To What Extent Do L1 Speakers and L2 Learners Have Productive Derivational Knowledge
Abstract
The present study investigated the extent to which L1 English speakers and L2 English learners could produce the derivatives of 90 head words in a decontextualized derivative recall test. This research also examined whether productive derivational knowledge varied between institutional levels (i.e., graduate, undergraduate, and high school) and vocabulary levels (i.e., 1000-5000). The results indicated that L1 speakers had greater productive derivational knowledge than L2 learners. However, no significant differences were found between L1 speakers and the advanced L2 learners. The results also indicated that the degree to which L2 learners have productive derivational knowledge significantly varied between the institutional levels and vocabulary levels. The findings provide some evidence that L2 productive derivational knowledge may develop in a similar way as L1 productive derivational knowledge does. The findings also provide important pedagogical and methodological implications.