The Dynamic Change of Word Psycholinguistic Features of Chinese Learners of English

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-8921.2015.04.006

Abstract

Abstract: Based on a written English corpus of 25 Chinese learners of English over 135 days, the study aims to investigate whether or not word psycholinguistic features and their correlations change with the course of time and language proficiency by treating time and language proficiency as an independent variable and word psycholinguistic features as dependent variables in a combination of longitudinal and cross-sectional methods. The results show: (1) word psycholinguistic features change with the course of time and the development of language proficiency in that the values of concreteness, imagery, meaningfulness and familiarity become smaller than before respectively; (2)correlations between word psycholinguistics features such as concreteness, imagery, meaningfulness and familiarity turn stronger with the elapse of time and the growth of language proficiency. Therefore, it is assumed that word psycholinguistic features and their network might indicate the development of vocabulary competence of second language learners.

CLC Number:

H319

YI Baoshu, NI Chuanbin. The Dynamic Change of Word Psycholinguistic Features of Chinese Learners of English[J]. Contemporary Foreign Languages Studies, 2015, 15(4): 43-48.

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