Özet:

This study aimed to compare the similarity (proximity) of category norms in native (L1) and foreign languages (L2) in different levels of language proficiency and to develop category norms of the English language as L2 for Russian native speakers. The sample included 120 students with high, average, and low levels of L2 proficiency. Participants were instructed to write as many words which come to mind from a category as they could in 30 seconds. The total frequency of each word in a category for Russian and English languages was determined for the whole sample and separately for the group with high, average, and low levels of language proficiency. Aiming to determine the overlap of the exemplar frequencies for each category between Russian and English in three different levels of language proficiency, Hellinger Affinity (HA) indexes were computed. The level of affinity between frequency distributions in native and foreign languages was stronger in the group with a high level of L2 proficiency compared to the group with a low level of proficiency. It shows that the level of language acquisition is important to give a person the possibility to express him/herself. Stable differences between the English language as L2 compared to North American norms support the necessity of using special category norms elaborated for L2 in studies of non-native English speakers. Strong reliability indexes for categories suggest that these frequency scores for 45 semantic categories can be accepted as normative for native Russian speakers learning English as L2. Category norms for English as a second language can be applied for diagnosing cognitive impairments and for studies of categorization using L2 in a Russian sample as a generation frequency variable can affect the results.

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