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Article

Open Access

Exploring L2 and L3 EFL Learners’ Prototypical Patterns in the Lexical Availability of “Daily Activities”

Author(s)

Jaqueline Mora, Marjana Šifrar Kalan

Full-Text PDF Download XML 71 Views

DOI:10.17265/2161-623X/2025.03.001

Affiliation(s)

University of La Rioja, Logroño, Spain; University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia

ABSTRACT

This study aims to analyze prototypical patterns in the lexical availability of 100 L2 and L3 high school English Foreign Language (EFL) learners in response to the semantic category of “Daily Activities”. A semantic fluency task and a lexical computational program were used to measure the participants’ lexical availability (LA) in relation to “Daily Activities” and to appraise the availability index in the learners’ vocabulary production to uncover hints of prototypical word patterns. The main objectives were (i) to determine the similarities and differences in the word production of L2 and L3 learners, (ii) to ascertain whether there is prototypicality in the word responses of L2 and L3 learners, (iii) to identify whether the prototypes within this semantic category correspond to a higher production of verbs than nouns, and (iv) to examine the types of word associations surrounding the prototype using tenets of graph theory. Results showed that vocabulary production was higher among L3 participants than L2 participants. Despite the differences in linguistic profiles, evidence of prototypicality was found in the participants’ responses. Additionally, verbs outperformed nouns, as expected in response to “Daily Activities”. Findings regarding the types of word associations surrounding the prototype revealed how L2 and L3 learners organize their mental lexicons in response to the selected prompt. Research on prototypical patterns in vocabulary production sheds light on how similarly L2 and L3 learners categorize in response to the nontraditional semantic category of “Daily Activities”.

KEYWORDS

semantic prototypes, mental lexicon, lexical availability, L2 and L3 EFL learners, “Daily Activities”

Cite this paper

Jaqueline Mora, Marjana Šifrar Kalan. (2025). Exploring L2 and L3 EFL Learners’ Prototypical Patterns in the Lexical Availability of “Daily Activities”. US-China Education Review A, March 2025, Vol. 15, No. 3, 155-173.

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