Lexical Ion and Translation Effect: Experimental Study on Turkish Second Language Learners (original) (raw)

In this study, three experimental research using picture-word task have been reported to analyse and examine lexical selection and translation effect in Turkish second language learners of English. These languages (English, German and French) have been chosen according to their foreign language courses which they have taken in undergraduate level. The first participant group named objects in their L2 (English) depending on the equivalents or distractors of the objects (English equivalent, English distractor, Turkish equivalent, Turkish distractor), the second group named them in their L2 (English) and this time German equivalents and distractors are added to the picture-word task list, and the third group named them in L2 (English) again and this time French equivalents and distractors are added to the task list. The first group has been used as a control group to examine whether the third languages affect the lexical selection in a second language or vice versa. The findings of the study have been analysed. According to the findings, when second language learners of English named the objects in English when they were given with their L1 equivalents and distractors, they had more difficulties in naming them when they were given with English equivalents and distractors. Similarly, second language learners of English and German or English and French named the objects in L2 with a similar response time limit to the first group. However, their response time in naming objects in English is faster than the first group. Besides, their response time in naming objects in English with French or German equivalents and distractors is faster than their response time in naming objects with Turkish equivalents or distractors. The effects of third languages of learners appear to affect their lexical selection in a positive way and the facilitation effect is higher than the learners who use one second language only. Thus, there is a positive correlation between the languages to be used and reaching a higher and faster lexical selection in a new language.