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THE RETRIEVABILITY OF L2 ENGLISH MULTIWORD ITEMS IN A CONTEXT OF STRONGLY FORM-FOCUSED EXPOSURE

WHAT MATTERS?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2020

Seth Lindstromberg Open the ORCID record for Seth Lindstromberg [Opens in a new window]  and
June Eyckmans
Seth Lindstromberg*
Affiliation:
Hilderstone College, United Kingdom
June Eyckmans
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Belgium
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Seth Lindstromberg, Hilderstone College, St Peters Road, Broadstairs, Kent, CT10 2JW, United Kingdom. E-mail: lindstromberg@gmail.com
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Abstract

Although retrieval of lexical forms is a prerequisite for language production, research of L2 vocabulary learning has focused much more on meanings and form-meaning mappings than on development of detailed, accessible mental representations of forms. This is particularly true with respect to multi-word items (MWIs). We report an experimental study involving a variety of intra-lexical, usage-based, and interlingual co-determinants of L2 vocabulary learnability pertaining to MWIs. Each learner (N = 60) encountered a randomly allocated set of 26 two-word MWIs (Nsets = 4) semi-randomly drawn from a larger pool of MWIs. Learners were asked to remember either the 13 MWIs showing the form variable assonance (e.g., change shape) or the 13 nonassonant control MWIs (e.g., sound good). Posttests of form recall revealed a large, durable effect of the focusing task in combination with forewarning of testing. Except when MWI concreteness (a semantic variable) was high, assonance had a positive effect on retrievability in recall tests given after delays of 15 minutes and one week. There was a consistent effect of the semi-semantic variable Mutual Information. Even in the context of a strong focus on forms, form variables are not the only variables that matter.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Second Language Acquisition , Volume 43 , Issue 5 , December 2021 , pp. 1040 - 1067
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We are grateful to the students who participated in our study and to everyone who provided ratings of concreteness and similarity. We also thank our reviewers for exceptionally helpful comments and suggestions.

The experiment in this article earned an Open Data badge for transparent practices. The materials are available at https://figshare.com/articles/The_retrievability_of_L2_English_multi-word_items_in_a_context_of_strongly_form-focused_exposure_What_matters_Untitled_Item/12425273 and https://figshare.com/articles/The_retrievability_of_L2_English_multi-word_items_in_a_context_of_strongly_form-focused_exposure_What_matters_Untitled_Item/12435077

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