Simulating Word Knowledge and World Knowledge Learning in Adults: The Case of English as a Foreign Language

Given the differences between first language and second language learning in adults, simulating first language learning can help us have an improved picture of the nature of second language learning. During first language learning, we learn the concepts in our interactions with the immediate environment. In second language learning, however, the relevant world knowledge is transferred from the first language and we only learn the word knowledge. Thus, in the current study, we sought to simulate first language learning and introduce the null experimental research method with its roots in the emotioncy model. This research method applies to those studies in which adult language learners deal with some concepts that they have no knowledge about and begin to learn them in the class. Reviewing the conventional research methods, we explained the null experimental research method and provided an example from an electroencephalography (EEG) experiment. The behavioral and electrophysiological results revealed that, as we have more interactions with the sensory environment, the retrieval of word knowledge and world knowledge is facilitated.