Lexical Patterns in the Eyes of Intermediate EFL Readers

Abstract

Hoey (1991) claims that lexical patterns, which are a network of repetitious and synonymous words of a text, can be identified even by elementary foreign language readers. The present study investigates whether intermediate Japanese EFL readers can actually find elements of lexical patterns of a text Hoey uses in his book to demonstrate the concept of lexical patterns Pedagogical implications of using lexical patterns in teaching reading to English language learners are also discussed.