Masked form priming with newly-learned pseudo-L2 words in novice bilinguals

This study explores whether novice bilinguals store newly-learned pseudo-L2 words together with or separately from the L1, by testing whether pseudo-L2 words compete with their formally-similar L1 words. Although we attempted to obtain a prime lexicality effect (PLE), with newly-trained pseudo-L2 words as primes and their formally-similar words in L1 as targets (stafe-STARE) showing an inhibitory effect, and untrained nonword primes with these targets (stace-STARE) showing a facilitatory effect, no such PLE was obtained. This was the case despite the fact that these newly-learned pseudo-L2 words yielded repetition priming (stafe-STAFE), suggesting that some form of representations were developed for these words. These results are discussed in terms of how to test newly-learned pseudo-L2 words, and whether competition can be exploited to test lexical integration.

Word knowledge, learning and acquisition in a second language: Proposed replications of Elgort (2011) and Qiao and Forster (2017)

What does it mean to learn a word? How can we tell when a sequence of letters or sounds becomes a word in the mind of the learner? While many second language (L2) vocabulary teaching and learning studies continue to use traditional vocabulary tests to measure learning (such as multiple choice, translation, gap-fill), these measures tend to come short when researchers want to address theoretical questions about the nature of L2 word knowledge. In the present paper, I argue for conceptualising word learning as lexicalisation, which necessitates the use of alternative approaches to measuring learning. I then propose approximate and conceptual replications of two theoretically motivated L2 word learning studies, Elgort (2011) and Qiao and Forster (2017), that used the Prime Lexicality Effect as a measure of lexicalisation of deliberately learned L2 words.