Semantic networks of words in lexical availability studies of English L1 and English FL

Abstract

Lexical availability has been widely used in the Spanish-speaking world

for more than two decades. However, only in recent years has there been

growing interest in its cognitive aspects. The present article deals with

semantic relations of words in lexical availabily tests. A group of advanced

EFL students, native speakers of Spanish, and a similar group of native

speakers of English were examined. These subjects were given a lexical

availability test that required them to produce words from different semantic

categories. The resulting semantic relations were then made explicit by

means of several graphs or semantic networks which showed that EFL

students distinguish only large semantic categories, while native speakers

of English organise words into highly specific subcategories.