Hot or gelid? The influence of L1 translation familiarity on the interference effects in foreign language vocabulary learning

In this study, we investigated the role of first language (L1) information in learning semantically related second language (L2) words. Research suggests that L2 learners have difficulty in learning semantically related L2 words in paired-associate learning because those semantically related words cause interference effects between them. Research also suggests that, in paired-associate learning, the degree to which the learners are familiar with the response items plays an important role in making the association. Taken together, we conducted two experiments in which semantically related L2 words and their L1 translations were used as stimulus and response items respectively. We compared the learning of different types of word pairs that have L1 translation words with different degrees of L1 word familiarity to (a) test the influence of L1 translation familiarity on interference effects and (b) assess the viability of this commonly used technique in foreign language classrooms. Native Japanese speakers attempted to learn 15 antonymous L2 word pairs with either familiar or non-familiar L1 translations. The results of the study suggest that the degree of interference in learning L2 antonymous pairs differs, depending upon the differences in the familiarity with the L1 translated words in the L2 word pairs.