFL learners: a lexical-semantic approach
The demography of foreign language learners has changed dramatically in the last decades leaving us with highly multicultural and multilingual classes. Accordingly, the need arises to explore FL acquisition and use processes of these learners in multicultural classes. Here, we examine the vocabulary structure of two groups of EFL learners with monolingual background, L2 learners, and with a multilingual background, L3 heritage learners. These are foreign Language learners who are speakers of their home language (Arabic, Rumanian, Urdu) plus Spanish, the majority language of the community. Learners had to respond to a semantic fluency task. Responses were scrutinized and results submitted to several analyses concerning total amount of words produced, word frequency, availability and centrality. Furthermore, graph metrics were calculated to gauge the vocabulary structure of both learner cohorts. Results point to lack of differences in quantitative and qualitative lexical production. This result of lack of differences between local and heritage learners in mainstream classes supports previous findings in similar contexts but with different language constellations (e.g. Siemund and Lorenz 2024). This might point to the overarching role of school and socialization in the building of thematic vocabulary, conceptualization of the world, and quick lexical access in the foreign language learned formally. Therefore, the (English as a) foreign language class can become a safe and equalitarian haven for inclusion, the development of (learning) motivation and the introduction of democratic and socially oriented educational policies.
Keywords: vocabulary structure, semantic fluency, local EFL learners, heritage EFL learners
References
Siemund, P. and Lorenz, E. (2024). Multilingual advantages: On the relationship between type of bilingualism and language proficiency, in Kleanthes Grohmann (ed.) Multifaceted Multilingualism. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 125–153.