Vocabulary deviations during second language lexical processing

Abstract

The present study is a descriptive, quantitative study which measures second language (L2) learners’ extent of lexical errors in variety contexts. In the study a varied corpus was gathered by means of participants’ (n=30) written papers. Turkish-speaking learners of English from the preintermediate level (n=100) completed a productive and receptive task that presented contrasting forms of various lexis obtained by the corpus. The results of both tasks indicate that learners are often unable to detect the lexical errors and correct them. In particular, learners have significant difficulty in word formation, word choice, collocations, prepositions, and part of speech. These difficulties are interpreted as stemming from similarities as well as generalizations. The implications of the findings are discussed accordingly