L2 Collocations Research Articles

FREQUENCY OF INPUT AND L2 COLLOCATIONAL PROCESSING

This study investigated the influence of frequency effects on the processing of congruent (i.e., having an equivalent first language [L1] construction) collocations and incongruent (i.e., not having an equivalent L1 construction) collocations in a second language (L2). An acceptability judgment task was administered to native and advanced nonnative English speakers (L1 Swedish) to assess response times to and error rates for these collocations along with a matched set of unrelated items. The results suggested that advanced learners are highly sensitive to frequency effects for L2 collocations, which seems to support the idea that usage-based models of language acquisition can be fruitfully applied to understanding the processes that underlie L2 collocational acquisition. At the same time, however, the apparent continued influence of the L1 indicates that researchers may also want to draw on other models of language acquisition to gain a fuller understanding of the processes underlying the acquisition of collocations in a L2.

Collocational Links in the L2 Mental Lexicon and the Influence of L1 Intralexical Knowledge

This article assesses the influence of L1 intralexical knowledge on the formation of L2 intralexical collocations. Two tests, a primed lexical decision task (LDT) and a test of receptive collocational knowledge, were administered to a group of non-native speakers (NNSs) (L1 Swedish), with native speakers (NSs) of English serving as controls on the LDT. The tests assessed collocations in three critical conditions: (i) collocations with translation equivalents in Swedish and English (L1–L2), (ii) collocations that were acceptable in English but not in Swedish (L2-only), and (iii) unrelated items for baseline data. Our results showed that the L1 may have considerable influence on the development of L2 collocational knowledge. NNSs both processed [with faster reaction times (RTs) on the LDT] and recognized (with higher receptive scores) L1–L2 collocations more effectively than L2-only collocations. However, the results of the LDT also showed considerable variability for the L2-only condition, suggesting that the overall slower RTs in this condition might have been linked more to a lack of priming for individual items rather than slower RTs for this condition as a whole.

L1 Influence on the Acquisition of L2 Collocations: Japanese ESL Users and EFL Learners Acquiring English Collocations

This study investigated first language (L1) influence on the acquisition of second language (L2) collocations using a framework based on Kroll and Stewart (1994) and Jiang (2000), by comparing the performance on a phrase‐acceptability judgment task among native speakers of English, Japanese English as a second language (ESL) users, and Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The test materials included both congruent collocations, whose lexical components were similar in L1 and L2, and incongruent collocations, whose lexical components differed in the two languages. EFL learners made more errors with and reacted more slowly to incongruent collocations than congruent collocations. ESL users generally performed better than EFL learners (lower error rate and faster speed), but they still made more errors on incongruent collocations than on congruent collocations. Interestingly, however, the L1 effect was not apparent on the ESL users' reaction time. The results suggested that (a) both L1 congruency and L2 exposure affect the acquisition of L2 collocations with the availability of both maximizing this acquisition; (b) it is difficult to acquire incongruent collocations even with a considerable amount of exposure to L2; and (c) once stored in memory, L2 collocations are processed independently of L1. Possible differences in acquiring congruent and incongruent collocations are discussed.

Effects of Predictability in L1 on the Use of L2 Verb-Noun Collocations

This paper examines the use of L2 verb-noun collocations by Korean learners of English focusing on predictability in L1. In order to investigate this, a test which consisted of a production and comprehension test was administered to 85 university students. The collocations used in the test were classified into 20 predictable and 20 unpredictable collocations according to the predictability in L1. The findings revealed that overall the Korean learners of English had insufficient collocational knowledge. Particularly, producing collocations seemed to be harder than comprehending collocations for the participants. A significant finding was that the participants made more errors in unpredictable collocations than in predictable collocations. In respect of the patterns of errors, a considerable number of errors appeared to be affected by their L1, while some of the errors were influenced by the overgeneralization of their prior learning such as overuse of delexical verbs. The study suggests that more attention should be paid to the effect of L1 in the use of L2 collocations and teaching collocation needs to be emphasized in the second language classroom in order to enhance learners’ communicative competence.

Cross-linguistic influence and acceptability judgments of L2 and L1 collocations

The paper presents an investigation of the extent and nature of cross-linguistic influence on both L2 and L1 phraseological competence of advanced Polish learners of English. We review relevant research studies, which describe various types of collocational deviation from native speaker norms in the language production of advanced learners, and indicate that the collocational choices of learners may be affected by their L1, which results either in incorrect collocations, or in patterns of underuse or overuse. We administered two acceptability judgment tests to 91 Polish advanced learners of English, aged 20–22. The collocations used in the test could be classified with respect to two criteria: firstly, they were either typical or unusual collocations; secondly, they were either congruent with their L1 or L2 equivalents or not. Despite the fact that there is both empirical and theoretical support for the idea that learners may show a preference for those L2 collocations which are congruent with L1, our findings do not support this hypothesis. There is no obvious pattern of cross-linguistic influence emerging from the data. The results of this study seem to give the picture of advanced learners who function in their L2 independently of the L1.

The Use of Collocations by Chinese Learners of Korean

The Linguistic Association of Korea Journal, 15(2), 1-22. This paper examines the use of collocations by Chinese learners of Korean as an L2. Spoken narrative data collected from 45 learners at three proficiency levels and 15 Korean native speakers were analyzed focusing on S+V, O+V, adverb (ideophones)+V, and noun+hata collocations. The analysis reveals the following: 1) A developmental pattern, though weak, was observed, indicating a positive relationship between the learners` general L2 proficiency and collocation competence, a result inconsistent with what was observed by Howarth (1998) and Bonk (2001). 2) The learners produced S+V collocations more than O+V collocations, while the Korean speakers produced twice as many O+V collocations as S+V collocations. This implies that high frequency of a target structure in the input does not automatically render the target to be noticed and acquired by a learner. 3) The adverb (ideophones) +verb collocations, highly frequent in the Korean language, but rare in Chinese, showed low frequency in the learner data, a result confirming the general observation in L2 research of L1 influence in L2 learning. More research with diverse data collection methods is suggested to better understand how collocations are learned, stored, and used in L2.