The structure of L2 lexical-semantic networks as seen from a social network perspective

Abstract

Abstract This study employed a social network analysis tool to investigate the organization of L2 lexical-semantic networks. A total of 49 Chines EFL learners of English completed a semantic fluency task in English. A lexical-semantic network was established on the data collected from the semantic fluency task. We conducted a CONCOR analysis to distinguish the central words from the peripheral ones in the lexical-semantic network. The relevance of three distributional features to the centrality of the words in the L2 lexical-semantic network was examined respectively. In addition, we analyzed the general explanatory effect of each of the three features on centrality. The results based on the distributional features are significantly correlational and report positive explanatory effects. In addition, words of similar distributional features were found to connect in a way that reflects semantic feature effects. Finally, theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical implications of the findings were discussed.