抄録
Although it is generally thought that words which are difficult to learn are also hard to retain, researches on vocabulary learning often fail to grasp the evidence of this statement. We looked at foreign-language vocabulary forgetting in Japanese EFL learners (N=21), using a paired-associate learning in which English words were paired with Japanese translations. In the learning phase, the participants memorized all the words. Two post tests followed 4 days and 11 days after the learning respectively. The stimulus materials were controlled on word concreteness. Receptive testing took place (L2-L1 direction). It was found that 1) concrete words were less susceptible to forgetting than abstract words at 1st post test (4 days after). However, 2) this concreteness effect could not be seen between 1st and 2nd post tests (11 days after). Theoretical accounts of these findings were proposed.
