Based on Nation's (2004) classification of word knowledge and Jiang's(2000) psycholinguistic model of vocabulary acquisition in a second language,this experimental study centres on the role Of L1-Chinese in developing the semantic and syntactic aspects of the word lack by Chinese EFL learners.Two production tests and an acceptability test are employed among 90 subjects.From the results of the study,it can be seen that Chinese EFL learners have great difficulty in acquiring lack because of the negative influence of their L1- Chinese.That is,Chinese EFL learners are more likely to misuse an L2 word with multiple word classes, when the syntactic category of its L1-Chinese'equivalent'word is only identical with one of these classes. Thus,it is proposed that both Chinese EFL teachers and learners should pay more attention to the cross- language'equivalents'that do not belong to the same word-class category in their L2 word acquisition to prevent the negative Ll-transference and the occurrence of lexical fossilization.
