Cross-language Processing of Persian and English Noncognates inContextualized and Decontextualized Conditions

Similarities and differences of form and meaning between two related words have been focus of attention in manyrecognition experiments for many years. This study was conducted to investigate the recognition of noncognates inL۱-L۲ and L۲-L۱ directions and contextualized and decontextualized conditions. The study was an empiricalresearch. Sixty female pre-intermediate Persian-speaking students, falling between the age range of ۱۶-۱۸, in a highschool in Isfahan were examined by means of a Solutions Placement Test (SPT), language backgroundquestionnaire, and noncognate recognition test. The data were then analyzed via independent samples t test for theSPT and Mann Whitney U Test for the recognition test. Noncognates indicated no facilitation effect in either ofdirections, and facilitation effect was more in the contextualized condition than the decontextualized one. The resultssuggest that in languages with different scripts, young unbalanced bilinguals process noncognate words the same ineach direction, and the facilitatory effects are more in the contextualized condition. No facilitation effect can beascribed to low level of L۲ proficiency, overreliance on phonology, and absence of orthographic similarity. Theresults have noteworthy contributions for high school EFL learners, English teachers, material developers, andsyllabus designers for high school course books.

کلیدواژه ها:

cognates ، noncognates ، facilitation effect