Morphological Decomposition in L2 Arabic: A Masked Priming Study.

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Second Language Acquisition
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Lexical organization differs between English (orthographic & morphological similarity) and Semitic languages like Arabic (primarily morphological similarity).
• Understanding how non-native speakers organize their mental lexicon is crucial for second language acquisition research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if L1 English learners of L2 Arabic exhibit nativelike lexical organization patterns.
• To determine if proficiency level influences the mental lexicon organization in L2 Arabic learners.

Main Methods:

• A masked priming lexical decision task was administered to native Arabic speakers and intermediate/advanced L2 Arabic learners.
• Response times were measured for target words preceded by orthographically, morphologically related, identical, or unrelated primes in Arabic.

Main Results:

• Native Arabic speakers and L2 learners demonstrated similar patterns in lexical activation.
• No significant difference in lexical organization was observed between intermediate and advanced proficiency learners.

Conclusions:

• L1 English learners of L2 Arabic organize their mental lexicon similarly to native speakers, primarily based on morphological similarity.
• Proficiency level does not appear to affect these nativelike organizational patterns in L2 Arabic lexicon.