The effect of emotional valence on concrete and abstract words in L2 lexical processing among Chinese–English learners

Introduction: Emotional valence influences word processing, and this effect is modulated by word concreteness, but findings remain inconsistent in L2 contexts-especially among Chinese-English learners. Methods: Based on the Embodied Cognition Theory, we adopted a 3 (valence: positive/neutral/negative) × 2 (concreteness: abstract/concrete) mixed-factorial design and a lexical decision task to test 57 late Chinese-English bilinguals. Results: (1) The valence × concreteness interaction was significant in accuracy (emotion advantage was larger for concrete than abstract words) but not in reaction time; (2) The main effect of concreteness was significant: abstract words were processed faster and more accurately than concrete words. Discussion: Emotional valence exerts functionally different effects on L2 concrete/abstract word processing-concrete words benefit more from emotional facilitation via sensorimotor connections, while abstract words rely on emotional information to compensate for limited sensorimotor grounding.