An exploration of the structural and colligational characteristics of lexical bundles in L1–L2 corpora for English language teaching

Multi-word expressions are formulaic language universals with arbitrary and idiosyncratic collocations. Their usage and mastery are required of learners of a second language in achieving naturalness. However, despite the importance of multi-word expressions to mastering a second language, their syntactic architecture and colligational possibilities have received little attention in English language teaching (ELT). This study examined lexical bundles, a type of multi-word expressions, to understand their structure and co-occurrence possibilities with other syntactic elements. It was aided by an automated frequency-driven approach using two corpora, the British component of the British National Corpus – a first language (L1) corpus – and a purpose-built Nigerian Media Discourse corpus – a second language (L2) corpus. Two items of lexical analysis software were used to extract three-word lexical bundles with a minimum of 50 frequencies per corpus. The syntactic structures of the identified lexical bundles were determined, and their in-corpus usages were analysed for their colligational characteristics. Results showed that both corpora had instances of general and genre-specific lexical bundles (LBs) with varying frequencies. Five categories of lexical bundles with different structural patterns and peculiar colligational characteristics were identified in the study. Since lexical bundles are more frequently found in both L1–L2 texts, mastering how they are used will further enhance the teaching of English as a second language. The teaching of lexical bundles as a multi-word expression is therefore recommended in ELT as a way of enhancing learners’ proficiency and naturalness in English.

Bilingual Mental Lexicon and Collocational Processing

The chapter starts with a definition and models of mental dictionary. It then builds on the bilingual lexical activation models and goes on to discuss formulaic language (collocations in particular). After explaining the basics of formulaic language processing, the author attempts to address the issue of lexical and collocational priming theory by Hoey, which has its roots in cognitive linguistics and usage-based language models. Last but not least, some suggestions for future research are provided in an attempt to address the needs of the lexical research literature in the Turkish setting.

L2 competence in Chinese correlative connectives: A case of discontinuous discursive formulaic sequences

This study explored second language (L2) competence in discontinuous discursive formulaic sequences, namely Chinese correlative connectives (CCCs; e.g. yīnwèi . . . suǒyǐ ‘because . . . so’), in relation to the determinants of formulaic sequence acquisition by scrutinizing L2 Chinese learners’ performance on two controlled tasks. Mixed-effects modeling showed that frequency exerted both positive and negative effects on the task performance of L2 learners on CCCs. Contingency (i.e. the co-occurrence of two constituent connectives) posed a tremendous challenge to the use of obligatory CCCs by L2 learners. In contrast, semantic transparency and first language congruency had a positive effect. The effects of these determinants on L2 performance were qualified by their interactions in different categories of CCCs. The results also indicated that learners were sensitive to frequency and contingency determinants at both construction and constituent word levels. This study enriches our understanding of L2 competence in formulaic language and provides unique insights into L2 learners’ knowledge of CCCs.

Promoting discovery learning of formulaic language with the aid of online resources: A classroom-based study with intermediate EFL learners

<p>This classroom-based study was motivated by the call for effective pedagogical paths to help learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) acquire multiword expressions (MWEs) in the target language. The central question addressed was how training EFL learners to identify MWEs in authentic texts (text-chunking) with the aid of online dictionaries and the online interface of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (http://corpus.byu.edu) affected their uptake and awareness of formulaic language. Learners’ discovery strategies during text-chunking activities were also investigated. The participants were 54 Vietnamese intermediate-level university students, randomly assigned to an experimental or comparison group. Over ten weeks, the experimental group (n=26) was asked to look for MWEs in texts, while the comparison group (n=28) used the same reading materials for content-related activities. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, this project analysed data gathered from a pre-test, an immediate post-test, a five-month delayed post-test, students’ classroom notes and audio-recorded discussions, and immediate and delayed questionnaires. Four main findings emerged from this study. Firstly, the practice of text-chunking benefited the students’ retention of the MWEs they identified in the texts. Whereas test results indicated that learning occurred in both groups, the experimental group demonstrated the greater gains in MWE knowledge. Secondly, experimental learners decided to investigate whether given word strings might be MWEs mostly if they were phrases (a) that they had previously seen, (b) that included known words combined in novel ways, and c) that included unknown content words within familiar structures such as verb + preposition, preposition + noun, or binomials (i.e. noun ‘and’ noun). Also, learners relied mostly on constituent words and language contexts to guess the meaning of newly-found MWEs. Thirdly, text-chunking practice with the aid of online dictionaries and COCA heightened the learners’ awareness of the importance of expanding their knowledge of formulaic language. This heightened awareness endured over the five-month gap between the end of the classroom experiment and the final questionnaire. The intervention also concentrated experimental learners’ MWE learning strategies on those practised during the treatment including underlining new MWEs, taking notes, looking them up in dictionaries and COCA, and discussing with peers. Fourthly, while the experimental group reported increased autonomy in strategy use to support their MWE acquisition, the use of online dictionaries and corpora still posed challenges for learners’ self-study. Stumbling blocks included how to choose the resources to consult and how to extract the necessary information from not-so-user-friendly interfaces. This thesis also discusses pedagogical and methodological implications of the findings so that teachers and learners in EFL contexts can make judicious use of text-chunking activities and online resources for the ultimate purpose of promoting learners’ autonomous MWE acquisition.</p>

Promoting discovery learning of formulaic language with the aid of online resources: A classroom-based study with intermediate EFL learners

<p>This classroom-based study was motivated by the call for effective pedagogical paths to help learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) acquire multiword expressions (MWEs) in the target language. The central question addressed was how training EFL learners to identify MWEs in authentic texts (text-chunking) with the aid of online dictionaries and the online interface of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (http://corpus.byu.edu) affected their uptake and awareness of formulaic language. Learners’ discovery strategies during text-chunking activities were also investigated. The participants were 54 Vietnamese intermediate-level university students, randomly assigned to an experimental or comparison group. Over ten weeks, the experimental group (n=26) was asked to look for MWEs in texts, while the comparison group (n=28) used the same reading materials for content-related activities. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, this project analysed data gathered from a pre-test, an immediate post-test, a five-month delayed post-test, students’ classroom notes and audio-recorded discussions, and immediate and delayed questionnaires. Four main findings emerged from this study. Firstly, the practice of text-chunking benefited the students’ retention of the MWEs they identified in the texts. Whereas test results indicated that learning occurred in both groups, the experimental group demonstrated the greater gains in MWE knowledge. Secondly, experimental learners decided to investigate whether given word strings might be MWEs mostly if they were phrases (a) that they had previously seen, (b) that included known words combined in novel ways, and c) that included unknown content words within familiar structures such as verb + preposition, preposition + noun, or binomials (i.e. noun ‘and’ noun). Also, learners relied mostly on constituent words and language contexts to guess the meaning of newly-found MWEs. Thirdly, text-chunking practice with the aid of online dictionaries and COCA heightened the learners’ awareness of the importance of expanding their knowledge of formulaic language. This heightened awareness endured over the five-month gap between the end of the classroom experiment and the final questionnaire. The intervention also concentrated experimental learners’ MWE learning strategies on those practised during the treatment including underlining new MWEs, taking notes, looking them up in dictionaries and COCA, and discussing with peers. Fourthly, while the experimental group reported increased autonomy in strategy use to support their MWE acquisition, the use of online dictionaries and corpora still posed challenges for learners’ self-study. Stumbling blocks included how to choose the resources to consult and how to extract the necessary information from not-so-user-friendly interfaces. This thesis also discusses pedagogical and methodological implications of the findings so that teachers and learners in EFL contexts can make judicious use of text-chunking activities and online resources for the ultimate purpose of promoting learners’ autonomous MWE acquisition.</p>

EFL Learners’ Formulaic Language Use in Writing: an Action Research Account

The present study exemplifies an action research-based approach for addressing the extent to which a process of explicit instruction of formulaic language supports the use of this type of vocabulary in middle school students’ short narrative written texts. The study was conducted at a private school in Chile, as a plan to help learners use different forms of expression in a written format. Data were obtained from a group of 23 Spanish-speaking learners of English before and after the intervention period. The action research methodology was implemented in order to collect and analyse written compositions as well as a survey for evaluating the treatment from the students’ perspective. The observation and reflection process led to positive outcomes in relation to the use of formulaic expressions in writing, and students’ opinion about the process also proved favourable. The pedagogical innovation is reflected upon theoretical and pedagogical perspectives. Implications applicable to teachers working in this and other contexts are also considered.

Lexical Bundles in the Corpus of Slovak Judicial Decisions

The paper follows the tradition of research in legal linguistics and into formulaic language, specifically into lexical bundles. The aim of the paper is to describe lexical bundles in samples from the corpus of Slovak judicial decisions OD-JUSTICE by means of quantitative characteristics of the identified bundles and by their comparison with bundles found in two other specialized corpora: the corpus of Slovak legal regulations and the corpus of annual reports by Slovak public institutions. For the identification of bundles, the concept of the h-point was used. Identified bundles are described with respect to their maximal, minimal, average, median and mode values, distributions and ratios. The aim of the paper is to outline an interpretation of these bundle characteristics with regard to communicative function(s) of compared document genres.

On L2 English Learners’ Formulaic Language Use and Spoken English Fluency

This study explored the distribution of three types of English formulaic language, which involves four categories in L1 Chinese L2 English learners’ speaking performance. In addition, it investigated the relationship between the English learners’ use of formulaic language and their spoken English fluency. A CCA (canonical correlation analysis) was conducted to examine the correlations between two sets of fluency variables (dependent variables) and linguistic variables of English formulaic language use (independent variables). The fluency variable set consists of: (1) temporal indices such as SR (speech rate), AR (articulation rate), MLR (mean length of run), and PTR (phonation time ratio); (2) linguistic variables of English formulaic language like F2R (two-word formulaic sequences/run ratio, B3R (three-word lexical bundles/run ratio), and B4R (four-word lexical bundles/run ratio). These are calculated according to the frequency of the English formulaic language in the speech samples of the participants (n = 86) across three academic levels. The results indicate that the learners’ spoken English fluency is highly related to their use of English formulaic language. Its limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Vocabulary Theory, Patterning and Teaching

This book presents the current state of knowledge in the vibrant and diverse field of vocabulary studies, summarising the latest empirical studies and providing a firm indication of the future of the field. The chapters cover the key themes of theorizing and measuring vocabulary knowledge, formulaic language, and learning and teaching vocabulary.