Effect of Word Complexity on L2 Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

Research has shown that a number of factors, such as maturational constraints, previous language background, and attention, can have an effect on L2 acquisition. One related issue that remains to be explored is what factors make an individual word more easily learned. In this study we propose that word complexity, on both the phonetic and semantic levels, affect L2 vocabulary learning. Two studies showed that words with simple grapheme-to-phoneme ratios were easier to learn than more phonetically complex words, and that words with two or fewer word senses were easier to learn that those with three or more. 1