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FREQUENCY OF INPUT AND L2 COLLOCATIONAL PROCESSING

A Comparison of Congruent and Incongruent Collocations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 July 2013

Brent Wolter  and
Henrik Gyllstad
Brent Wolter*
Affiliation:
Idaho State University
Henrik Gyllstad
Affiliation:
Lund University
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Brent Wolter, Department of English and Philosophy, Idaho State University, 921 S. 8th Ave., Stop 8056, Pocatello, ID 83209-8056. E-mail: woltbren@isu.edu
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Abstract

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.

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Articles
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Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , September 2013 , pp. 451 - 482
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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