Exploration of the Impact of Language Proficiency on Vocabulary Association Patterns in English Language Education

This paper explores the lexical association patterns of English as a second language and their relationship with language proficiency. Through the vocabulary association test, the study analyzes the differences in vocabulary association between learners with different language levels. The participants were 100 non-native English-speaking undergraduate students from a top 200 university, such as the University of Nottingham, and a university outside the top 200, such as the University of Aberdeen; the two groups of learners differed in their vocabulary size and learning style. It was found that the two groups of learners differed significantly in vocabulary size, language background, and learning experience. In addition, the study raises three core questions: first, learners’ lexical association patterns, second, differences in association among learners with different language proficiency levels, and third, other variables that affect vocabulary association ability. The limitations of the study are that reaction time was not measured and the influence of native language background on word association was not fully considered; future research should further explore these aspects.