The Effect of Different Processing Strategies on L2 Learners’ Study of Phrases

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Summary

This paper focuses on the effectiveness of two proposals for helping learners’ accurately recall the lexical composition of L2 phrases. In a pre- to post-test design learning gains were compared between studying a list of collocations while engaging in a contrastive L1-L2 analysis versus identifying collocations that alliterate.

Abstract

Formulaic language (e.g., collocations and idioms) has in recent years attracted a fair amount of interest in the fields of SLA. However, there is still a shortage of empirical studies of instructional methods and techniques. The present study focuses on the deliberate memorization of L2 phrases and tests the effectiveness of two proposals for helping learners’ accurately recall the lexical composition of L2 phrases. EFL learners (N = 65) studied a list of 32 figurative VERB + NOUN-PHRASE expressions (e.g., turn the tide) glossed in L1. In one condition they were only instructed to study the list. In a second they were additionally instructed to identify phrases whose verb is non-congruent with the L1 translation. In a third the instruction was to identify phrases that alliterate. The 32 phrases included equal numbers of congruent and alliterative ones. It was hypothesized that the extra instructions would cause learners to pay extra notice to the choice of verbs in the phrases and would result in better recall. Comparisons of pre- to post-test gains show that the instruction to look out for alliteration enhances retention, whereas the instruction to compare with L1 does not. The results also suggest that not all efforts to manipulate learners’ processing during a memorization task necessarily bring better outcomes than if the learners use their own, habitual mnemonic strategies.

Strand

• Second and Foreign Language Pedagogy

Non-Presenters

• Frank Boers, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

• Seth Lindstromberg, Hilderstone College Kent

Presenter

• June Eyckmans, Ghent University