Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?

Various studies have consistently shown that collocations are processed faster than matched control phrases, both in L1 and in L2. Most of these studies focused on adjacent collocations (e.g., provide information). However, research in corpus linguistics normally uses a span to identify collocations...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Schmitt, Norbert, Vilkaitė, Laura
Format: Article
Published: Oxford University Press 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45169/
_version_ 1848797081765937152
author Schmitt, Norbert
Vilkaitė, Laura
author_facet Schmitt, Norbert
Vilkaitė, Laura
author_sort Schmitt, Norbert
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Various studies have consistently shown that collocations are processed faster than matched control phrases, both in L1 and in L2. Most of these studies focused on adjacent collocations (e.g., provide information). However, research in corpus linguistics normally uses a span to identify collocations (e.g., ± 4 words), and these non-adjacent collocations (e.g., provide some of the information) occur very frequently in language. Nevertheless, how they are processed is less established. A recent study on reading non-adjacent collocations seems to suggest similar processing advantages as for adjacent collocations (Author 2016), but this study was limited to the performance of native speakers. The present study addresses the question of whether advanced non-native speakers also show processing advantages for nonadjacent collocations as native speakers do. Forty advanced non-native speakers of English read collocations in either adjacent or non-adjacent conditions, and their eye-movements were recorded. Mixed-effects analysis of their eye-movements was carried out. The results suggest that non-native speakers read adjacent collocations faster than non-formulaic controls, but this facilitation almost disappears for non-adjacent collocations.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T19:58:13Z
format Article
id nottingham-45169
institution University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T19:58:13Z
publishDate 2019
publisher Oxford University Press
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling nottingham-451692020-05-04T19:10:42Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45169/ Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations? Schmitt, Norbert Vilkaitė, Laura Various studies have consistently shown that collocations are processed faster than matched control phrases, both in L1 and in L2. Most of these studies focused on adjacent collocations (e.g., provide information). However, research in corpus linguistics normally uses a span to identify collocations (e.g., ± 4 words), and these non-adjacent collocations (e.g., provide some of the information) occur very frequently in language. Nevertheless, how they are processed is less established. A recent study on reading non-adjacent collocations seems to suggest similar processing advantages as for adjacent collocations (Author 2016), but this study was limited to the performance of native speakers. The present study addresses the question of whether advanced non-native speakers also show processing advantages for nonadjacent collocations as native speakers do. Forty advanced non-native speakers of English read collocations in either adjacent or non-adjacent conditions, and their eye-movements were recorded. Mixed-effects analysis of their eye-movements was carried out. The results suggest that non-native speakers read adjacent collocations faster than non-formulaic controls, but this facilitation almost disappears for non-adjacent collocations. Oxford University Press 2019-04 Article PeerReviewed Schmitt, Norbert and Vilkaitė, Laura (2019) Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations? Applied Linguistics, 40 (2). pp. 329-354. ISSN 1477-450X collocations non-adjacent collocations eye-tracking mental lexicon https://academic.oup.com/applij/article/doi/10.1093/applin/amx030/4345772/Reading-Collocations-in-an-L2-Do-Collocation doi:10.1093/applin/amx030 doi:10.1093/applin/amx030
spellingShingle collocations
non-adjacent collocations
eye-tracking
mental lexicon
Schmitt, Norbert
Vilkaitė, Laura
Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?
title Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?
title_full Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?
title_fullStr Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?
title_full_unstemmed Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?
title_short Reading collocations in an L2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?
title_sort reading collocations in an l2: do collocation processing benefits extend to non-adjacent collocations?
topic collocations
non-adjacent collocations
eye-tracking
mental lexicon
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45169/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45169/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45169/