Conceptualization

Lexical inferencing

Lexical inferencing is a cognitive strategy whereby a reader draws on contextual cues and background/world knowledge and combines them to arrive at a meaning for an unfamiliar word. Our previous research and related studies by others have revealed the complex nature of this process, which involves both declarative knowledge (linguistic and non-linguistic) and procedural knowledge (e.g. search for and identification of relevant cues in the text; combining information to arrive at a plausible meaning for the target word). Lexical inferencing has also been characterized as a process of lemma construction (de Bot et al., 1997), which links the knowledge structures (KSs) used by the readers in the second language (L2) lexical inferencing process to the lexical knowledge components of Levelt's (1989) speech processing model, as adapted for receptive language processing. Paribakht's (2005) Lexicalization Hypothesis has advanced this argument, stipulating that the assemblage of the contextual cues in the process of lexical inferencing may activate an existing lemma in the readers' first language (L1 or Ln) mental lexicon, leading to word meaning comprehension. However, if there is no L1 lemma (or L1 lexical equivalent) for the target word in the reader's mental lexicon, there is no shortcut to word meaning comprehension and the process becomes one of a new lemma/word meaning construction, often leading to failure in comprehending the word's meaning (Chapter 1).

While some studies of lexical inferencing have focused mainly on identifying the knowledge sources (KSs) and contextual cues that readers draw on in the process (e.g. Haastrup, 1991; Paribakht & Wesche, 1999; Bengeleil & Paribakht, 2004), others have also examined the procedural abilities that learners bring to the task (e.g. Haastrup, 1991, 2008). A number of studies have also focused on the factors that affect this process and its outcomes (see Chapter 1).

Relatively little is known, however, about the influence of the learners' L1 on the L2 lexical inferencing process and its outcomes (success and word knowledge retention). Some anecdotal reporting of L1 influence on inferencing has appeared in the literature.