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Article published In: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism
Vol. 9:2 (2019) ► pp.289–313

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List composition effect on cognate and non-cognate word acquisition in children

ORCiD logo with link | Human Cognition Lab, CIPsi, School of Psychology, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
 | Laboratório URECA, Université Charles de Gaulle Lille 3, France
 | Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage (UMR 5596) | LabEx ASLAN, CNRS/Université Lumière Lyon 2, France
 | Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Behavioral Sciences, Universidad de la Laguna, Spain
 | Human Cognition Lab, CIPsi, School of Psychology, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal
Published online: 15 January 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.16034.com
Abstract
Previous studies on second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition with children showed that the use of a picture learning method favours the creation of direct links between the semantic system and new lexical representations at early stages of L2 acquisition (Comesaña, M., Perea, M., Pineiro, A., & Fraga, I. (2009). Vocabulary teaching strategies and conceptual representations of words in L2 in children: evidence with novice learners. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104(1), 22–33. .Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar). However, recent studies found that this influence seems to vary according to the cognate status of the words being learned (Comesaña et al., 2012), raising the question of how the type of words involved can modulate the lexical-semantic connections between the words of both languages in the bilingual memory. The main goal of the present study was to explore list composition effects in the establishment of L2 word-to-concept connections in Portuguese children by using a picture-based method. Results showed no influence of list composition in the establishment of L2 lexical-semantic connections when cognates have to be learned. Findings are discussed in light of relevant models of bilingual memory.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Stimuli
    • 2.3Procedure
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
References (55)
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