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L2 Lexical Activation in the Bilingual Mental Lexicon:
An Experimental Study
Yuliya Leshchenko, Perm State Pedagogical University, naps1976@mail.ru
Abstract
The present study aims at analyzing the peculiar properties of an L2 word processing in the mental
lexicon of low-level, intermediate-level and advanced-level bilinguals with an unequal command of the
two languages. Two longitude free association experiments with the Russian-speaking University students
studying English as a foreign language were conducted. The results showed that an L2 stimulus can be
processed differently at different levels of L2 profi ciency. The general tendency of the occurring changes
lie in a range from “language-specifi c” to “language-independent” lexical activation, as well as from the
surface (formal) level of the mental lexicon to the deep-laid (semantic) one.
One of the major debates in second language (L2) acquisition research concerns the problems
of the mental lexicon. Modern linguistics interprets the mental lexicon as a complicated
hierarchical unit, consisting of multiple intersecting associative fi elds and helping to structure
and retain information about objects and phenomena of the surrounding world (Залевская/
Zalevskaya 1990, 2005). The mental lexicon is not just a passive storage of linguistic information,
but a constantly changing dynamic system, regulating the processes of speech perception and
speech production. The hierarchical structure of the mental lexicon enables multilevel storage
of diverse verbal and non-verbal information.
Although our knowledge of the mental lexicon structure and functioning has grown
considerably in recent years, certain key questions are still being discussed, of which the main
question concerns how a foreign word is acquired, retained and retrieved in the process of L2
acquisition. A lot of research is being carried out to fi nd out how a lexical item, belonging to
a different language, is introduced into the mental lexicon of an individual; what links lexical
items of the mother tongue with lexical items of foreign languages; in what way are - in one
same place or separately - the L1 and L2 representations stored; what kind of interaction
occurs between the items of the two languages etc. (Grosjean 1982; Paradis 1985; Имедадзе/
Imedadze 1979; Леонтьев/Leontyev 1986, 1999; Cook 1992; Bialystok & Hakuta 1994; Groot &
Hoeks 1995; Elliot & Adepoju 1997; Colomé 2001 and others).
The bilingual mental lexicon is generally represented as a network from which words are
accessed through spreading activation (Myers-Scotton 1992; de Bot 1992; Poulisse & Bongaerts
1994). The question that is yet to be answered concerns the extent of the activation process:
researchers have argued whether a word spreads activation to a group of related words only
within the given language (“language-specifi c” activation) or whether it is able to activate
the lexical systems of both languages known to the individual (“language-independent”
activation).
Thus, a study on highly fl uent Catalan - Spanish bilinguals (both languages have been acquired
before the age of 6) was carried out to determine whether the language that the person is not
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