Lexical Availability of Basic and Advanced Semantic Categories in English L1 and English L2

Abstract

The current investigation used lexical availability to assess the performance of Chilean university students, advanced English (L2) learners in comparison with English native speakers (L1) in basic (‘Body parts’, ‘Food and drink’), and advanced (‘Terrorism and crime’, ‘Health and medicine’) semantic categories. Three analyses were conducted looking at number of words produced, lexical availability values, and correlations between L1 and L2 speakers in all four semantic categories. The results of the first analysis showed that L1 outperformed L2 speakers and that basic categories were more productive than advanced categories regarding number of words produced. The second analysis showed no group effect, but a significant effect of semantic category, with basic showing higher lexical availability than advanced categories. The last analysis revealed strong correlations between L1 and L2 speakers in all semantic categories, with stronger correlations for basic than advanced categories. However, the most significant finding in this study is that both groups retrieved a greater number of words for basic semantic categories than for advanced semantic categories which seem to point to similar patterns in the organization of the available lexicons of L1 and L2 speakers.