Differences in Contribution of Lexical Processing Levels in L2 Noun and Verb Processing and their Implications in English Language Teaching

In psycholinguistic studies, with regard to cognitive models, conceptual preparation, lexical concepts, lemmas, morphemes, phonological words and phonetic patterns have been proposed as different levels of lexical processing. Concerning previous studies, some theories have suggested the sequencing and the simultaneity of the processing modules; however, the contribution of each specific processing level has not been determined. In this study, with the participation of eighty six BA students of English Literature, picture naming task as a cognitive measure was used to determine the differences in contribution of lexical processing levels in L2 noun and verb processing. According to this research, in L2, noun processing is mostly under the influence of conceptualization stage and verb processing is mostly under the influence of formulation stage. Therefore, it can be concluded that in language teaching emphasizing the visual codes of concrete nouns and the morphological features of verbs specifically facilitate learning. Moreover, with respect to the findings of this research, it can be proposed that nouns have longer retention in comparison with verbs; however, verbs are more subject to incidental learning.