How Do Congruency and L2 Proficiency Impact the Processing of Chinese L2 Collocations? Evidence From Different L1 Activation States

ABSTRACT This study examined how congruency and L2 proficiency influence the processing of Chinese verb‐object collocations among Vietnamese learners of Chinese. Through acceptability judgment tasks comparing baseline (Experiment 1) and enhanced L1 activation (Experiment 2), three main findings were obtained: (1) Under baseline L1 activation, intermediate learners showed processing advantages in both reaction time (RT) and accuracy for L1‐L2 congruent collocations but only RT advantages for L2‐only collocations, while advanced learners exhibited both RT and accuracy advantages for L1‐L2 congruent and L2‐only collocations. Under enhanced L1 activation, intermediate learners retained processing advantages for L1‐L2 congruent collocations whereas advanced learners maintained advantages for both. (2) Congruency effects emerged solely in accuracy for both groups under baseline activation but extended to RT under enhanced activation. (3) The moderating effect of L2 proficiency on the congruency effect varied between activation states, with negligible differences between intermediate and advanced learners under baseline activation, but a gradual decrease in the congruency effect as L2 proficiency increased under enhanced activation. These results reveal divergences in congruency effects across L1 activation states, providing critical evidence for a direct causal link between L1 activation and congruency effects.