Personal Investment in Language Processing: The Role of Self‐Reference in Initial Lexical Acquisition

Abstract Recent research on learner factors in task‐based language teaching (TBLT) has demonstrated positive effects for treatments that draw on learners' personal experiences. However, the specific processes responsible for these effects are not well understood. The self‐reference effect (SRE) is well‐documented in cognitive psychology where it has been shown that information processed with reference to the self is typically remembered better than information processed with reference to others. The present study examines the impact of self‐reference on the establishment of initial form‐to‐meaning connections during L2 lexical acquisition. 144 Saudi female undergraduate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners processed 20 novel L2 trait adjectives counterbalanced across four processing conditions in which they considered each trait with reference to themselves, an intimate other, a familiar other, or a known lexical item. Findings revealed that information processed in the personal investment conditions (self‐reference and intimate‐other reference) was remembered better than information processed in the non‐personal investment conditions (familiar‐other and semantic reference) in terms of both memory for the lexical items and memory for the conditions under which they were processed. Results are discussed in terms of how self‐reference can inform personal investment theory as a basis for research on the role of the learner in TBLT.