Optimizing A Lexical Approach to Instructed Second Language Acquisition

205 Pages·2009·1.28 MB·English

by  Frank Boers

Optimizing a Lexical Approach to Instructed
Second Language Acquisition
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Optimizing a Lexical
Approach to Instructed
Second Language Acquisition
Frank Boers
Erasmus University College, Brussels, Belgium
and
Seth Lindstromberg
Hilderstone EFL College, Broadstairs, UK
© Frank Boers and Seth Lindstromberg 2009
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2009 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
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the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–0–230–22234–2 hardback
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Figures and Tables viii
List of Boxes ix
Abbreviations x
1 Introduction 1
1.1 What parts of language is this book about? 1
1.2 Why have we written this book? 16
2 The Contribution of Chunks to
Acquisition and Proficiency 24
2.1 Comparing the nature and necessity of
L and L chunk acquisition 24
1 2
2.2 Evidence that L learners benefit from
2
chunk knowledge 35
3 Estimating the Chances of Incidental Uptake of L Chunks 39
2
3.1 Fostering learner autonomy through awareness-raising 39
3.2 Estimating the chances of semi-incidental
uptake of L chunks 51
2
4 Selecting Chunks for the L Classroom 55
2
4.1 Utility 55
4.2 Teachability 68
5 Semantic Elaboration 79
5.1 Exploiting imagery 79
5.2 Organizing lexis 96
6 Structural Elaboration 106
6.1 Phonological motivation in the formation and
standardization of chunks 106
6.2 The memorability of phonologically motivated chunks 119
7 Bearing in Mind 126
7.1 The need for width and depth of chunk knowledge 126
7.2 The need for automaticity 134
v
vi Contents
8 Directions 146
8.1 Broadening the scope 146
8.2 Testing chunk knowledge 160
Notes 169
References 174
Index 193
Acknowledgements
Frank would like to thank his collaborators June Eyckmans, Hélène
Stengers, Aline Godfroid and Julie Deconinck for sharing their
research findings and for talking him into believing that his advice
sometimes matters. A very special thanks from Frank also to Murielle,
Tom and Pauline for putting up with a moaning and groaning
husband/ daddy-turned-author for three long months (again).
Seth would especially like to thank Tessa Woodward – for all kinds of
reasons. Also, Sergei and Larry – thank you for Google; Richard Lowry –
thank your for ‘VassarStats’; and thanks too to all the authors who have
helped us by making their papers available on the web.
Frank and Seth would like to thank Jill Lake, Melanie Blair and
Priyanka Pathak at Palgrave Macmillan for their guidance and assist-
ance throughout this project.
Last but not least, thanks also to the hundreds of students who partici-
pated in one or the other of our numerous classroom experiments over
the years.
vii
Figures and Tables
Figures
4.1 Priority zone for explicit chunk targeting in the classroom 63
5.1 Example (1) of a collocation box proposed
by Lewis (1997: 78) 102
5.2 Example (2) of a collocation box proposed
by Lewis (1997: 79) 103
Tables
1.1 Word sequences classified by frequency plus MI score;
an abbreviated presentation based on Ellis,
Simpson-Vlach and Maynard (2008: 381) 7
4.1 Exact-word Google hits as an indication of relative
commonness 58
4.2 Joint-frequency data on some verb–noun collocations
(from the Collins Cobuild collocations sampler) 59
6.1 /b/_ + /b/_ vs. /f/_ + /b/_ multiword lexis in the MED 109
6.2 /k/_ + /k/_ vs. /s/_ + /k/_ multiword lexis in the MED 109
6.3 Evidence of the role of alliteration in the formation and
standardization of multiword units (sourced from
the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners,
2007, 2nd edn) 110
6.4 Consonant repetition within monomorphemic words
in three 1402-token texts 115
viii
Boxes
1.1 Partial transcription of a BBC Radio 4 programme 3
1.2 Strong collocates of four prepositions, generated by
the Collins Cobuild on-line collocations sampler
at http://www.collins.co.uk. 6
3.1 Strong verb–noun collocations occurring in
the first 120 pages of Val McDermid’s (2007) thriller
Beneath the Bleeding 42
4.1 Idioms encountered in the first 120 pages of
Val MacDermid’s (2007) thriller Beneath the Bleeding 67
5.1 ‘Identify-the-source’ multiple-choice items and feedback 85
5.2 ‘Meaning’ multiple-choice items 86
5.3 ‘Gap-fill’ post-test 86
5.4 Examples of contextualized idioms accompanied
by ‘origin’ hints 90
5.5 Examples of pictorial elucidation of the origins of idioms 91
5.6 Examples of figurative uses of manner-of-motion verbs 94
5.7 Examples of ‘identify-the-informal-idiom’ exercises 95
5.8 Phrasal verbs grouped per metaphor theme 98
5.9 Anger-related expressions grouped according to
metaphor themes (based on Boers, 2000b) 99
5.10 Grouping idioms according to their source domains 101
6.1 Some proverbs, similes and binomials displaying
phonological repetition 117
6.2 Some compounds and collocations displaying
phonological r epetition 118
7.1 Reducing blind guessing in matching exercises 130
7.2 Reducing blind guessing in completion exercises 131
8.1 Creating paired associates for phrasal verbs 155
8.2 Examples of colligation and collocation test
items from Hargreaves (2000) 161
8.3 Example items from the Discriminating Collocations Test,
from Eyckmans (in press) 163
8.4 Example of a Deleted Essentials Test 165
8.5 Key to the example Deleted Essentials Test 166
ix