The Inhibitory Mechanism in Learning Ambiguous Words in a Second Language

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Second Language Acquisition
• Cognitive Neuroscience

Background:

• Ambiguous words pose learning challenges in second language (L2) acquisition.
• The cognitive mechanisms underlying L2 ambiguous word learning, particularly at initial stages, remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between new and prior meanings of ambiguous words in L2 learning.
• To examine the role of inhibitory control in the initial learning of L2 ambiguous words.

Main Methods:

• Chinese-English bilinguals learned unambiguous and ambiguous English words over four days.
• Inhibitory control was assessed using a Stroop task.
• Semantic representations were evaluated via a cross-language semantic relatedness judgment task.

Main Results:

• Slower response latencies were observed for the second meaning of ambiguous words compared to unambiguous words.
• Inhibitory control ability predicted performance specifically on the second meaning of ambiguous words.
• A weaker representation of the second meaning of ambiguous words was indicated, likely due to interference from the first meaning.

Conclusions:

• The initial stage of L2 ambiguous word learning involves weak representations of new meanings, potentially hindered by prior meanings.
• Inhibitory control plays a crucial role in modulating the learning of new meanings for ambiguous words.
• Enhanced inhibitory control may facilitate L2 learners' ability to suppress interference and accelerate the acquisition of novel meanings.