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Marina González de San Pedro Jiménez

María del Pilar Agustín Llach

University of La Rioja, Spain

 

Abstract

This study aims to explore the impact of age on vocabulary production in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and Spanish as an L1. Age is a recurrent variable in second language acquisition (SLA) research, but it also marks lexical knowledge in the L1. In terms of vocabulary production, age has been identified as a key factor affecting how speakers acquire and use vocabulary both in their L1 and additional languages. For this purpose, a semantic fluency task was conducted to explore the responses that senior primary (n = 17) and secondary school (n = 17) students elicit in response to the prompts ‘Love’ and ‘Amar/amor’. All students (n = 34) shared Spanish as their L1 and had learned English through formal instruction, achieving a general proficiency level of A1/A2. The research questions that this study sought to answer were (1) to ascertain learners’ vocabulary size in Spanish L1 and EFL, (2) to identify shared responses, and (3) to account for differences and similarities in lexical organisation between student cohorts. The results showed significant differences in the average number of tokens and types produced. The lexical availability graphs (LAGs) revealed that learners present similar categorisation patterns in both Spanish L1 and EFL. However, qualitative differences can be spotted in the most available words produced by older and younger learners.

 

Keywords

Age, EFL, vocabulary production, semantic fluency, Spanish L1