The Influence of First Language on Second Language Collocational Processing

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Abstract

Collocations are combinations of two or more words that habitually occur together. Because there are no grammatical rules for collocations, speakers would need to have sufficient knowledge of the language to be able use collocations appropriately. This present study investigated the influence of first language (L1) on second language (L2) collocational processing. L1 English speakers and intermediate and advanced learners of L2 English rated the acceptability of 75 collocational phrases comprising three collocational patterns (i.e., English-based vs Japanese-only vs Random Combination) on an 8-point Likert scale. Of particular interest was the result that the acceptability of the Japanese-only items was significantly higher for the L2 participants than for the L1 participants. This suggests the effect of language proficiency on collocational processing in that L2 speakers are more susceptible to the collocational knowledge of their L1 (Japanese) when evaluating collocations given in their L2 (English).

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