The study aimed to explore the evidence of first language (L1) mediation in second language (L2) word associations and the L2 learner-related factors affecting the extent of L1 mediation with the following approaches. First, different from previous research, word association tests (WATs) embraced both receptive and productive word associations in…

This chapter examines the lexical availability of students of Spanish as a foreign language (SFL) and observes how their semantic networks change as their proficiency in Spanish increases. The analysis focuses on 150 students with different levels of proficiency and the two centres of interest: "acciones y actividades habituales"…

This study explores prototypical word associations in EFL learners' mental lexicon to determine how they categorize the words retrieved in response to prompts in a lexical availability task. We compare two groups of Spanish EFL learners: sixty children in the sixth grade of primary education and sixty adolescents in the ten grade of secondary…

This study examined word class effects on Yi students' L2 Chinese word associations. 108 stimulus words, consisting of 36 nouns, 36 verbs, and 36 adjectives, were chosen from Corpus of Modern Chinese, with their frequencies and concreteness being strictly controlled. 80 students from grade 4 and 85 students from grade 10 finished the word…

Recent studies have suggested that language aptitude is a domain-general and flexible trait to acquire foreign languages, regarding various cognitive abilities such as memory systems as its crucial components. Despite a growing interest in working memory, however, much remains unknown about the impact of associative memory on language aptitude.…

Research has established positive associations between informal digital activities and vocabulary knowledge. However, understanding how different types of digital activities relate to various aspects of vocabulary knowledge is limited. This study examined how the purpose of informal digital activities and strategic engagement during and/or after…

Creativity is a key 21st-century skill and a consistent predictor of academic learning outcomes. Despite decades of research on creativity and learning, little is known about the cognitive mechanisms underlying their relationship. In two studies, we examined whether creativity supports associative learning through associative thinking--the ability…

Free listing tasks are a common data collection method used by cultural anthropologists, language historians and linguists (Nolan, 2002; Ryan et al., 2000; Weller & Romney, 1988; Wolfram & Schillings-Estes, 1998). These tasks are interviews in which a researcher asks groups of respondents to list words or expressions that come to mind for…

Drawing on Mayer's Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, the present study aims to examine the effectiveness of technology-mediated teaching vocabulary in the form of multimedia glosses on EFL learners' depth and breadth of lexical knowledge. The study was conducted with 91 male and female undergraduate students at a lower-intermediate level of…