Semantic Context Effects in Forward and Backward Word Translation by Korean Learners of English

BACKGROUND Three interrelated aspects in the psycholinguistic study of second language acquisition are representation, acquisition, and processing (Jiang, 2000). According to Levelt (1989), any theory of second language acquisition is incomplete without a representation component because representation and processes cannot be studied independently of each other. In characterizing cognitive processes that support second language acquisition, one important question concerns how second language learners process words in their second languages. In other words, when a learner acquires a new language, what kinds of patterns of connections are created between words in the first and second language? Words in two languages may be connected in two different ways. English-Korean translation pairs, such as school and 학교, may be connected directly when these two words form an association in the process of learning L2. They may be also connected through shared conceptual representations because of similar semantic content.