Restructure The L2 Mental Lexicon

Grounded in cognitive theory and psycholinguistics'organization of mental lexicon theory and word association test (WA test) research, the study focuses on investigating the restructuring of the L2 mental lexicon with a new specific instructional method called'Integrated Vocabulary Learning Approach (IVLA)'. This approach, which falls into two processes—the process of input and output, integrates four traditional vocabulary learning approach involving the word-formation approach, the association approach, and the phrase approach as well as the contextual approach. In order to memorize and internalize vocabularies, the teacher will request the students to write a small composition according to the vocabularies which are learned in the process of the output.The research lasted for four months in a college in Sichuan province. The sample consisted of 95 students attending experiment and 47 of them employed the IVLA to learn new words. All samples consisted of students who were second language learners but not English major students. Through a quasi-experiment design which set in two real classrooms, the research sought to verify two hypotheses:Hypothesis 1: after learning vocabulary through the IVLA, it is possible for undergraduates to restructure the L2 mental lexicon.Hypothesis 2: the relationship is positive between the restructuring of the L2 mental lexicon and English proficiency.The experiment fell into two phases. The purpose of the first phase was to determine the effect of traditional word teaching mode. The purpose of the second phase was to determine the effect of the IVLA. Additionally, the second phase sought to discover whether the IVLA has an impact on L2 learners'English proficiency.Data collection involved questionnaire, WA tests, and English exam scores. The analysis of data revealed the following two major findings. Firstly, the findings suggested that the L2 learners could restructure the L2 mental lexicon after employing the IVLA. Secondly, the findings suggested that the restructuring of the L2 mental lexicon has a positive effect upon English proficiency.The researcher concluded that the L2 learner could restructure the L2 mental lexicon by the IVLA and meanwhile the L2 learners'language proficiency was improved. Furthermore, the present study provided the students with an operable vocabulary learning approach.Finally, on the basis of the research findings, this study provides some pedagogical implications for non-English major students and teachers and points out the limitations of the present study and the recommendations for future studies in the restructuring of the L2 mental lexicon.