An investigation into the learning of English collocations€¦ · An investigation into the...
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Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte Katrien Hosselaer An investigation into the learning of English collocations: The effect of different instructions on learners ’ recall. Masterproef voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van Master in het Tolken 2015 Promotor Prof. dr. June Eyckmans Vakgroep Vertalen, tolken en communicatie
Transcript of An investigation into the learning of English collocations€¦ · An investigation into the...
Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte
Katrien Hosselaer
An investigation into the learning of English
collocations:
The effect of different instructions on learners’ recall.
Masterproef voorgelegd tot het behalen van de graad van
Master in het Tolken
2015
Promotor Prof. dr. June Eyckmans
Vakgroep Vertalen, tolken en communicatie
ii
Sound and spelling, or simply semantics?
The wondrous world of words
would make one wonder
which way will work.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are a number of people without whom this thesis would not have been written and to
whom I am greatly indebted.
First of all, I would like to thank my thesis supervisor, Professor June Eyckmans, for her
guidance, critical view, patience and belief in me. Her unwearied answering of my many
questions and her continuous encouragement, i.e. the many times she signed off an e-mail
with ‘good luck’, kept me going more than once.
I would also like to thank my dear colleague, Anja Baele, for giving me six precious
classroom sessions to enable me to do the testing. I am also grateful to the pupils of Sint-
Franciscusinstituut for undergoing the testing. Leen Meerschaut, the headmistress of the
school where I work, has always continued to support me and believe in me. This has been a
real support and enabled me to combine work and studies.
Writing this thesis has rounded off a period in my life which has been of a great importance to
me and which has changed me as a person. Afraid of not reaching the finish line, it took me
10 years to even start the race. The last two years have been a time of enduring memories not
only to me, but to everyone close to me.
A special thanks goes to Koen, my husband, who has never stopped supporting me practically
and emotionally.
A very special thanks and, moreover, a sincere apology goes to my children who have had to
endure a period of having but not really having a mother, of, more than once, having to put up
with unwashed clothes, no warm meals, and the like. A one-year-old begging his mother
‘please not study today mummy’ is hard to resist. Stan, I am sorry, from now on, I will be a
good mother and take proper care of you and your brothers and sisters.
My parents, without whom I would not have been able to combine work and studies, have
been of tremendous help these last two years and this gives me the opportunity to thank them
and promise them that as from now on, my main focus will be my children, my husband and
my pupils.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................6
2 L2 VOCABULARY ACQUISITION ............................................................................................10
2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................10
2.2 Words .....................................................................................................................................11
2.2.1 What is a word? ..............................................................................................................11
2.2.2 How many words are there in a language? .....................................................................11
2.2.3 What does it mean to know a word? ..............................................................................13
2.2.3.1 Receptive versus productive vocabulary knowledge .................................................13
2.2.3.2 Form, meaning and use of a word ..............................................................................14
2.2.4 How many words are needed to use a foreign language? ..............................................16
2.2.5 What words are needed to use a foreign language? .......................................................17
2.2.5.1 High-frequency words ................................................................................................17
2.2.5.2 Mid-frequency words .................................................................................................18
2.2.5.3 Low-frequency words ................................................................................................18
2.2.5.4 Specialized vocabulary ...............................................................................................19
2.2.6 Learning a word .............................................................................................................20
2.2.6.1 Learning burden .........................................................................................................20
2.2.6.3 Cognitive processes ....................................................................................................21
2.3 Multiword Units .....................................................................................................................25
2.3.1 Definition .......................................................................................................................25
2.3.2 Types of Multiword Units ..............................................................................................26
2.3.2.1 Form-based approach .................................................................................................27
2.3.2.2 Meaning-based approach ............................................................................................29
2.3.2.3 Storage-based approach ..............................................................................................30
2.3.3 Relevance of MWUs for second-language learners .......................................................30
2.3.4 Memorising Multiword Units .........................................................................................31
2.3.4.1 Benefits to EFL learners of learning multiword units ................................................31
2.3.4.2 Problems encountered in the acquisition of L2 collocations ......................................34
2.3.4.3 Proposals to facilitate MWU learning ........................................................................37
2.3.4.4 Elaboration .................................................................................................................37
2.3.4.5 Sound patterns as a mnemonic strategy .....................................................................38
3 EMPIRICAL STUDY ....................................................................................................................42
3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................42
3.2 Research Questions ................................................................................................................42
3.3 Participants .............................................................................................................................43
3.4 Materials .................................................................................................................................44
3.5 Procedure ................................................................................................................................47
3.5.1 Pre-test ............................................................................................................................47
3.5.2 Study Phase ....................................................................................................................47
3.5.3 Immediate post-test ........................................................................................................48
3.5.4 Delayed post-test ............................................................................................................49
3.6 Results and Discussion ...........................................................................................................49
3.6.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................49
3.6.2 Per-participant analyses ..................................................................................................50
3.6.3 Per-response analyses .....................................................................................................52
4 CONCLUSION ..............................................................................................................................59
5 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..........................................................................................................................63
6 APPENDIX ....................................................................................................................................72
6.1 Pre-test ....................................................................................................................................72
6.2 List of expressions for study phase ........................................................................................75
6.3 (Near) immediate post-test .....................................................................................................76
6.4 Delayed post-test ....................................................................................................................79
6.5 Questionnaire Concreteness – Imageability rating .................................................................82
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1 INTRODUCTION
Being a foreign language teacher for almost 10 years now and wanting to improve my
speaking skills in two languages besides my native Dutch, I decided to take an interpreting
course for the languages of English and French. An interpreter is someone who listens to a
message in one language and transfers that same message into another language, allowing
people who do not understand each other to communicate. This seemed to me the perfect way
of reaching a more proficient level of both spoken English and French. As I was confident
that my level of English had risen to an advanced level over the years, one can imagine my
disappointment when I was told time and again my English was not idiomatic enough. This
was not the case for French, however. I mainly teach French and only on a few occasions
have I taught English. There is therefore some logic to the fact I was given this remark for
English and not for French. Not being 100% certain of the exact meaning of ‘idiomatic’, I
consulted the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (1995), which defines the adjective as
‘using or containing expressions that are natural to a native speaker of a language’. An
example of a non-idiomatic expression I used is everything is alright for you to start the
procedure as opposed to the more idiomatic expression you fulfil all the requirements to start
the procedure. Of course, I was aware of the existence of the idiomatic expression to fulfil the
requirements, but I was unable to produce it on the spot. The advice that was given to me
was: listen to native speakers, spot as many recurring word groups (rather than individual
words) as possible, and learn them by heart. In language pedagogy, recurring word groups are
referred to as Multiword Units (henceforth MWUs). I discovered that it was not finding
MWUs in itself that posed the problem, as there appeared to be a tremendous amount of them,
but committing them to memory seemed to be a different kettle of fish. However, by
following the advice that was given to me, and by trying to remember MWUs — however few
in number — I did experience an improvement in the idiomaticity of my English and at the
same time I was given a more positive evaluation of my interpreting performances. Having
experienced an improvement in my English idiomaticity through memorization of MWUs, I
have, ever since receiving that advice, almost exclusively focused on the acquisition of
MWUs instead of separate words, both for my own and for my pupils’ vocabulary acquisition.
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I tried to uncover the reasons behind the finding that the use of MWUs, in my case, (1) makes
an EFL learner’s1 English more idiomatic and (2) can improve the quality of an interpreting
performance. I found several germane studies. First of all, Wray (2002) found that a natural
language consists of an enormous number of MWUs. It stands to reason, then, that the more
MWUs a learner uses, the more natural he will sound to a native speaker. Furthermore,
several studies have shown that there is a correlation between learners’ scores in proficiency
tests and their knowledge of MWUs (Boers et al. 2006; Keshavarz and Salimi 2007; Dai and
Ding 2010; Stengers et al. 2011). In addition, according to Shekan’s (1998) Holistic Retrieval
theory, MWUs are stored as a whole and no analytical skills are needed to retrieve the MWU.
Therefore, it stands to reason that a learner using MWUs will produce the message faster than
if he had to retrieve each word separately. Furthermore, retrieving word groups from memory,
as opposed to single words, might prevent learners from making mistakes (Eyckmans 2013).
It seems to me that both Wray and Shekan’s findings can also have a positive influence in
enabling a more qualitative interpreting performance. Furthermore, Gile (1997) states in his
Effort Models theory that translation is only one process of interpreting. An interpreter needs
to listen to the message, analyse it, transfer it to a meaningful equivalent, produce a fluent and
consistent message, and store and process incoming and outgoing information. These
processes all need to happen at the same time and thus pose a burden for the interpreter (Van
Rietvelde et al. : 2010-2). Van Rietvelde et al. continue that using phrases (MWUs) can
lighten that burden and therefore positively affect the quality of the interpreting performance.
Not having to retrieve the message word by word but rather as a whole, the student can spend
more time on the other processes and therefore perform better.
The acquisition of MWUs, however, does not appear to be an easy task. Even advanced
learners of English make mistakes that do not sound natural to native speakers (i.e. *say the
truth as opposed to the correct speak the truth). Equivalent words in the learner’s first
language MWU may be why this type of mistake is made (e.g. Nesselhauf 2005). The
acquisition of MWUs is also said to be a slow process. Since a language contains such a large
amount of MWUs, a learner is not likely to frequently encounter the same MWU (Moon
1998; Boers and Lindstromberg 2009 : 42 - 43; Byrd and Coxhead 2010). However, frequent
encounters are needed in order to acquire and remember MWUs (Webb et al. 2013).
1 EFL = English as a Foreign Language
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For me, all these findings have shed new light on the acquisition of vocabulary. To find more
information on how to best teach vocabulary, I consulted the Modern Languages Curriculum
(www.vvkso.be), a single curriculum that applies to both French and English and which
teachers are asked to follow. This curriculum refers to MWUs as collocations and chunks and
confirms the importance of teaching MWUs. However, no advice was given on how teachers
can help their pupils to better remember MWUs. As a consequence, I am obliged to try
everything that springs to mind to help my pupils remember vocabulary. For example, I often
compare French words (e.g. langue) to similar English words (e.g. language) to help my
pupils recall the French word if they are more familiar with English already. I also point out
mistakes that are often made, in the hope the pupils will avoid making those same mistakes.
Some pupils find this useful, whereas others have asked me to stop doing this, as it confuses
them. As a language teacher, I am left wondering what advice to improve retention is useful
and in what cases it is preferable not to give any advice at all.
According to the vocabulary acquisition literature, for a word or an MWU to become part of
the long-term memory, it needs to be processed thoroughly. Barcroft (2002) refers to this deep
processing as ‘elaboration’ and distinguishes between two types: semantic elaboration, in
which the focus is upon the meaning of a word, and structural elaboration, meaning that
attention is given to the form, and more specifically to the spelling or sound of a word.
Previous experiments (Boers and Lindstromberg 2005; Lindstromberg and Boers 2008a,
2008b; Boers et al. 2012; Boers et al. 2013a, 2013b; Boers et al. 2014) have shown that sound
— and more specifically types of sound repetition such as alliteration, rhyme and assonance
— can play an important role in the retention of MWUs. Alliterative words are words sharing
the same consonant at the beginning of the word, as in wage war; rhyming words contain or
end with the same sound (e.g. hat, cat, rat); and assonant words display vowel repetition (e.g.
small talk). These three types of sound repetition are said to make up one fifth of all English
phrasal expressions (Boers et al. 2014: 13 - 14). However, the aforementioned studies have
also shown that awareness of the sound patterns needs to be raised first in order for the
phenomenon to have a beneficial effect on the learner.
These studies have mainly focussed on structural elaboration. The focus in this study will not
only be on the use of structural elaboration but also on the use of semantic elaboration in
order to improve retention of MWUs. Nesselhauf (2003) found that non-congruent verbs,
verbs that are not equivalent to those used in the mother tongue counterpart of the idiom (e.g.
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drive someone crazy as opposed to iemand gek maken), are difficult items for learners to
remember. This non-congruence, however, appears to be more of a semantic nature than it is
of a structural nature. Comparison of Dutch verbs to English verbs requires an understanding
of the meaning and therefore seems to be more an activity of semantic elaboration than of
structural elaboration.
Boers et al. (2013b) found that the ticking of phrases that display a stipulated feature render
phrases containing that stipulated feature more memorable. As non-congruent items are
known to be the most difficult item to retain, ticking non-congruent verbs in phrases should
therefore lead to better retention of the non-congruent as opposed to the congruent verbs.
The present study will therefore examine whether pupils who have been asked to focus either
on alliteration (structural elaboration) or on non-congruency (semantic elaboration) in MWUs
— that is to say, either of these groups — recall more lexical items containing the stipulated
feature than pupils who have not been asked to focus on any specific feature. We also hope to
find out whether focus on alliteration or focus on non-congruency can actually lead to worse
recall of lexical items not displaying alliteration or non-congruence. This research structure
seeks to provide an answer as to whether, and if so what, advice should be given by teachers
to EFL learners to better remember MWUs.
Section 2 of this thesis provides an overview of theoretical insights concerning vocabulary
acquisition, the importance of multiword units and sound patterns. Section 3 presents the three
research questions, the method used in this study’s experiment and the results. The results will
be presented and interpreted in the same section. Section 4 concludes this thesis, providing
indications for further research and pedagogical implications.
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2 L2 2VOCABULARY ACQUISITION
2.1 Introduction
Both vocabulary and grammar play a role in acquiring proficiency in a foreign language. The
ideal balance between the amount of grammar and vocabulary instructed to L2 learners has
been subject to debate for many years. In 1972, Wilkins made the following statement:
“Without grammar very little can be conveyed. Without vocabulary nothing can be
conveyed.” (111 - 112). According to Schmitt (2010: 11), grammar and vocabulary are no
longer seen as two separate entities in Applied Linguistics, but rather as two elements which
make up a single language system referred to as ‘lexico-grammar’ (Halliday 1978). As an
example, Schmitt (2010: 12) takes the word ‘plain’, which can be used in many ways and in
many grammatical constructions. However, when one chooses to use the collocation ‘made it
plain’, one is more or less constrained to use the structure ‘someone/something made it plain
that something as yet unrealized was intended or desired’ (Schmitt 2000: 189). According to
Schmitt, to convey this message, one should not first identify the appropriate grammatical
structure and only secondly the required lexical elements. This structure is more likely to be
stored in memory as a pre-formed sequence, the advantage of this being that less cognitive
energy is needed to produce the sequence than it would be to generate the sequence by
resorting to a grammatical rule (Schmitt 2010: 12). Evidence has shown that much of a
language is made up of such ‘ready to use’ multiword groups (Moon 1997; Wray 2002).
According to Lewis (1993) many of those multiword groups cannot be analyzed
grammatically. As many applied linguists have lately stressed the importance of making
learners aware of MWUs (e.g. Nattinger and DeCarrico 1992; Pawley and Syder 1983;
Schmitt 2004), it is not surprising that a fair amount of research time is invested in finding
ways to help learners notice useful multiword units (MWUs) in a foreign language (Boers and
Lindstromberg 2004). Accordingly, in this section we will not focus on rule-based language
instruction, that is, instruction mainly focusing on the use of grammatical rules, but rather on
the acquisition of MWUs. For an in-depth overview of MWUs, we refer the reader to the third
chapter of this section.
2 L2 = learning a second or a foreign language
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As the term itself indicates, MWUs consist of multiple words. If one does not understand the
smallest units of such sequences, we believe, in most cases, it is unlikely that he or she will
grasp the entire meaning of the MWU. We will therefore begin the second chapter of this
section by giving an analysis of the smallest unit of an MWU, a word. We will elaborate on
what exactly a word is and on how many and what type of words are needed to enable an L2
learner to use a foreign language. We will then move on to what effort is required to know a
word and how words can be retained.
In the third chapter, our focus will shift to MWUs. We will first attempt to provide an
explanation of what MWUs are, in order to then elaborate on different types of MWUs and
their relevance. Subsequently, we will concentrate on ways to memorize MWUs, the prime
focus of our attention being the difference between structural and semantic elaboration. We
will then direct our attention to one component of structural elaboration: sound. Finally, an
overview will be given of relevant studies which have examined the effect of sound patterns
on the retention of MWUs.
2.2 Words
2.2.1 What is a word?
Eyckmans (2013: 58) defines a word as a form that consists of sound and spelling. That form,
moreover, must refer to a meaning. The form chair, for example, has a specific sound and
spelling and refers to an object that someone can sit on.
2.2.2 How many words are there in a language?
Schmitt (2010: 34) considers this one of the most difficult questions to answer in vocabulary
studies, as the answer depends on why the question is being asked. If one wants to find out
how many words a book contains, ‘tokens’ must be counted. However, if one wants to know
how many words a three-year old can use, it is not tokens but ‘types’ which must be counted.
To illustrate the difference between tokens and types, Schmitt (2010: 34) uses the sentence
‘To be or not to be, that is the question’. This sentence contains 10 tokens, whereas it only
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contains eight word types. Even though the word ‘be’ occurs twice, it is counted as two
separate tokens but only as one word type. Schmitt continues that it is still unclear whether
two identical words with a different meaning should be counted as one type (e.g. financial
bank and river bank) and what should be done about capital letters (e.g. High and high).
Nation (2013: 10) points out that counting book and books as two different word types would
be rather strange. He therefore proposes counting closely-related words not as two different
word types but rather as members of the same word or lemma. A lemma consists of a
headword and its inflected forms and reduced forms (n’t). In this particular example, book is
the headword and books the inflected form. Lemmas, rather than tokens and word types, are
especially interesting units of definition when it comes to determining what Swenson and
West (1934) call the ‘learning burden’ of an item. Nation (2013) defines the ‘learning burden’
of an item as the amount of effort required to learn it. If a learner knows the form book, the
learning burden of books is trivial, on the condition that the learner can use the inflectional
system. On the other hand, the learning burden of the inflected form mice is much heavier
than that of books. One of the questions that have been posed in this respect is whether
irregular forms such as mice, brought and beaten should also be counted as part of the same
lemma as their singulars. On the other hand, two similar items such as the adjective original
and the noun origin are considered as two distinct lemmas (Nation 2013).
Another approach employed in the counting of words is the counting of word families. A
word family includes not only a headword (e.g. bright) and its inflected form (e.g. brighter)
but also its closely-related derived form such as the affixes --ly (e.g. brightly), --ness (e.g.
brightness), and un- (Nation 2013: 11). However, the problem with using this approach is
what should be included in a word family and what should not. Some learners may be more
able to see a relationship between a headword and a derived form than others are. Therefore,
Bauer and Nation (1993) recommend the setting-up of a scale of word families with the most
elementary and transparent members at one end (level 1), progressing towards the other end
(level 7) with less obvious possibilities. The most transparent end (level 1) counts every
different form as a different word, so bright, brighter, etc. are all counted as different words.
The least transparent end (level 7) includes all the Classical roots (e.g. photography).
Nation (2013) concludes that when deciding upon which unit (token, word type, lemma, word
family) one uses to count words, it is of primordial importance to first consider the purpose of
the counting.
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2.2.3 What does it mean to know a word?
According to Nation (2013 : 44), words are not isolated units but are part of related systems
and levels. This means, he argues, that there is a lot to know about a word and there are many
different ways of knowing it. The different aspects that involve knowing a word are bound up
with whether the word is merely to be understood, as is the case in reading or listening, or
whether it is actually to be produced, as is the case in speaking and writing. Therefore, in this
section, we will first explain the difference between receptive (reading and listening) and
productive (speaking and writing) vocabulary knowledge, in order to then elaborate on what
is involved in knowing a word, both in a receptive and in a productive context.
2.2.3.1 Receptive versus productive vocabulary knowledge
In vocabulary learning, the receptive skills are usually defined as reading and listening,
whereas productive skills are usually linked to writing and speaking. The terms ‘passive’ and
‘active’ are sometimes used for receptive and productive skills respectively (Corson 1995,
Laufer 1998, Meara 1990). Some argue, however, that reading and listening are not as passive
as they appear. Nation (2013) describes receptive vocabulary use as encountering the form of
a word while listening or reading and trying to determine its meaning. Productive vocabulary
use means trying to express a meaning using the correct form while speaking or writing.
Receptive learning and use is said to be easier than productive learning and use, the reason
why this should be so being nevertheless rather unclear. Nation (2013: 50 - 52) puts forward
four possible explanations.
Amount of knowledge
The first explanation proffered is related to the amount of knowledge required for productive
versus receptive use. The productive learning of languages that have different writing and
sound systems than those used in the learner’s first language requires extra learning of those
output patterns. While receptive learning requires only the knowledge of a few features of the
form of a word, the productive knowledge of a word form needs to be precise. Nation
illustrates this by pointing out that young children who have a good receptive knowledge of a
word such as spaghetti may experience more difficulties in using that word productively, and
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may say for example *parsghetti. This is also the case for words deployed in context. It is
easier for a learner to understand the meaning of an MWU, for example, than it is to correctly
produce its precise form.
Practice
A second explanation is the ‘practice’ explanation. Generally, there are more opportunities to
practise receptive use than there are to practise productive use. This may be one of the reasons
why a learner’s total vocabulary size is much more receptive in nature than it is productive in
nature.
Access
The ‘access’ explanation is a third rationale given for why receptive learning and use should
be easier than productive learning and use. When a learner encounters a new foreign-language
word, he initially connects this word to only one equivalent in his first language. This
equivalent, however, may have many associations which makes it much more difficult to find
the precise equivalent in the foreign language.
Motivation
Nation’s last explanation relates to the learner’s motivation. A learner may be more motivated
to learn certain words for receptive purposes than for productive purposes. A learner learning
weather-related vocabulary, for example, may do so because his purpose is to understand the
weather forecast and not to produce what is being forecasted.
2.2.3.2 Form, meaning and use of a word
According to Schmitt and Meara (1997), Richards (1976) was the first to list the various types
of knowledge required to know a word. Nation (1990: 31), they continue, elaborated on
Richards’ list to distinguish, at the most general level, three main aspects that are involved in
knowing a word, namely form, meaning and use. Below, we will give an overview of what is
meant by these three aspects both in a receptive and in a productive context.
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Form of a word
With respect to form, understanding a word involves knowing what the word sounds like,
what it looks like and what parts are recognizable in the word. Being able to produce the word
implies knowing how the word is pronounced, written, spelt, and knowing what word
components are needed to express the meaning.
Meaning of a word
With respect to the meaning of a word, a language user focussing on reading or listening
needs to know what meaning a word form signals and what is included in the concept (e.g. the
word form cinema stands for a building in which people sit on chairs and watch a film on a
large screen). It also involves knowing what other words it calls to mind or connotes. In order
to produce a word, a language user needs to know what word form can be used to express a
specific meaning and what concepts it refers to. He should also know other words that can be
used instead of that word.
Use of a word
Being able to understand and being able to produce a word requires, respectively, knowing in
what grammatical patterns a word can occur and knowing in what grammatical patterns it
must be used. Rules to connect one word to others are called grammatical functions. A second
way of knowing how to use a word is knowing what other words it typically occurs in
collocation with. For reading and listening, it is sufficient to know what other words it occurs
with. For speaking and writing, a language user should also be able to use the other words that
the word typically occurs with. Another way of knowing the use of a word is knowing, for
receptive purposes, where, when and how often a word occurs, and for productive use, where,
when and how often a word can be used.
According to Nation (2013: 73), a learner may be perfectly aware of the meaning of a concept
such as cinema, a building in which people sit on chairs and watch a film on a large screen.
The learner may, however, have no idea of the form cinema that is connected to this concept.
The opposite is also true: a learner may know the sound and spelling of the form cinema, but
not know what it stands for. Therefore, for a learner to know a word, an interconnectedness
between both form and meaning is needed. The bigger the link he makes between form and
meaning, the easier it will be for the learner to retrieve the word’s meaning when coming
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across its form, and the easier it will be for the learner to produce the form when coming
across its meaning.
2.2.4 How many words are needed to use a foreign language?
Ideally, a learner should know the entirety of the language he is learning. Yet how can a non-
native speaker be expected to learn all the language if even a native speaker does not know all
of the vocabulary of that language (Nation 2013)? Nation (2013) points out that a language
consists of many specialist vocabulary domains which are only known by specialists from
those specific fields. Therefore, in order to set learning goals when planning language study, it
may be more realistic to find out how many words are known by native speakers. Studies
(Goulden et al. 1990, Zechmeister et al. 1995) revealed that even educated adult native
speakers of English know fewer than 20,000 distinct word families (Nation 2013). According
to Nation (2013), these estimates are rather low because they do not include the derived
family members of the word families, nor proper nouns. Biemiller and Slonim (2001) found
that from the age of three onwards, and probably up to 25 years old, native speakers learn on
average 1,000 new word families a year (Nation 2013: 13). Therefore, Nation (2013) suggests
that learning 1,000 word families a year is a realistic goal for non-native speakers of English,
but recommends that one should be cautious of using native speakers’ language proficiency
standards as a goal for language learners. When testing Dutch native speakers across a wide
range of age, with a wide range of professions and with different educational backgrounds,
Mulder and Hulstijn (2011) found that lexical fluency and the lexical memory span declined
with age, while lexical knowledge increased. Native speakers with advanced education and a
high professional level tended to have a better lexical knowledge and a longer lexical memory
span. These results led them to conclude that there is a large variability in native speaker’s
language knowledge and skills. Biemiller and Slonim (2001) detected similar results with
regards to the vocabulary size of native speakers of English. Therefore, Nation (2013)
concludes that one should give consideration to what type of native speakers should be used
when comparing them with non-native speakers.
A different approach to finding out how many words are needed to use English is analysing
various kinds of texts from the British National Corpus (Nation 2006). This analysis shows
that between 3,000 and 4,000 word families are needed to cope with 95% of texts, and to cope
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with 98%, 6,000 to 9,000 word families are needed. 98% coverage, Nation (2013: 14)
continues, is set as the goal because 2% of unknown vocabulary is a manageable amount and
equates to not knowing one word in 50, one word in every five lines (10 words per line), or
1,200 unknown words in a 200-page book.
2.2.5 What words are needed to use a foreign language?
Frequency-based studies show that not all words are equally useful to learners (Nation 2013).
Therefore, a more realistic way of setting vocabulary learning goals may be determining the
usefulness of words, a consideration to which Schmitt (2010: 35) adds the learner’s needs.
Measuring the usefulness of words can be done by examining how often they occur in a
relevant corpus (Schmitt 2010). Looking at such a corpus, Nation (2013: 14) found that a
small number of well-chosen words can already be very helpful to learners. He distinguishes
three different types of vocabulary on the basis of the following frequency levels.
2.2.5.1 High-frequency words
Nation (2013: 22) points out that the relatively small group of high-frequency words is of
considerable importance because these words constitute a large part of the running words in
spoken and written texts and are used in all kinds of linguistic situations. Michael West
(1953) compiled what has become the traditional list of high-frequency words: A General
Service List of English Words. This list contains 2,000 word families, 165 of which are
function words such as a, some, two, because and to. The remainder of the list consists of
content words, that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs (Nation 2013). These 2,000 word
families account for about 82% of running words in academic texts (Nation 2001). Schmitt
and Schmitt (2012), however, argue for having a 3,000 word family high-frequency
vocabulary list. This number, plus proper nouns, transparent compounds and marginal words,
usually covers 95% of a text (Nation 2013). High-frequency words are so important, Nation
continues, that anything teachers and learners do to learn them is worth it. It is sometimes
argued that not much needs to be done to acquire high-frequency vocabulary, as these words
occur frequently and learners pick up this vocabulary subconsciously (Nation 2013).
However, high-frequency vocabulary covers such a large amount of spoken and written text
18
that any text is inaccessible to a learner as long as the high-frequency vocabulary is not
known. It is therefore advisable that a learner learn the high-frequency vocabulary as quickly
as possible. With respect to reading and listening, a learner will not be able to understand a
text fluently if he lacks knowledge of high-frequency vocabulary. Furthermore, with respect
to productive skills, not knowing high-frequency vocabulary prevents a learner from
producing any spoken or written text. Learners spend a decent amount of time learning this
type of vocabulary because a text will only be comprehensible if a considerable amount of it
is known (Nation 2006).
2.2.5.2 Mid-frequency words
Nation (2013: 18 - 25) presents mid-frequency words as a large group of words that comprises
generally useful and moderately frequent words. Many of the 7,000 word families that make
up the mid-frequency words are ones that nearly made it into the high-frequency word list.
Together with the high-frequency words, they represent the group of words with which a
learner can use the English language without external support (Nation 2013). Teachers should
focus on strategies for dealing with mid-frequency words rather than teaching and practising
individual items of such vocabulary as they would with high-frequency vocabulary. These
strategies include guessing using contextual clues, deliberate learning using vocabulary cards,
and using dictionaries. The learners’ goal should be to continue to increase their vocabulary,
making use of these strategies (Nation 2013).
2.2.5.3 Low-frequency words
Low-frequency words form the biggest group of words, whereas they only make up a small
proportion of the running words. They may be seen as the ‘long tail’ of the language’s
vocabulary. Nation (2013: 19 - 28) continues that there are tens of thousands of them, many
of which are proper names, technical terms and terms that are rarely used in the regular
language. Therefore, they generally provide only a small degree of coverage of any text.
Nation (2013) suggests learners should only deal with low-frequency vocabulary when the
knowledge thereof is essential to the understanding of a text (particularly a technical text).
The best way of acquiring low-frequency vocabulary is through reading and listening, because
19
written texts offer greater opportunities of encountering such vocabulary. Dictionary use may
be helpful in learning low-frequency words, as there are often few contextual clues (Nation
2013).
2.2.5.4 Specialized vocabulary
Academic and technical vocabulary together make up the category of specialized vocabulary.
According to Nation (2013), specialized vocabulary accounts for a good proportion of the
words in certain text types. The usefulness of specialized vocabulary depends on the learner’s
purpose. Students writing a dissertation, for example, should consider academic vocabulary as
high-frequency vocabulary.
Learners interested in the learning of academic vocabulary can make use of the Academic
Word List (Coxhead 2000), a list which is considered crucial when it comes to using English
for Academic Purposes (Nation 2013). Nation found that adding this list to the high-frequency
word list provides academic texts with a degree of coverage of 86.1%, as opposed to 76.1%
without that list.
Technical vocabulary consists either of words belonging to one specific subject area or of
words that can, but do not necessarily, have specialized meanings (e.g. chest, bypass, arm as
used in anatomy). The first type of words are not likely to be known by many people who are
not related to that particular subject area. The latter type of words are likely to be known by
many people, but only in their generally known meaning (Nation 2013). The size of the
technical vocabulary varies from one subject to another. Chung and Nation (2003) found that
technical words account for 20% in an applied linguistics text and 30% in an anatomy text.
For academic vocabulary, Nation (2013) advises teachers to use the Academic Word List
(Coxhead 2000) through reading, writing, speaking and listening. With respect to high-
frequency technical vocabulary, teachers should help their learners make connections and find
differences between the specialized use (e.g. cell wall) and the general use (e.g. wall) of a
word. Non-high-frequency technical vocabulary should be dealt with by means of strategies
which should be instructed to learners (Nation 2013).
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2.2.6 Learning a word
Nation points out that the teaching of vocabulary should only take up about a quarter of a
language course. The remaining three-quarters of the time, vocabulary should be taught
indirectly, through reading, listening, speaking, writing and through activities that develop
fluency. In this section, we will point out in what ways other than direct instruction
vocabulary knowledge can be acquired. We will also look at cognitive processes that
encourage learning. First, we will look at what effort it takes to learn a word.
2.2.6.1 Learning burden
Nation (2013: 44) defines the learning burden of a word as the amount of effort that is needed
to learn that word. This effort will be different for learners with different language
backgrounds. Nation’s general principle of learning burden (1990) is that the burden of
learning a word becomes progressively lighter as a word represents more patterns and
knowledge that the learner is already familiar with. A third language with which the learner is
familiar, and especially the learner’s first language, play a significant role in this respect.
Several features such as sound and spelling of a word can lighten its learning burden. A word
using a sound that also exists in the learner’s first language (e.g. book in English as compared
with the Dutch equivalent boek), or a word following regular spelling patterns (e.g. book
becomes books in plural), will make it easier to be learnt. Another advantage for the learner is
when the word is a loanword with approximately the same meaning, the same grammatical
patterns and similar MWUs as in the first language. For example, the English loanword
kindergarten comes from the German Kindergarten. The learning burden of the English word
kindergarten will therefore be lighter for a speaker of German than it is for a French-speaking
learner to learn kindergarten.
2.2.6.2 Incidental vs. deliberate learning
The lexicon of a language consists of a large number of words, and most educational contexts
enjoy only a limited period of time to spend on vocabulary learning. Therefore,
complementary ways of learning vocabulary should be called upon. One such way is
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incidental vocabulary learning. Incidental learning means learning vocabulary by coming
across new words by the by, through reading and writing. This, however, is a slower process
of mastery than deliberately learning new words is. Eyckmans (2013 : 59) explains that this
slow process is due to the limited capacity of the working memory, also referred to in
psycholinguistics as “limited processing capacity”. This means that a learner has difficulty in
simultaneously focusing on both form and meaning of a word when reading or hearing it.
Unless being instructed to focus on form, the learner will automatically focus on meaning.
This phenomenon is also called “meaning processing bias”. Paribakth and Wesche (1997)
found that the probability of learning a word after one encounter with it is between 5% and
10%. Therefore, in order to become proficient in the vocabulary of a language, incidental
learning should be complemented with deliberate vocabulary learning and purposeful
vocabulary learning strategies.
2.2.6.3 Cognitive processes
It stands to reason that it is important for anyone involved in the acquisition of vocabulary to
know the processes that are involved in learning a word. Knowing these processes allows
teachers to apply useful strategies accordingly. If, for example, a teacher knows that the first
process in vocabulary learning is the noticing of a word and knows that this process will
encourage learning, he might draw learners’ attention to that word. Let us first have a closer
look at what Nation (2013: 103 - 114) calls cognitive processes, the first of which being
noticing a word, to then move on to the second and the third processes, the retrieval and
creative use of a word respectively. Finally, we will tackle the process of vocabulary
retention. For each process, a suitable learning strategy will be suggested.
Noticing a word
Noticing a word, or paying attention to that word, is considered a crucial step towards
retention (Schmidt 2001). However, an important precondition for noticing to take place is
motivation and interest. A study conducted by Elley (1989: 185) showed different results
from the same group of learners listening to two different stories. The results showed that
participants acquired more new vocabulary from the story they were more interested in. They
were less involved in the story lacking humour, action and conflict, and therefore retained less
vocabulary from that text. Elley (1989) also found that words important to understand the plot
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of a story are more likely to be retained than words that are less important to understand the
plot of the story. Noticing can take place through dictionary use, deliberate study, guessing
from context and the explanation of a word (Nation 2013).
Nation (2013) points out that another important factor in noticing is decontextualisation. This
does not mean that a word does not occur in a textual context, but means that learners observe
the word as being a part of the language rather than as being a part of the message. Although
decontextualisation is not considered essential in vocabulary learning, there is according to
Nation (2013) evidence that it can help learning. We will highlight two kinds of
decontextualisation: negotiation (in the sense of coming to terms with) and definition of
words. Research (e.g. Newton 2013) has shown that negotiated words are more likely to be
learned than those that are not. What is particularly interesting for classroom contexts is the
fact that observing negotiation is equally effective as doing the negotiation (e.g. Newton
2013). Negotiation, however, is a time-consuming activity. Therefore, teachers should use this
technique only as a complementary means of decontextualisation (Nation 2013). In an
experiment, Newton (2013) asked two groups of four EFL learners each to do four
communication tasks. These tasks included unfamiliar vocabulary. Of the four tasks, two were
information gap tasks and two were opinion gap tasks. The students were asked to elaborate
on both the form and the meaning of the unfamiliar words. Newton found that, overall, there
was an improved recall for words that had not been negotiated, that had not been used in
interaction or that had only been negotiated for form. Therefore, Newton concludes that “the
role of negation through communication tasks needs to be viewed from a wider perspective”.
A possibly more effective form of decontextualisation is the defining of words. Studies have
shown that briefly explaining words to learners while they are reading (Knight 1994) or
listening (Brett et al. 1996; Elley 1989) to a story increases vocabulary learning. Elley’s
(1989) study has shown that defining the words more than doubled vocabulary retention.
According to R. Ellis (1995), a short and simple definition, including only a few
characteristics of the word, appeared to be most effective. Longer definitions were found to be
more confusing than helpful (Chaudron 1982). Other studies (Nation 1982) have shown that
many learners learn faster when they are given a first-language translation of the word.
According to Nation, first-language translations are the simplest kind of definition, as they are
short and are familiar to the learner.
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Glossing words and MWUs also seems to have a beneficial effect on vocabulary learning.
Peters (2012) tested the effect of foreign-language learners’ recall of MWUs and single words
presented in a glossed German text. The glossed items in this text were presented in bold
typeface and underlined. Two groups were given two different sets of instructions. The
control group was asked to focus on unfamiliar vocabulary in general, whereas the
experimental group was asked to pay attention to MWUs and individual words while reading
and to write down the unfamiliar ones. This group was also told they would have to translate
words. The results indicated that the glossing had an effect on participants’ recall scores,
whereas the instructional method did not. Furthermore, the effect of glossing seemed to be
particularly beneficial for learning MWUs. Peters concludes that glossing facilitates foreign-
language learners’ noticing and learning of unknown lexical items.
Retrieving a word
Once a learner has noticed a word and has an understanding of its meaning, the process of
retrieving can start. The more often the learner has to retrieve the word, the better the
retention of that word will be. Both productive and receptive retrieval can occur. Productive
retrieval means that the learner knows the meaning of the word and wants to express its form:
for example, the learner knows the concept of a building in which people watch films on big
screens and has to retrieve the spoken or written form ‘cinema’. Receptive retrieval means the
learner is confronted with the form of a word, in our example ‘cinema’, and has to retrieve the
meaning of the word, a building in which people watch films on big screens. In the case of
receptive retrieval, the learner comes across those forms in listening or reading.
Baddeley (1990) found that each time a word is retrieved, the path linking form with meaning
is strengthened. Therefore, subsequent retrieval will be made easier. Bearing in mind this
finding, it stands to reason that repetition plays an important role in vocabulary learning.
Baddeley suggests, however, that it is not simply repetition which is important, but the
opportunity to repeatedly retrieve the word. He suggests that when a learner perceives the
form of a word, he will most likely link the meaning of the word of the previous encounter to
content and information from the present encounter. Vidal (2011) found that for reading, the
greatest increase for learning occurred between two and three repetitions, whereas for
listening it took between five and six repetitions. A study conducted by Brown (2008) showed
that words need to be repeated at least 20 and probably 50 or more times in order to result in
substantial learning.
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McCafferty et al. (2001) suggest that a second factor affecting learning is salience or
relevance of a word to a task. This is particularly so when learners have asked to know more
about the word in order to understand the context, for instance.
Nation (2013) points out several options for the effective boosting of retrieval. In a speaking
activity, a teacher might ask learners to recapitulate the chapter they just heard or read. In
reading, an activity that works well with younger children is to read a story several times. An
option that might work better with older learners is to spread a long story over a certain period
and read one chapter at a time. Nation (2013: 107 - 110) advises doing this two or three times
a week rather than once a week. He continues that it may be better to read one long text
spread over a period of time rather than to reread the same story. This is so because in longer
texts the same words are more likely to occur on several occasions and will therefore offer
more opportunities to meet the same word several times. This technique is also useful for the
third process, ‘creative use of a word’, which will be explained in the following section. It is
important in both reading and speaking that the new words learners have come across will be
reused several times.
Using the word creatively
A third process that can help remembering a word is creative use. Nation (2013) explains
creative use as the reuse of words in different contexts. Each time the learner meets the word
in a different context, he or she is obliged to rethink its meaning and use. For example, a
learner might meet the word chair for the first time in a context where the word means seat.
In another context, the learner might come across the word chair as a person in charge of a
meeting, or as the verb chair, as in Yesterday, she chaired the meeting. In this last context,
chair refers to someone acting as a chairman or chairwoman. The more often a word is used
in different contexts and the more often learners are confronted with different meanings — be
it a different word meaning, grammatical variation or in a collocation, for example — the
better the word will be entrenched in memory. Creative use can be applied to both receptive
and productive skills. In speaking, words can be used creatively if they are produced in a
different way than when the learners encountered the word the first time. Teachers can, for
example, ask learners to retell stories using a different focus or reconstructing the content
rather than repeating it. In its receptive form, creative use could involve having learners meet
words in different contexts. These encounters force them to rethink their idea of the meaning
25
they previously had for that word. Nation (2013: 112) points out that unpublished studies
done as part of a Master’s level course have shown that target words recurring in a particular
level of graded readers are often words which are creative uses rather than repetitions in
similar contexts. Therefore, Nation (2013) suggests that graded readers form an excellent
opportunity for vocabulary learning. Verspoor and Lowie (2013) found that a useful activity
for learning vocabulary is to give learners the core meaning of a word in order to then ask
them to guess from context the meaning of figurative senses.
Retention
Many learners visualize the concept of a word when learning it. For example, learning the
word form table, learners will visualize a table. Anderson et al. (1978) call this instantiation.
Nation (2013) suggests instantiation is not always needed in vocabulary learning. The use of
word cards, where learners look at the L2 word and recall its L1 translation, does not involve
visualization of the concept. However, it stands to reason that instantiation is a natural
phenomenon in vocabulary learning, as in real life each form is linked to an example. Imaging
is another manner of visualization, but the difference with instantiation is that a deliberate
visual image is created. An example of imaging is the keyword technique (Nation 2013)
where an image is created in order to link the form of a word to its meaning. An example
taken from chapter 11 of Nation (2013: 464) is the following. The first part of the target word
candid is ‘can’, which also means container. The image created here to connect word form
and meaning could be a can with a label which honestly shows its contents. That way, the
learner may more easily recall the meaning of the word: honest and truthful. A study
conducted by Deconinck et al. (2010) found that making form-meaning connections has
positive effects on learning.
2.3 Multiword Units
2.3.1 Definition
Recently, many linguists have stressed the importance of MWUs. In the literature, MWUs are
referred to as lexical phrases, formulaic sequences, formulas, prefabricated chunks, etc. (e.g.
Foster 2001; Howarth 1998; Schmitt 2004; Nattinger and DeCarrico 1992; Wray 2002). In
this thesis, we will stick to the term MWUs. According to Boers and his colleagues (Boers et
26
al. 2006) MWUs can be very diverse both in terms of lexical composition and of function, and
can range from simple fillers (e.g. sort of) and functions (e.g. excuse me) through collocations
(e.g. tell a story) and idioms (e.g. back to square one) to whole proverbs (e.g. make hay while
the sun shines) and lengthy standardized phrases (e.g. there is a growing body of evidence
that). Wray (2002: 9) defines a formulaic sequence or MWU as:
a sequence, continuous or discontinuous, of words or other elements, which is, or
appears to be, prefabricated: that is, stored and retrieved whole from memory at the
time of use, rather than being subject to generation or analysis by the language
grammar.
2.3.2 Types of Multiword Units
According to Nation (2013: 479), there are four major kinds of MWUs. First of all, an MWU
can be a group of words that commonly occur together, like take a chance. Secondly, an
MWU can refer to a group of words where the meanings of the separate words do not reveal
the meaning of the phrase as a whole, as with by and large or be taken in (=be tricked).
Thirdly, an MWU can refer to all the possible combinations of one particular word and its
accompanying words, as with with bare hands, hold hands, need a hand, hand delivery.
Lastly, an MWU can be a group of words that is intuitively seen as a collocation of items
stored as a single lexical choice. These single choices may vary between different kinds of
language users. A native speaker may, for example, store major catastrophe as a single
choice, whereas another user of the language might not intuitively link these words to one
another. As there are different criteria for describing what a multiword unit is, it stands to
reason there is a large number of terms to cover the full range of MWUs. Wray (2000: 465)
lists over 50 terms, including idiomatic phrases, phrasal expressions and collocations. Nation
(2013: 479) attributes this large number of terms to the different purposes involved in looking
at MWUs and the fragmented nature of research in this field. Therefore, Nation continues, it
is necessary to clearly set criteria and, where possible, to develop standard terminology to
describe the different types of MWUs.
With respect to learning and teaching MWUs, it is important to have an understanding of how
MWUs can be identified. Nation (2013: 485) delineates three major approaches to doing so.
The first approach is form-based and focuses primarily on the frequency of co-occurrence of
the words in the MWU. Additional factors such as adjacency, grammaticality well-
27
formedness, grammatical variation and lexical variation play a role as well. A second
approach is based on meaning and considers how clearly the meanings of the different parts of
the MWU reflect the meaning of the multiword unit as a whole; this is also called the
compositionality of the multiword unit. A third approach is storage-based and considers
evidence for multiword units being stored as single items in the brain.
2.3.2.1 Form-based approach
Form-based approaches to determining whether a group of words constitutes an MWU often
make use of computer programs that search for frequently co-occurring words in a corpus. To
prevent the computer program from selecting only high-frequency words, a formula is
needed. Without a formula, only MWUs consisting of high-frequency words would be placed
at the top of any list, even if low-frequency words only ever occurred with one particular
word, such as gibbous in gibbous moon. Nation (2013: 486) also considers frequency of co-
occurrence important with respect to L2 learning because learners need to learn items that
they will come across often and be able to use often before learning less frequent items.
As frequency of co-occurrence is not sufficient in itself to determine whether a group of
words is an MWU, other criteria must be taken into account in this decision-making. This
insufficiency is due to the fact that if frequency of co-occurrence were the only criterion used,
then MWUs like of the, in the and is one of the would be at the top of the list. Nation and
Webb (2011: 177) give an overview of five additional form-based factors that can affect
counting the frequency of multiword units. In the following subsections, Nation and Webb
(2011: 177) describe each of the five factors and advise caution in each case in choosing that
particular factor to determine whether a group of words is a multiword unit.
Adjacency/discontinuity
In an MWU, words can occur in immediate succession (e.g. by and large) or can be separated
by words that are not part of the multiword unit (e.g. serve somebody right). However, when
counting items that are not adjacent, one needs to be careful to ascertain that these items are
truly part of the multiword unit.
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Grammatically fixed/grammatically variable
Words making up an MWU can be fixed, unchanging forms, as with to and fro, or they can
occur in a variety of grammatical and affixed forms such as pulling your leg, a leg-pull, don’t
pull my leg, his leg was pulled. When counting variable words for inclusion, one needs to
search using a variety of search terms and combinations of words.
Grammatically structured/grammatically incomplete
An MWU can either be a complete grammatical unit, such as a sentence, a predicate etc. (e.g.
on the other hand), or it can be an incomplete grammatical unit, as with on the basis of. In the
case of counting grammatically structured items, one needs to be sure to have clear criteria
describing what is and what is not grammatically structured.
Lexically variable/lexically invariable
MWUs can contain replaceable words of related meaning, as with once a week, or they can
include words that cannot be replaced by others, such as as well as. When counting multiword
units in which words are replaceable, one should examine a large amount of data manually to
make sure the substitutions are acceptable.
Number of components
An MWU consists of at least two words. Counting can be done with or without a limit on the
number of words. If one counts MWUs without a limit on the number of words, it is necessary
to check that other criteria for being an MWU remain fulfilled.
With respect to the difference between manual processing and computer-based processing, it
needs to be mentioned that manual processing will give a more valid result as to what can be
regarded as an MWU. However, manual processing is an activity which requires much time
and effort; computer-based processing can be a more convenient way of identifying MWUs.
A researcher should bear this in mind when deciding upon what type of processing he will
resort to (Nation 2013: 486).
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2.3.2.2 Meaning-based approach
The definition of an MWU can be based on how clearly the meaning of the components relate
to the meaning of the MWU made up of those components. Nation (2013: 489) illustrates this
with the multiword units nice person and kill two birds with one stone. The meaning of nice
and person closely relate to the whole unit nice person, whereas the meaning of the second
MWU is not readily apparent from the meaning of the individual components.
Compositionality (whether the meaning of individual components reflects the meaning of the
whole unit) and figurativeness (whether a figurative or a literal interpretation is needed) make
it possible to identify at least three types of multiword units: core idioms where the meaning
of the parts do not reflect the meaning of the whole, figuratives where a figurative
interpretation is needed, and literals where the meaning of the parts largely reflects the
meaning of the whole (Grant and Bauer 2004, see figure 1). According to Nation (2013: 490),
classification of MWUs with respect to meaning is closely related to the ease of interpreting
and learning their meaning, or in other words, their analyzability.
Core idioms
Core idioms such as by and large, as well as, take the mickey should be learned as whole
units, as there is no obvious relationship between the meaning of the parts and the meaning of
the whole unit. When the criteria of compositionality and figurativeness are used, it has been
found that English counts just over 100 idioms (Nation 2013: 490).
Figuratives
Figuratives are multiword units such as toe the line (follow orders) and put the cat among the
pigeons (create a stir) that have both a (possible) literal and an (actual) figurative meaning.
Nation (2013 : 490) advises learners to relate their literal meaning to their figurative meaning.
Literals
Grant and Bauer (2004) consider literals as MWUs the meaning of whose components is
closely related to the meaning of the whole multiword unit. Examples of literals are you know,
at the moment and I think (that). Because of their transparency, some researchers have not
been keen to call them multiword units. However, it is not always the case that literals show
transparency vis-à-vis the MWU in the first language. Strong tea is a literal but in Korean the
functional equivalent is thick tea. Because of this, some people feel there is actually an
30
arbitrariness to such MWUs and one should just have to learn that it is said that way.
However, Liu (2010) counter-argues that words in such seemingly arbitrary MWUs are
grammatically and semantically consistent with their use in other MWUs. Liu puts forward
the example of the use of strong and powerful both with tea and car. Strong in strong tea
refers to the taste or smell of tea, and powerful in powerful tea refers to the effect of tea. A
strong car means the car is solidly built, while a powerful car likewise refers to the effect of
the car. This shows that the MWU strong tea is not arbitrary but is consistent with its core
meaning.
2.3.2.3 Storage-based approach
Researchers are interested in finding out whether some MWUs are stored in the memory as
whole units. Furthermore, they want to discover why specific items are stored as a whole and
are interested in the implications of this storage for learning and using a language. Martinez
and Schmitt (2012) used the criteria of frequency, meaningfulness and relative non-
compositionality to identify and count multiword units. Their goal was to discover what units
were likely to be processed as single words. Although a considerable amount of intuition was
used in their decision-making and the study is therefore prone to criticism, Nation (2013: 494)
considers the study invaluable because studies such as this, like those in “the Schmitt (2004)
collection” and in Wray (2008) “…ask important, brave questions whose answers truly move
our knowledge of the field forward”.
2.3.3 Relevance of MWUs for second-language learners
It has been widely accepted that natural language consists of an extremely large number of
MWUs (Wray 2002) and that knowing one’s mother tongue involves actively and passively
knowing a large number of those MWUs (Tomasello 2003). Therefore, Lindstromberg and
Boers (2008a) state that native-like competence in L23 cannot be reached without the
knowledge of a great many of these MWUs. Bearing this in mind, it stands to reason that the
acquisition of MWUs is an essential part of L2 learning (e.g. Lewis 1993; Nattinger and
3 L2 refers to learning a second or foreign language.
31
DeCarrico, 1992; Willis 1990). Furthermore, Forsberg (2010, writing on French) and Stengers
et al. (2011, on Spanish) have found that learning MWUs is as important for the learning of
other languages as it is for English.
2.3.4 Memorising Multiword Units
2.3.4.1 Benefits to EFL learners of learning multiword units
Several arguments have been advanced for acquiring MWUs as opposed to single words.
Skehan (1998) found that retrieval of MWUs as a whole enhances the fluency of the speaker.
This ‘holistic retrieval’ (Skehan 1998) entails that MWUs are stored and retrieved as one
entity. Consequently, no analytical skills are needed to generate the MWU and production
will be more fluent. Boers et al. (2006) found significant correlations between the number of
MWUs used by upper-intermediate learners of English and their level of oral proficiency, as
measured by blind judges.
The information in the above paragraph leads us to conclude that EFL learners, including
those who need to have a high level of oral proficiency, such as interpreting students, would
benefit from a large repertoire of MWUs. Interpreters listen to a person speaking in a source
language and transfer that message to the target language. This act of communication allows
two parties to understand each other. There are different modes of interpreting, including
consecutive interpreting and simultaneous interpreting. Consecutive interpreting involves the
interpreter listening to a spoken text for a rather short period of time, taking notes while the
speaker is talking and then rendering the message in the target language. Simultaneous
interpreting means that the interpreter translates the spoken text while the speaker is still
speaking in the source language. Translation, however, is not the only process that takes place
in the skill of interpreting. Before elaborating on the processes other than translation that it
involves, we will first highlight the importance of the working memory in interpreting
performance. The information provided in the following paragraph is based on the articles of
Eyckmans (2007) and Van Rietvelde et al. (2010 - 2).
Working memory (also called short-term memory) refers to the brain system that is
responsible for holding and manipulating a small amount of information temporarily (Cowan
32
and Morey 2006). According to Baddeley (2003), working memory is a workspace whose use
is necessary for many complex activities such as reasoning and comprehension. He subdivides
working memory into the central executive and its three slave systems: the phonological loop,
the visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer. The central executive is responsible for
task-oriented attention. The phonological loop holds auditory language-related information
over a period of seconds, the visuospatial sketchpad holds visual information, and the episodic
buffer unites different types of information in meaningful units. These systems also include
information from the long-term memory. The phonological loop is considered the most
relevant to interpreting (Defrancq 2014). We will therefore focus exclusively on the
phonological loop here. According to Baddeley and Hitch (1974) and Baddeley (2000), the
phonological loop is divided into two subsystems: a phonological store and an articulatory
rehearsal system. The phonological store holds auditory information for a period which
Baddeley estimates to be less than two seconds. The articulatory rehearsal system repeats the
auditory information in order to retain the information for a longer period of time. When
people are asked to retain information while simultaneously saying words out loud, they score
much lower than when they do not have to say words out loud. This means that the former
group were not able to use the articulatory rehearsal system to retain the auditory information
for a longer period of time. This phenomenon of interference is called articulatory suppression
and it is what happens during the process of simultaneous interpreting: the interpreter’s
auditory input decays very fast because he or she has to say words out loud while listening
and while having to retain the fresh incoming information. There are several theories about
the limitations to the human capacity to store and process information, but there is still no
agreement about the limits of that capacity (Cowan 2000). However, the various models do
agree on the fact that the different functions of the storage and the processing of information
compete with each other (Baddeley and Hitch 1974; Caplan and Waters 1996; Just and
Carpenter 1992) and trade off against each other when processing capacity approaches its
limits (Daneman and Carpenter 1992). Interpreting involves not only translation but also
speech perception and production, content analysis, decision making, storage, retrieval and
comparison of information (Eyckmans 2007). Gile put forward a model to describe the
different efforts that an interpreting performance consists of. Gile’s effort model (modèle
d’efforts) (Gile 1985) states that interpreting consists of four different efforts. The first effort
is concerned with understanding the information that is being produced by the speaker (the
listening effort). The second effort is the strain that is put on the interpreter when storing the
information and when linking the new information to the target language (the memory effort);
33
the third is the effort made between deciding to produce the message and the production itself
(the production effort), and finally the coordination effort is the effort made to assign capacity
to the three other efforts. These four processes battle for the working memory’s limited
processing capacity and therefore represent a cognitive burden to the interpreter. Optimizing
the use of working memory could be beneficial to the interpreter, and Van Rietvelde et al.
(2010 - 2 ) argue that improving learners’ phraseological competence might be one of the
strategies useful in lightening that burden. Using MWUs, the interpreting students would not
have to generate language via lexical and syntactic construction (Eyckmans, 2007), and
therefore it would be logical to think that retrieval of MWUs as a single entity lowers the
strain on the different efforts. This could free up more time for the interpreting students to
devote to any of the other efforts as required, which would make the rendition more fluent.
Eyckmans (2007) investigated this potential gain by giving students enrolled in a sight-
translation course an on-sight oral translation task. One part of the students had received
tuition in the phrase-noticing approach, while the rest of them had received more traditional
tuition in which grammar patterns and individual words instead of MWUs had been focused
on. The students’ performance was evaluated by a blind judge according to three parameters:
the students’ degree of overall task fulfillment, the students’ fluency in English and the
students’ range of expression. Eyckmans (2007) found that the number of phrases rendered
correlated significantly with the parameters of fluency and range of expression. Furthermore,
the use of a relatively large repertoire of MWUs was found to correlate significantly with the
trainees’ overall interpreting performance. However, Eyckmans also found that a relatively
short EFL course focusing on MWUs is not sufficient for trainee interpreters to make use of
those MWUs when fulfilling a sight-translation task. She concludes that active knowledge of
a considerable repertoire of MWUs would be required to help trainee interpreters adequately
to fulfill the task. As the performance of trainee interpreters was considered more fluent when
they made use of more MWUs, we see that MWUs are especially relevant for advanced
learners and can lead to better performances.
Researchers such as Sinclair (1991) and Lewis (1993) found that the composition of many
MWUs cannot be explained by grammatical rules. The acquisition and production of MWUs
which cannot be explained grammatically is said to accelerate the L2 learner’s process in
reaching near-native level. Sinclair and others (Cheng et al. 2008; Lewis 1993; Sinclair
2004a; Stubbs 2009) suggest that a word (e.g. see) should be learned in its typical multiword
unit (e.g. do you see what I mean?). The reason is that sometimes the general sense of a single
34
word is not always what one would intuitively think it is. In the case of see, the general sense
is understand and not see visually. However, to reveal this to the learner, the MWU in which
see is most frequently used should be presented to the learner. Nation (2013: 481) adds to this
that learning words in MWUs is helpful because these words usually follow certain typical
patterns. According to Stubbs (2009: 120-121), there is little point in knowing the word ebb
without knowing its phraseology, because it often occurs with low and the collocation at-
LOW-ebb is typically used to talk about people’s morale and spirits, which are at a lower ebb
than some time in the past. Nation (2013: 481) emphasizes, however, that learning the
meaning of both multiword units and individual words is important and valuable. Most
multiword units are to some extent compositional, that is, the meaning of the parts contribute
to the meaning of the whole, Nation continues. Understanding the meaning of the individual
words that make up the multiword unit makes learning and retaining the meaning of the
MWU easier (Boers and Lindstromberg 2009; Bogaards 2001). According to Nation (2013:
481), learning by analyzing multiword units is therefore beneficial in two ways: MWUs will
be easier to learn, and the meaning and use of the words in them will also be better
understood.
2.3.4.2 Problems encountered in the acquisition of L2 collocations
Learners are said to be slow to acquire productive knowledge of L2 MWUs such as
collocations (e.g. Durrant and Schmitt 2009; Laufer and Waldma 2010; Li and Schmitt 2010;
Nekrasova 2009; Yamashita and Jiang 2010). Researchers of MWUs have said to find the
poor rate of uptake of MWUs “puzzling” (Boers et al. 2014: 4) or feel there is a “missing
link” as to why this is the case (Wray 2012: 2). Boers et al. (2014: 4) found that even
advanced L2 learners can produce word combinations that do not sound natural to a native
speaker (e.g. *do a mistake, *say the truth). Surprisingly, these mistakes often involve the use
of words that tend to be familiar to the L2 learner. In the following sections, an overview will
be given of possible reasons why the acquisition of L2 collocations happens so slowly. This
overview is based on an article by Boers et al. (2014).
Attention to words as opposed to collocations
Wray (2002) found that pre-literate children are more likely to consider MWUs to be the basic
components of discourse, whereas post-childhood learners consider individual words to make
35
up discourse. Pre-literate children might not yet distinguish as many single words as literate
children and adolescents do, as they cannot yet read and are not yet used to seeing white
spaces between separate words. For example, a child hearing the phrase what’s your name?
will be more inclined to see this as one component, whereas a literate post-childhood learner
will be more likely to consider this phrase as being made up of several components. Boers et
al. (2014: 6) conclude from this that adult readers are more likely to focus on single words
than they do on collocations. This lack of attention may explain why collocations are acquired
so slowly.
Salience
Boers et al. (2014: 6 - 7) consider that one of the reasons for the slow acquisition may be
related to the salience or noticeability of an item. Godfroid et al. (2013) have found from eye-
tracking experiments that words that are new to learners tend to be looked at for a longer
period of time than words that are not new to the learner. In many verb-noun collocations
such as make a mistake, the separate words that make up the combination tend to be familiar.
Therefore, it is likely that less attention is given to those words than it would be if the words
themselves were unfamiliar, and therefore the acquisition of such collocations happens at a
slower pace.
Lack of semantic salience
Nesselhauf (2005) found that in the production of verb-noun collocations, most mistakes
involve the verb as opposed to the noun. This may be due to the fact that in verb-noun
collocations with high-frequency verbs such as have a nightmare, make a mistake, do
business, the noun tends to be more salient or noticeable because it carries most of the
meaning and is therefore given more attention. The verbs in these examples might be
considered non-salient by the learner because they do not seem to carry a lot of meaning. Ellis
(2006) reported that a noun which is semantically more informative than a high-frequency
verb with which it is in collocation can be said to overshadow the verb.
Lack of perceptual salience
An element which lacks perceptual salience is liable to be phonetically reduced in discourse.
The more frequent an element is, the more fluently it will be pronounced. The element will be
pronounced in an automatic way and less muscular activity will be used. High-frequency
elements used in high-frequency contexts are therefore likely to be reduced phonetically
36
(Browman and Goldstein 1992; Mowrey and Pagliuca 1995; Bybee 2002). Among native
speakers, a conversation is not usually hampered by lack of perceptual salience, but the
phenomenon does mean that those phonetically reduced elements are less audible, less clearly
articulated and therefore more difficult to perceive by L2 learners. Boers et al. (2014: 8)
mention that phonetic reduction occurs most often in elements that contribute least to the
meaning of the collocation as a whole and in elements that are most predictable from the
context. Furthermore, it is possible that the element lacking perceptual salience has a
phonological neighbor which would also fit in the collocation. This might explain why an L2
learner would say *make a photo instead of take a photo and *in purpose instead of on
purpose regardless of the equivalent verbs or prepositions used in the first-language versions
of these phrases.
Boers et al. (2014: 10 - 11) identify some other factors that may slow down the acquisition of
collocations. Sometimes, components of the collocations are not adjacent and this makes it
harder for a learner to notice a possible association between those components. Words may be
accompanied by different verbs. The noun research can be associated with do, conduct or
carry out, and indeed it is a habit of formal English writing to vary such verbs. It will
therefore take more encounters to acquire the possible associations of research with any of
those three verbs than it would, for example, to learn the one-to-one association of commit
with suicide. Two collocations might also be deceptively similar in form, as with run a
business and do business. This similarity may lead learners to mistakenly say *do a business.
Finally, verbs such as do may be rather vague (less concrete and less imageable) in verb-noun
collocations and therefore harder to remember. Both concreteness (e.g. the concreteness of
bicycle vs. honesty) and imageability (e.g. the imageability of whether vs. elephant) are
factors which have been reported to influence retention. Words with concrete meanings are
easier to process than words with abstract meanings (Holcomb, Kounios, Anderson and West
1999; Paivio, Walsh, and Bons 1994; Walker and Hulme 1999; West and Holcomb 2000).
Steinel et al. (2007) found imageability to be a factor that enhances the chances of retention.
Concreteness is said to correlate strongly with imageability (Hamilton and Rajaram 2001) and
are therefore sometimes combined by them into the ‘umbrella factor’ of concreteness-
imageability.
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2.3.4.3 Proposals to facilitate MWU learning
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, the acquisition of MWUs does not appear to be an
easy task. Therefore, various proposals have been proposed in the literature of vocabulary
acquisition to facilitate the task of acquiring MWUs. It has been generally accepted that
attention to MWUs is one of the most important steps in facilitating retention of MWUs
(Schmidt 2001). This attention can be provided by teachers or textbooks, or it can happen
incidentally in learning (Boers et al. 2014: 5 - 6). Lewis (1993) has stressed the importance
that should be attached to making L2 learners aware of the existence and value of MWUs so
that these learners will be motivated enough to find and learn MWUs on their own. According
to Sonbul and Schmitt (2013), deliberate attention given to MWUs through techniques such as
underlining, bolding, coloring or glossing, or through decontextualisation, enhances the
chances of learning. However, research has shown that noticing alone is not sufficient for
MWUs to absorbed into the long-term memory; it is unlikely that learners will identify
MWUs successfully without teacher-led guidance. Furthermore, the different components that
make up the MWU are often not noticed because learners focus more on meaning than on
form. MWUs consisting of familiar words are often not noticed at all (Eyckmans 2010: 44).
Consequently, Eyckmans (2010: 44) argues, non-intensive educational environments should
provide phrase-learning strategies rather than phrase-noticing strategies.
2.3.4.4 Elaboration
The Levels of Processing (LOP) theory (Craik and Lockhart 1972) proposes that long-term
retention of an item depends on the depth at which the item is cognitively processed.
Activities that involve deeper processing are expected to lead to better retention than those
involving shallower processing (Barcroft 2002: 323 - 324). Boers et al. (2014) suggest that for
L2 learners to learn and retain MWUs, these MWUs need to become part of their long-term
memory, as opposed to their working memory, which is only a temporary store. For elements
to become part of long-term memory, more attention to those elements is needed. Barcroft
(2002) uses the term ‘elaboration’ to describe the mental operations that can be used to
provide that attention. Two types of elaboration can be distinguished: structural elaboration
focusing on the form of the MWU, and semantic elaboration focusing on the meaning.
Semantic elaboration means that a learner focuses on the meaning of a word as opposed to its
38
form in order to commit it to memory (Barcroft 2002: 323). A task that requires semantic
elaboration could involve asking a learner to judge whether a word represents a certain
concept, whereas asking a learner to repeat words out loud is an instance of structural
elaboration. According to Eyckmans (2010: 45), both semantic and structural elaboration are
needed to form stable memory traces. Semantic elaboration is useful for “in-depth
comprehension and retention of meaning”, whereas structural elaboration is particularly
useful for the production of vocabulary items, according to Eyckmans.
2.3.4.5 Sound patterns as a mnemonic strategy
Mental imagery has proven to be beneficial when it comes to the retention of figurative
expressions such as throw in the towel (Boers et al. 2004; Boers and Lindstromberg 2009).
Explaining the literal meaning of a figurative expression can create a link between the literal
meaning of the expression and a visualized mental concrete scene. This dual coding (Paivo
1986), meaning the establishment of a link between an abstract expression and a concrete
mental scene, will create an extra pathway for recall (Boers et al. 2004). However, this
technique does not apply to all MWUs. According to Eyckmans (2010: 46), less figurative
MWUs, such as verb-noun and adjective-noun collocations, are more difficult to approach by
means of semantic elaboration. Focusing on the structure (i.e. sound and spelling) can
therefore be a more helpful tactic in the cases of verb-noun and adjective-noun collocations.
Structural elaboration also allows language learners to cover a considerable number of
MWUs. As mentioned in the introduction of this thesis, roughly one-fifth of all English
MWUs display the formal features of alliteration, rhyme or assonance. These formal features
have been investigated and have been shown to improve retention of MWUs. When it comes
to the production of MWUs (Eyckmans 2010: 46), structural elaboration is needed. Without a
focus on the form of a word, that word cannot be evoked. Merely seeing and knowing the
meaning of chair, for example, is insufficient if one wants to write or say the form chair.
Focusing on sound is one form of structural elaboration; focusing on spelling is another. In
this dissertation, we will focus on the attention given to sound patterns in order to improve
retention of MWUs. The fact is that repetitive sound patterns, and especially alliteration (e.g.
move mountains), a pattern of repeated sound or letters occurring at the beginning of two or
more words in succession, are a common feature in the English language. Boers and
39
Lindstromberg (2009 : 114) found that 13% of the 5667 phrasal lexemes given in the
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (2007, 2nd
edition) alliterate. One
possible reason why alliteration is an ubiquitous feature of the English language is that it
might have been a mnemonic aid for pre-literate epic poets and singers (Rubin 1995: 194-
226). Alliteration is also a popular technique in advertising and entertainment (for instance,
Jaguar’s slogan is “Don’t dream it. Drive it.”; or the film title “Dirty Dancing”). Boers et al.
(2014) attribute this attention to alliteration to a widely-held assumption that phonological
repetition makes slogans, brand names, film titles and characters more memorable. Given this
prevalence of alliteration, we believe it is worth finding empirical proof of whether
alliteration has a mnemonic advantage for learners.
Research by Lindstromberg and Boers (2008a) showed that alliteration does have a
comparative mnemonic advantage for learners when the learners have been made aware of
alliteration as a phenomenon. In their experiment, participants had been instructed to sort
phrases into two sets according to whether they judged them to be alliterative or not.
Immediately after the collection of all the materials, they were asked to write down as many
of the phrases as they could. The alliterative phrases were better recalled than the non-
alliterative ones. Where, however, awareness of the presence of alliteration had not been
raised, as was the case in an experiment conducted by Boers et al. (2012), scarcely any
difference was found in participants’ remembering of alliterative as opposed to non-
alliterative MWUs. Unlike in the former experiment, participants had not been informed
about alliteration in the latter experiment, they had not been asked to sort phrases, and the task
they were given was less intensive. A teacher dictated 30 English collocations, of which seven
alliterated. Each of the seven collocations was linked to a semantically and structurally similar
control collocation, the only difference being that the control item did not alliterate. The
teacher read out each collocation twice; the participants were asked to repeat the collocation
once and then write it down. After a short period of time, the participants were asked to write
down as many collocations they could remember. The effect was only “borderline significant”
and the size of the effect was much smaller than was the case in the first-mentioned
experiment (Boers et al., 2013 : 293). Furthermore, no delayed post-test was conducted, so it
cannot be said whether the effect was durable. As small-scale experiments require replication
(Cumming 2012: ch. 5; Lindstromberg and Eyckmans : submitted), and as Boers et al. (2012)
did not conduct a delayed post-test, Boers et al. (2013) set up two new experiments to find out
whether alliteration has a mnemonic effect beyond an immediate recall test. In their first
40
experiment, Boers et al. (2013) asked participants to repeat sub-vocally and write down two-
word phrases read out twice by the instructor. Students had not been informed about
alliteration. Of the 22 two-word units, five were alliterative and were linked to five matched
controls. The other items were fillers to avoid participants being made aware of the purpose of
the experiment. Each alliterative two-word unit consisted of the same leftmost word as the
control item’s leftmost word (e.g. private property versus private collection). After the
dictation, participants were asked to hand in their dictation sheets and were given a two-
minute break before having to take an unannounced post-test. That test consisted of the
instructor reading out the first words of the phrases dictated earlier and participants writing
down the second words of each phrase. One week later, a delayed post-test was administered.
This test was identical to the first test, the difference being that the words were read out in a
different order. In the immediate post-test, the alliterative phrases were recalled more often
than the control items were. The delayed test, however, showed no better recall of alliterative
phrases as compared to their controls. As the paired alliterative and control items had the
same leftmost word, the researchers assume that participants who had recalled one of the
rightmost components of the phrase often recalled the other one as well; it appeared that
recollection of one word cued recollection of the other. Seen this way, it was uncertain
whether words had been recalled because of the mnemonic effect of alliteration or because of
the fact that one word cued recall of the other. Also, it was a consideration that the
participants’ engagement in this experiment was much briefer than in Lindstromberg and
Boers’ experiment (2008a). Therefore, the researchers decided to set up a second experiment
using paired phrases that did not share the same word. The procedure used in this experiment
consisted of giving participants a handout of 28 phrases. The instructor read out the phrases
twice. After each dictation, the students were asked to find the phrase on their sheet (with
phrases being listed in a different order than on their neighbors’ sheets) and give it a score
according to whether they had heard, read, or used it often, sometimes, or virtually never.
This was a way of enhancing the students’ engagement with the phrases. Then, the students
were asked to dictate their lists to each other. The handouts were collected in and after a short
break, students were asked to remember as many of the dictated phrases as they could. A few
minutes later, another test was administered in which the instructor read out the first word of
each phrase and the student was asked to write down the second word. One week later, the
same test was administered, but with the words read out in a different order. The results of the
second experiment were similar to the results of the first experiment: the alliterative phrases
41
were recalled significantly more often than the controls in the immediate post-test but the
mnemonic advantage of the alliteratives disappeared in the delayed post-test.
A question that may be raised here is whether participants in Boers and Lindstromberg’s
study (2008a) recalled more alliterative phrases because of the mnemonic effect of alliteration
in itself or because of the fact that participants were asked to pay more attention to a specific
feature. Boers et al. (2013) have put this to the test by asking EFL students to do the same
type of discrimination exercise but with a formal pattern that is not reputed to be mnemonic:
non-alliterative consonant repetition, or repetition of consonants that does not involve
repetition at the same position in each of the two words, as is the case in true alliteration (e.g.
popular appeal; important point). The researchers found that a discrimination task by itself
rendered the stipulated feature — in this case, items containing non-alliterative consonant
repetition — more memorable, even though that feature as such is unlikely to be mnemonic.
They stipulate that the findings of their study are useful for language pedagogy. Teachers
may, for example, present their students with a text in which verb-noun collocations such as
‘make a presentation’ and ‘take revenge’ are underlined. The students could then be asked to
underline those collocations that are incongruent in their native language, for example een
presentatie geven as opposed to make a presentation. The literal translation of the verb make
is maken and not geven, which means give in English. Such non-congruent items are known to
be the most difficult items to retain, as they are not transparent, and they therefore merit the
most consolidation effort. It is this advice that we will follow and make the subject of our
experiment. As mentioned already, small-scale experiments require replication
(Lindstromberg and Eyckmans : submitted). We will therefore report an experiment that was
designed to investigate the mnemonic effect of alliteration and identifying non-congruent
verb-noun collocations.
This empirical study will be reported in the next chapter.
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3 EMPIRICAL STUDY
3.1 Introduction
In this chapter, the empirical part of this dissertation will be presented. Firstly, the research
questions and their purposes will be clarified. Then we will elaborate on the participants and
setting of the experiment. An overview of the materials used in the experiment will be given,
before we turn to a thorough description of the different phases of the experiment. Finally,
the results of the experiment will be enumerated. As the study contains three research
questions, it is multidimensional. Therefore, the results will all be interpreted in one and the
same section, namely the results and discussion section, which will close this chapter.
3.2 Research Questions
In the previous chapter, it was pointed out that when teachers or instructors direct EFL
learners’ attention towards specific formal features in collocations, items containing these
stipulated features were better recalled than were items not displaying the stipulated
characteristics. Alliterative items (e.g. private property) and non-alliterative items showing
consonant repetition (e.g. important point) have both been proven to be better recalled than
other collocations when attention was turned to these stipulated features (Lindstromberg and
Boers 2008a; Boers et al. 2013b). In their study (2013b: 9 - 10), Boers et al. conclude that
attention-directing interventions might be a useful way of helping EFL learners to better
recall those collocations that contain the stipulated criterion. Furthermore, they advise EFL
teachers to not only do this for collocations containing formal features, but also for phrasal
expressions featuring semantic characteristics that are more problematic to learners, such as
non-congruency. However, the features that have been proven to be effective were of a
formal nature and not of a semantic nature. Therefore, in this experiment we firstly wish to
investigate the usefulness of attention-directing interventions in the learning of collocations
as such. Does channeling learner’s engagement prove to have an effect on recall? Secondly, if
this experiment proves channeling to have an effect, we will try to find out whether focus on
formal features and focus on semantic features have different effects on recall. We will
therefore compare the recall effect of two different sets of instructions that turn the attention
of the EFL learner either to formal (i.e. focus on the form of a collocation) or to semantic
43
features (i.e. focus on the meaning of a collocation) with the recall effect where there is no
instruction whatsoever. The formal feature in this experiment will be alliteration; the
semantic feature will be non-congruency. Non-congruency means that the meaning of the
English verb in the collocation (e.g. do homework) is not the literal equivalent of the Dutch
verb (e.g. huiswerk maken, literally:*make homework). Furthermore, we are interested in
finding out whether any of these two teacher-led interventions can have a negative effect on
recall of the collocations not containing the stipulated feature. Do EFL learners who have
been asked to focus on the formal feature of alliteration, for example, perform worse with
respect to incongruent items? Finding an answer to this question may help teachers in how to
channel their learner’s engagement in learning collocations.
The following research questions provide a structured overview of what exactly will be
studied:
(1) Does the channeling of learners’ engagement when learning a set of target
collocations result in greater learning gains than when their engagement has not been
channeled?
(2) If channeling appears to result in greater learning gains for a given set of collocations,
what kind of channeling is to be preferred: identifying alliteration or identifying non-
congruent verbs in the collocations?
(3) Does this channeling of learners’ engagement merely lead to greater learning gains for
items that display the stipulated characteristic (alliteration or incongruence), to the
detriment of the other collocations in the set?
3.3 Participants
A total of 65 Dutch-speaking learners of English participated in this controlled learning
experiment. They were all third-year secondary school pupils (22 males and 43 females aged
13 to 14) at the Sint-Franciscusinstituut in Sint-Maria-Oudenhove, Flanders, Belgium. Sixty-
one were native speakers of Dutch, three were bilinguals with Dutch as one of their native
languages, and one was a native speaker of French. In terms of proficiency of English, all
were at least at level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference. According to
44
the curriculum, Level A2 is the required level for starting the third year. The third year in
this school consists of four different disciplines that may be followed by individual students:
Greek-Latin, Latin-Modern Languages, Latin-Mathematics, and Sciences. Dividing the
groups for this research according to their discipline would have made the discipline a
variable. Groups that have more classroom hours of English in their curriculum may, for
instance, have obtained different results than the other groups. Therefore, each discipline was
divided into three equal groups: two groups of 22 pupils and one group of 21 pupils. A test
administered prior to the study phase showed that the three groups were equivalent as far as
prior knowledge of the target collocations was concerned. In each group, the experiment was
conducted in three compulsory classroom sessions of 50 minutes. As the experiment had a
between-group design, the materials were the same for all groups. The instruction given
during the study phase, however, was different for all three groups.
3.4 Materials
A set of 32 collocations was compiled (see Table 1), each one containing a verb and a noun.
Because the research experiment focuses on the impact of two factors (alliteration and
Dutch/English collocation congruency) upon the retention of English collocations, a factorial
or mixed design was used in which the set of collocations consisted of seven alliterative
congruent, nine non-alliterative congruent, nine alliterative incongruent and seven non-
alliterative incongruent collocations. Four filler items (see Table 2), additional items used to
avoid a ceiling effect (i.e. all of the responses answered correctly so that no effect can be
measured), were added to the 32 collocations. They were inserted at the bottom and the top of
the list that was given to the participants during the second session. Those places are known
to be privileged loci of attention. No control items were used, as this would have required a
longer span of attention. We considered that this longer span of attention might have been too
much to ask of third-year secondary school students. This would not have created an ideal
testing environment.
Efforts were made to minimize differences between the collocation lists with respect to
concreteness (e.g. the concreteness of bicycle versus honesty), imageability (e.g. the
imageability of whether versus elephant) and frequency. Concreteness and imageability have
been reported to influence retention. We have therefore attempted to control for these
45
semantic dimensions. As concreteness is said to correlate strongly with imageability
(Hamilton and Rajaram 2001), we combined them into the ‘umbrella factor’ of concreteness-
imageability. Two months after the experiment, we asked 16 participants to give each
collocation a concreteness-imageability rating ranging from 1 to 9 (with 9 being the easiest to
form an image and 1 being the most difficult to form an image of the concept). The
questionnaire used for this purpose is shown in the Appendix. Table 1 shows that the mean
CI scores of the alliterative collocations are a little lower than the non-alliterative
collocations. This would imply that the alliterative items in this experiment would be harder
to recall, as they have been rated more difficult to imagine. A second factor which could
influence recall is frequency. This factor has been reported to correlate negatively with word
recall (see MacLeod and Kampe 1996, for a review). It is argued that low-frequency items
attract more attention than high-frequency items, because more attention is given to them
(Boers, Lindstromberg and Eyckmans 2012: 131). Therefore, we verified whether the four
sets were comparable in terms of word frequencies. According to the Corpus of
Contemporary American English (COCA; Davies 1998 to present) the alliterative congruent
collocations used for this experiment were more frequent and the alliterative incongruent
collocations were less frequent than the other two types. According to the figures in Table 1,
the alliterative congruent items might be harder to recall, as they are a little more frequent
overall than the non-alliterative items. Furthermore, they are the least imageable. We will
return to this matter in the discussion section.
46
Table 1. Whole collocation frequencies (WhCF) as given by COCA (Davies, 2008 to present) and
concreteness-imageability (CI) ratings for the four sets of stimulus collocations.
WhCF CI
alliteration + congruence:
gain ground (veld winnen) 99 4.38
set a standard (een norm stellen) 14 4.81
sell your soul (je ziel verkopen) 11 5.25
turn the tide (het tij keren) 159 4.13
move mountains (bergen verzetten) 49 6.06
run a risk (een risico lopen) 22 6.13
tell the truth (de waarheid zeggen) 2140 7.75
Means 356.29 5.50
alliteration + incongruence:
reap the reward (vruchten plukken) 3 3.63
crack the case (de oplossing vinden) 34 7.13
wage war (oorlog voeren) 320 5.56
find fault (with) (op een fout wijzen) 37 6.06
take a test (een test afleggen) 9 7.56
take a toll (een tol eisen) 3 4.81
seek solace (troost zoeken) 30 4.94
cut corners (het niet zo nauw nemen) 244 3.31
tell the time (de tijd lezen) 26 6.94
Means 78.44 5.55
no alliteration + congruence:
break the silence (de stilte breken) 105 7.81
speak volumes (boekdelen spreken) 86 3.63
tell a lie (een leugen vertellen) 134 7.81
take revenge (on) (wraak nemen) 143 7.44
hit the target (doel treffen) 97 6.63
hold your breath (je adem inhouden) 261 7.88
lose heart (de moed verliezen) 55 5.56
spread the word (een gerucht verspreiden) 445 6.50
make a fortune (fortuin maken) 141 7.19
Means 163 6.72
no alliteration + incongruence:
run a business (een zaak beheren) 174 6.50
play a sport (een sport doen) 29 7.63
meet a deadline (een deadline halen) 21 6.31
pull strings (invloed aanwenden) 22 2.81
set the tone (for) (de toon aangeven) 576 6.06
draw conclusions (conclusies trekken) 226 6.00
catch fire (vuur vatten) 264 7.19
Means 187.43 6.07
47
Table 2. Filler items
to launch a campaign
(een campagne
lanceren)
to cause a commotion
(commotie
veroorzaken)
to launch a campaign
(een campagne
lanceren)
to make a presentation
(een spreekbeurt geven)
3.5 Procedure
The experiment was carried out in four stages: (1) the pre-test; (2) the treatment; (3) the
immediate post-test; and (4) the delayed post-test. Apart from the immediate post-test, the
students were never informed of a forthcoming test, neither were they informed of the
purpose of the tests. The sheets were collected in at the end of each phase. These tests and
study sheets are to be found in the Appendix.
3.5.1 Pre-test
The pre-test was administered at the beginning of the experiment and exactly one week prior
to the second and third stage. Before the test, the instructor explained to the participants what
collocations are, gave some examples and informed them of the importance of collocations.
In the pre-test, the participants were asked to supply the verb of the 32 verb-noun
collocations, all of which were embedded in a sentence (e.g. When he was first elected mayor
he believed he was going to be able to ______________ mountains and make life better for
everyone in the city. He soon realised there were limits to what he could achieve.). The
students were given 15 minutes, which was sufficient for them to complete the test. No
feedback was given at this stage.
3.5.2 Study Phase
To begin the study phase, the instructor illustrated the relevance of collocations by means of
the example of how odd it would sound if an English learner of Dutch were to say blaas je
neus (a literal translation of blow your nose) instead of snuit je neus (a correct but not a literal
translation of blow your nose). The instructor also motivated the participants during this
phase by asking if the pupils were interested in finding out how good their memory was.
48
Most students reacted immediately to this question with a great deal of interest. This
stimulation was important, since in the study phase or treatment the three groups of
participants were asked to deliberately study the list of 32 verb-noun collocations and the four
filler items inserted at the top and bottom of the columns on the sheet. Each group was given
different instructions. Group 1 (n=22) will be called the control group in the results section.
They received no particular instruction as to how to channel their engagement with the lexical
phrases to be memorized. Group 2 (n=22) was asked to tick the alliterative phrases during the
study phase. They will be referred to as ‘group allit’. Alliteration was explained by means of
an example and the following definition: Quite a few of the English expressions alliterate -—
the first consonant of two words is the same, as in make a mess. Put a tick (Ѵ) before the
English expressions that show this pattern. Group 3 (n=21) was asked to tick the expressions
in which the English verb was incongruent with the verbs in the Dutch equivalents of the
collocations. This group will be referred to as ‘group incong’. Again, a brief explanation and
example was given: In some of the English expressions, the verb is the same as in the Dutch
counterpart (e.g. give a kiss -— een zoen geven). In other expressions, the verb is different
from the verb used in the Dutch translation (e.g. drive someone crazy -— iemand gek maken)
Put a tick (Ѵ) before the English expressions where the verb is different from the Dutch one.
The pupils were positioned so that they could not see their neighbor’s sheet in order to avoid
questions as to why someone else had a different study sheet. The students were given as
much time as they needed and all three groups handed in their sheets after 15 minutes. During
that time, the instructor circulated to make sure all students had understood the instructions.
In some cases, the instructor had to re-explain the instruction to an individual pupil, but it was
ensured that the other students could not hear what was being said. After the study phase, the
study sheets were collected in.
3.5.3 Immediate post-test
The immediate post-test was administered five minutes after the end of the study phase and
took 15 minutes. The purpose of this test was to verify whether the pupils had successfully
studied the collocations. In the interlude activity, the students were shown a video clip so as
to distract their attention from the collocations and, more importantly, to prevent them from
exchanging information on the different instructions they were given. The items in the
immediate post-test were the same items as those in the pre-test but they were presented in a
49
different order. However, this time the students were required to supply the whole verb +
noun collocations (e.g. Alcohol addiction can ________________________________ on
your health, and can shorten your life by many years.). As the test was administered in the
same classroom session as the study phase, it was made more difficult than the pre-test, to
avoid a ceiling effect. This increased level of difficulty was achieved by asking pupils to
supply both verb and noun. All of the questions asked by the students were with regard to the
vocabulary of the sentences. Students had difficulty understanding some of the vocabulary
used in the sentences. The instructor clarified the meaning of the vocabulary without giving
away the correct collocation.
3.5.4 Delayed post-test
The delayed post-test was administered 10 days later. The test was identical to the pre-test but
items were presented in a different order. Again, students were asked to supply the verb of
the collocation (e.g. The authorities have decided to ______________ new standards for
health and safety at work because the old ones are out of date.). In this case, the test was
made easier than the immediate post-test to avoid a floor effect (i.e. a clustering of scores at
the bottom of the scale). The students were given 15 minutes to complete the test. This was a
sufficient amount of time.
3.6 Results and Discussion
3.6.1 Introduction
Because the experiment comprises several research questions that had to be implemented in
one design as well as two independent variables (alliteration and congruence), the results
section is long and complex. Both a per-participant analysis and a per-response analysis of
the test scores will be presented. The per-participant analysis refers to the analysis of pupils’
obtained scores, whereas the per-response analysis refers to the total number of responses.
These two types of analysis should therefore lead to similar results and one type of analysis
should confirm the other. To answer research question three, the four different collocation
types are compared. Each section will present a short discussion of the reported results.
50
3.6.2 Per-participant analyses
Given the difference in individual collocational knowledge that was evidenced in the pre-test
scores, we will be focusing on gain scores in our analyses. The between-group differences in
pre-test scores are fairly small and not significant (p>.05 for both between-group differences),
indicating that prior knowledge of the target collocations was equal in the three groups.
To answer research question one, the learning gains of the three groups were compared. The
mean scores for the total number of correct responses in the pre-test, immediate post-test and
delayed post-test are summarized in Table 3.
Table 3. Mean scores of correct responses of target collocations
Pre-test
(max 32)
Immediate post-test
(max 32)
Delayed post-test
(max 32)
control group (N 22) 4.23 10.32
(gain: 6.09)
13.77
(gain: 9.54)
group allit (N 22)
4.55 11.50
(gain: 6.95)
15,96
(gain: 11.41)
group incong (N 21)
4.04 8.62
(gain: 4.58)
12
(gain: 8.04)
(Near-)immediate post-test results
The average gain scores per group show that in comparison with the control group and group
incong, group allit obtained the highest gain score (6.95) when recalling the target phrases.
Group incong recalled the smallest number of target phrases, with a gain score of 4.58. This
means that in the immediate post-test, the control group, who had not been given any
instructions, scored better, with a gain score of 6.09, than the group that had been asked to
focus on incongruence. Unfortunately, none of the between-group differences are significant
according to a one-way ANOVA on gain scores (F 1.03; p 0.36).
51
Delayed post-test results
All of the scores in the delayed post-test were slightly higher than the scores in the (near-)
immediate post-test. This is not what one may expect, as the delayed test was administered 10
days after the immediate test. However, these results were due to the fact that the (near-)
immediate post-test was in a different format than the pre-test and the delayed post-test. In
the (near-)immediate post-test, students were required to produce the whole expression; in the
pre-test and the delayed post-test, they were required to provide only the verb. This helps to
explain the slightly better scores on the delayed than the immediate post-test. It also
necessitates focusing on a comparison of pre-test and delayed post-test scores, as these were
in exactly the same format. A comparison between the three groups’ scores for the delayed
post-test shows a similar trend as for the (near-)immediate post-test. With a gain score of
11.41, group allit recalled more target phrases than both the control group and group incong.
The control group was second best, with a gain score of 9.54. Again, group incong had the
lowest gain score (8.04). None of the between-group differences are significant according to
a one-way ANOVA on gain scores (F 1.98; p 0.15).
To test the ‘trade-off’ hypothesis, a two-way ANOVA was run on the gain scores (separating
non-alliterative and alliterative targets), with an interest in the interaction between treatment
and differential gains on the two sets of targets (non-allits vs. allits). For the immediate post-
test, this yields no difference (F 0) in overall gains between the treatment groups, and no
significant interaction between treatment and item set gains (non-allits vs. allits) (F 1.45; p
0.24). For the delayed post-test, this yields the same trends: no difference between the groups
(F 0.44; p 0.65) and no significant interaction between treatment and item set (non-allits vs.
allits) (F 0.95; p 0.35).
Discussion
Although the differences in gain scores fail to obtain significance, both the (near-)immediate
post-test and the delayed post-test show that group allit remembered more target phrases than
group incong and the control group. Also interesting is the finding that the pupils who had
not been given instructions (the control group) scored better in both tests than pupils who had
been asked to tick the incongruent verbs (group incong). These trends can only partially
provide an answer to research question one. Channeling learners’ engagement is effective
when learners are asked to focus on alliteration. Moreover, group incong seems to have
performed worse than the control group, which leads us to question whether it is beneficial to
52
channel learners’ engagement towards the congruent or incongruent form of the collocation
in comparison with the learners’ native language.
3.6.3 Per-response analyses
This part of the results section summarizes the per-response analyses. To conduct a per-
response analysis, we have looked at all unsuccessful pre-test responses per instruction
(Table 4) and whether they led to correct post-test responses (Table 5).
The percentages of unsuccessful responses in Table 4 confirm the earlier finding that the
groups’ pre-existing knowledge of collocations is on a par.
Table 4. Unsuccessful pre-test responses for the 32 target collocations
Unsuccessful
number of
responses
Total
number of
responses
Percentage of
unsuccessful
responses
control group (N22) 601 704 85.37 %
group allit (N22) 599 704 85.08 %
group incong (N21) 577 672 85.86%
Do the treatment groups remember best (control group < group allit/group incong)? If so, is
there a difference between the effectiveness of the two treatments (group allit vs. group
incong)?
Table 5. Gain scores of the immediate post-test and delayed post-test (all target phrases)
Immediate post-test Delayed post-test
control group (N22) 27.29% (164/601) 35.27% (212/601)
group allit (N 22) 30.55% (183/599) 42.74% (256/599)
group incong (N21) 21.32% (123/577) 29.64% (171/577)
53
(Near-)immediate post-test results
The figures in Table 5 show that for the (near-)immediate post-test, group allit scored best,
with 183 correct responses out of a total number of 599 (gain: 30.55%). Group incong
recalled the fewest of the collocations, with 123 correct responses out of 577 (gain: 21.32%),
and the control group recalled 164 out of 601 (27.29%) responses. The two-proportion Z-test
was used in order to determine whether the learning gains of one group of students differed
significantly from the learning gains of another group of students. Although group allit
remembered best, the difference between group allit (30.55%) and the control group
(27.29%) was too small to be significant (Z= -1.25, p = .21). However, the difference
between group incong (21.32%) and the control group (27.29%) was significant (Z =2.39, p
= .02). The difference in gain between group allit (30.55%) and group incong (21.32%) was
also large enough to be significant (Z = 3.61, p = .0003).
Delayed post-test results
With respect to the delayed post-test, we found that the differences in gain between the
groups were all significant. As mentioned before, in the delayed post-test students were
required only to supply the verb, and not the whole collocation, as was required in the
immediate post-test and which was more challenging. Therefore, the scores from the delayed
post-test are better than those from the immediate post-test. Comparing the control group
(35.27%) to group allit (42.74%), we found a significant advantage for group allit (Z = - 2.65,
p = 0.008). Group incong (29.64%) remembered the collocations less well than the control
group (35.27%) (Z = 2.07, p = 0.04). The greatest difference in gain is found between group
allit (42.74%) and group incong (29.64%) (Z = 4.67, p < 0.0001).
Discussion
The results provided by the per-response analysis are in line with the per participant analysis
results. Both analyses show that group incong recalls the fewest of the collocations and group
allit recalls the most of the collocations. The delayed post-test results from the per-response
analysis show that group allit remembers the collocations significantly better than both the
control group and the group incong. This finding allows us to answer both research questions
one and two: channeling learners’ engagement does not always result in bigger learning
gains. Ticking alliteration resulted in greater learning gains than did leaving the learners to
54
their own resources (as was done with the control group), but identifying non-congruent
collocations led to lower vocabulary gains than the condition in which the learners’ attention
was not channeled (the control condition).
To approach research question 3, it is necessary to find out whether the instructions (“no
instruction”, “tick the alliteratives”, “tick the incongruent verbs”) had a differential impact on
the two types of collocations (alliterative and incongruent ones). First, our focus will turn to
who gained the most, specifically on the alliterative target phrases. Next, a comparison will
be made between this better gain and the gain for non-alliterative items for that group. This
comparison will provide an answer to whether the instruction “alliteration” is to the detriment
of the non-alliterative items. In a second phase, the same will be done with respect to
incongruent/congruent items.
Who gains the most, specifically on the alliterative target phrases?
Table 6 provides the results for only the alliterative and non-alliterative target phrases.
Table 6. Gain scores in the immediate and delayed post-tests for the alliterative and non-alliterative
phrases
alliterative phrases non-alliterative phrases
immediate
post-test
delayed
post-test
immediate
post-test
delayed
post-test
control group
(N 22)
22.32%
(73/327)
32.72%
(107/327)
33.21%
(91/274)
38.32%
(105/274)
group allit
(N 22)
26.30%
(86/327)
41.59%
(136/327)
35.66%
(97/272)
44.12%
(120/272)
group incong
(N 21)
17.72%
(56/316)
25.32%
(80/316)
25.67%
(67/261)
34.87%
(91/261)
(Near-)immediate post-test
In the immediate post-test, group allit best remembered the alliterative phrases. However,
there was no significant difference in gain between the control group (22.32%) and group
allit (26.30%) (Z = 1.46, p = .14). We did find a significant difference in gain between the
55
control group (22.32%) and group incong (17.72%) (Z = 2.07, p = .04) and between group
allit (26.30%) and group incong (17.72%) (Z = 2.62, p = .01). This means that alliterative
items were significantly better remembered by the control group and group allit than by
group incong.
Delayed post-test
The results for the delayed post-test are in line with the results for the immediate post-test,
the only difference being that the difference is even more pronounced in the delayed than in
the immediate post-test. Alliterative phrases were remembered best by group allit (41.59%),
as compared with the control group (32.72%) and group incong (25.32%). The differences
were significant in all three of the cases, with the difference between the control group and
group incong being least significant (Z = 2.07, p = .04) and the difference between group allit
and group incong being most significant (Z = 4.37, p < .0001). The difference in gain
between the control group and group allit was found to be significant as well (Z = -2.35, p =
.02)
Does the better gain for alliterative phrases in group allit come at the expense of the non-
alliterative ones?
Let us now verify whether the better gain scores for the alliterative phrases in group allit
come at the expense of the non-alliterative ones. This was done by comparing the gains on
the non-alliterative targets.
(Near-)immediate post-test
In the (near-)immediate post-test, we found a significant difference between group allit
(35.66%) and group incong (25.67%) (Z = 2.50, p = .01). The differences in gain between
the control group (33.21%) and group allit (35.66%), and between the control group
(33.21%) and group incong (25.67%), were not significant (Z = - 60, p = .55 and Z = 1.91, p
= .06 respectively).
Delayed post-test
Results were similar but less pronounced in the delayed post-test. Pupils who ticked
alliterative phrases (44.12%) remembered significantly more non-alliterative phrases than the
pupils who had been asked to tick incongruent verbs (34.87%) (Z= 2.18, p=.03).There was
56
no significant difference between the control group (38.32%) and group allit (44.12%) (Z=-
1.38, p=.17) or between the control group and group allit (34.87%) (Z=0.83, p=.41).
Discussion
First of all, we consider it noteworthy to mention that pupils did the alliteration task very well
and only in a marginal number of instances was the alliteration overlooked. The
aforementioned results show that channeling engagement through alliteration seems to make
the alliterative target phrases more memorable, even if the alliterative phrases used for this
experiment were more frequent, less imageable and therefore harder to recall than the non-
alliterative items. Pupils who had not been made aware of alliteration, as was the case for the
control group and group incong, did not remember the alliteratives better. This means that,
based on this experiment, alliterative phrases are not more memorable if attention has not
been directed to them. Furthermore, the results show that pupils who had been made aware of
alliteration scored higher than the control group and significantly higher than group incong in
the immediate post-test. In the delayed test this difference was confirmed. Therefore, we
think it is safe to say that channeling engagement through alliteration seems to make the
alliterative phrases more memorable. Furthermore, and with respect to research question
three, the figures show that channeling learners’ engagement through alliteration is not at the
detriment of the non-alliterative target phrases. It even looks as though identifying alliterative
phrases bestows some memorability on the non-alliterative ones.
Who gains the most on the non-congruent phrases?
The same analyses needed to be carried out for the congruent and non-congruent collocations.
With respect to gain scores on the non-congruent phrases the analysis of the responses
showed that the original grouping into congruent and non-congruent phrases had to be
modified based on the response behavior by group incong pupils in the identification task.
When the majority of pupils apparently disagreed with our initial categorization (i.e., ticked a
phrase that we thought would be considered as congruent as incongruent, and vice versa), we
re-grouped these. It is the way the learners perceived the target phrases that counts. Table 7
shows the results for the incongruent and congruent target phrases.
57
Table 7. Gains immediate and delayed post-tests vs. pre-test (non-congruent and congruent phrases)
incongruent phrases congruent phrases
immediate
post-test
delayed
post-test
immediate
post-test
delayed
post-test
control group
(N 22)
32.92%
(105/319)
34.95%
(115/329)
21.69%
(59/272)
35.66%
(97/272)
group allit
(N 22)
34.14%
(113/331)
41.40%
(137/331)
26.12%
(70/268)
44.40%
(119/268)
Group incong
(N 21)
23.79%
(74/311)
28.94%
(90/311)
18.42%
(49/266)
30.45%
(81/266)
(Near-)immediate post-test
Table 7 shows that in the (near-)immediate post-test group allit (34.14%) scored best on the
non-congruent phrases and group incong (23.79%) performed the worst. The difference
between the control group (32.92%) and group allit was not significant (Z=-0.33, p = .74).
The differences between the control group and group incong, and between group allit and
group incong, were both significant (Z=2.54, p = 0.011 and Z=2.88, p=.0039 respectively).
Delayed post-test
The results in the delayed post-test were similar to the results in the immediate post-test but
more pronounced. The pupils who ticked the alliterative items (41.40%) recalled more non-
congruent phrases than the pupils from the control group (34.95%) and from group incong
(28.94%). The difference between group allit and group incong was significant (Z=3.30, p
=.001). The differences between the control group and group allit and between the control
group and group incong were not significant (Z=-1.70, p = .09 and Z=1.63, p = .10
respectively).
58
Comparison between gains on non-congruent and congruent items
(Near) immediate post-test
When comparing the gain scores for incongruent phrases with the gain scores for congruent
phrases we found that once again group allit performs best (26.12%) in recalling the non-
congruent phrases. The control group came second with 21.69% and last was group incong
with a gain of 18.42%. In the immediate post-test there was a significant difference in gain
between group allit and group incong (Z=2.11, p = .03), no significant difference between
the control group and group allit or the control group and group incong (Z= -1.21, p =.23 and
Z=0.95, p = .34 respectively).
Delayed post-test
With respect to the delayed post-test we found that once again group allit performs best
(44.40%) in recalling the non-congruent phrases. The control group came second (35.66%)
and last was group incong with a gain of 30.45%. The figures also show significant
differences between group allit and group incong (Z=3.33, p=.0009), and between the control
group and group allit (Z= -2.07, p = .04) but not between the control group and group incong
(Z= 1.28, p = .20).
Discussion
According to our experiment, there is no evidence that non - congruent phrases were made
particularly memorable through the identification task. To the contrary, group incong
performs the worst whereas group allit performs the best. Based on the aforementioned
results, we feel it is safe to say that focus on incongruence in an attention-directing task is not
beneficial to a learner and it is even preferable a learner is left to his own device than to focus
on incongruence. This was shown by the better results of pupils in the control group. The
latter finding is intriguing. Pupils given the condition of incongruence may have found the
task of identifying non-congruent phrases too challenging. The task may have usurped
resources that pupils would otherwise have put to better use. One way employed to determine
whether this was the case was counting the number of times pupils in the incongruence group
used the literal equivalent wrongly. For example, a number of pupils completed the phrase
‘____ the time’ with the verb read instead of the correct tell. The verb read is the literal
translation of the verb used in the Dutch phrase de tijd lezen. The number of such language
interferences was, however, almost equal in all three groups (post-delayed test — control
59
group: 96 times, group allit: 95 times, and group incong: 92 times). This might be an
indication that the task did not in fact take up resources that pupils would otherwise have put
to better use.
The non-congruent items seem to enjoy an advantage in the immediate post-test but this
effect disappears in the delayed post-test, where congruent items were better recalled by all
three groups, including those not asked to focus on incongruence. As mentioned before, the
delayed post-test was the same format as the pre-test. Therefore, we believe that the results of
the delayed post-test are of greater importance than those of the (near-)immediate post-test.
This delayed post-test shows that in this experiment, congruent phrases seem to have been
more memorable than non-congruent phrases, even where no awareness-raising took place.
4 CONCLUSION
The use of MWUs makes an EFL learner’s English more idiomatic and seems to positively
affect an interpreting student’s rendition. Acquisition of MWUs is therefore beneficial to
language learners. However, given the large number of MWUs that a language consists of,
the acquisition of MWUs is not an easy task. This thesis was written with the purpose of
finding out what advice can be given to language learners in order to facilitate retention of
MWUs. Should learners focus on the form of the MWU to enhance retention, or should a
teacher rather make learners aware of differences between the L1 and L2? Is it in some cases
better that language learners are not given any instruction with respect to acquiring MWUs?
More specifically, the aim of this study was to find out whether channeling learners’
engagement when learning MWUs is more fruitful than not channeling their engagement. A
second purpose was to ascertain what kind of channeling is to be preferred: getting learners to
focus on the presence or absence of alliteration in the collocations, which is a strictly formal
feature and can therefore be considered a form of structural elaboration; or getting learners to
distinguish between collocations whose lexical makeup is congruent or incongruent with their
Dutch translations, which we could call a contrastive approach in which semantic rather than
formal features are focused on. A third point of interest was whether either treatment might
perhaps just result in a better recall of collocations displaying the characteristic searched for
(alliteration or incongruence) to the detriment of those that do not.
60
It was found that channeling learners’ engagement is fruitful in the case of directing learners’
attention to alliteration but not in the case of focusing on incongruence. Attention-directing
interventions do not always seem to render items containing the stipulated feature easier to
recall, at least not in the case of incongruence. In comparison to the control group and the
incongruence group, learners who had been made aware of alliteration scored best, not only
on the alliterative lexical phrases but also on the phrases not displaying alliteration. This
contradicts Boers et al.’s (2013b) study, which found that it is especially the positively
discriminated-for items that become mnemonically privileged as a result of the task. This
finding leads us to conclude that where awareness of sound patterns has been unlocked to the
learner, both alliterative and non-alliterative items seem to benefit in their degree of retention.
There is some logic to the finding that pupils start processing the forms of both sets of items
better once their awareness of a potential structural characteristic has been raised. It seems
that the incongruence task does not challenge the learners to the same degree as far as the
contemplation of the word form of the collocations, i.e. the orthographic coding, is
concerned.
Focus on incongruence does not seem to be beneficial to a learner and it is even preferable
that a learner is left to his own devices than to focus on incongruence. However, pupils may
have found the task of ticking incongruent items confusing. Therefore, the task may have
usurped resources that pupils would otherwise have put to better use. One way to find out
whether this was the case was counting the number of times pupils in the incongruence group
used the literal equivalent wrongly. It was found that all three groups displayed an equal
proportion of cross-associations in the responses. However, the far-from-perfect agreement
within the incongruence group about which phrases are and which are not congruent in
Dutch, prompts the desirability of a replication of this experiment. In any such replication,
learners’ responses to the congruence question should be verified and discussed.
With respect to alliteration, there is nothing in the data to allow us to propose an affirmative
answer to the question as to whether alliterative MWUs render phrases more memorable in
the absence of awareness-raising; this is because the control group and the incongruence
group show no superior performance on alliteratives over non-alliteratives. With respect to
incongruence, the data of the immediate post-test suggest that it is the incongruent items that
stand the better chance of being reproduced well. This finding contradicts a study by
Nesselhauf (2003), which found that non-congruent items are harder to recall than congruent
61
items. The reason for this may be that in the near-immediate post-test, pupils were required to
supply both verb and noun. This forced them to consider the meaning of the phrases,
conceivably at the expense of form and congruence vis–à-vis the L1 phrases. Could it be that
in a meaning-oriented task, learners focus more on meaning than on form of the collocations
to be supplied? In delayed post-testing, however, the congruent items were recalled more
often than the incongruent items. In the delayed test, participants only had to supply the verb
and were less obliged to look at the meaning of the whole sentence.
From past research, we know that productive skills are harder to acquire than receptive skills.
Productive skills such as writing and speaking require recollection of form. Recollection of
form is needed to recall a word. Therefore, recollection of form is essential when it comes to
writing and speaking. As regards the productive skills, we suggest teachers turn EFL
learners’ attention to MWUs that display sound patterns and make them aware of that
particular formal feature. This will enhance retention. However, in the same context, teachers
should not ask EFL learners to compare the English and Dutch verbs. This comparison would
come at the expense of time they could otherwise invest in focus on form or on deliberate
learning, both of which have been proven to be more advantageous to a learner than focus on
incongruence.
With respect to interpreting students, a context in which productive skills are very much
required, attention should be turned to the form of MWUs in order to facilitate retention.
Interpreting consists of different processes which all need to happen simultaneously. This
poses a cognitive burden on the interpreter. The proper use of MWUs is said to lower that
burden, as the word groups then need not be analyzed but can be retrieved en bloc. The
interpreting student can turn his or her attention to the processes other than translation that
are required. It can be said that the more MWUs an interpreting student acquires, the more
beneficial it will be. If MWUs displaying sound patterns such as alliteration have proven to
improve retention where awareness has been raised, it may be helpful to interpreting students,
when building a vocabulary, to focus on those MWUs which display sound patterns. They
will remember these more easily and therefore be able to acquire more MWUs, which in turn
may be expected to improve the interpreting performance.
The focus in this thesis was on the English language, and the findings cannot be generalized
to other languages. The type of form which needs attention is not the same in all languages.
English contains a lot of alliteration, whereas French is known for its prevalence of rhyme
62
and assonance We suggest, therefore, that studies similar to the present one be replicated for
other languages.
63
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6 APPENDIX
6.1 Pre-test
Name _________________________
VERB + NOUN EXPRESSIONS
TRY TO FILL IN THE BLANKS WITH ONE VERB EACH.
1. “Instead of wasting your time on computer games, you should choose to
_____________ a sport”, my Dad pleaded, adding that someone my age should be in
better physical condition.
2. After having been an ardent communist for so many years, when he accepted the
managerial post at a multinational company he felt like he was _________________
his soul.
3. After he lost his wife, he got depressed and he started to _______________ solace in
alcohol.
4. Alcohol addiction can _________________a heavy toll on your health, and can
shorten your life by many years.
5. As part of the job application procedure you will need to ______________ a test. It
contains a diversity of questions meant to evaluate your knowledge and reasoning
skills.
6. Because we haven’t heard all the facts, I don’t think it’s wise to ________________
conclusions yet.
7. David probably thinks his feelings for Jennifer are a well-hidden secret, but he doesn’t
realise that the way he looks at her _________________ volumes.
8. Despite the long distance, Robin Hood managed to ______________ the target with
his last arrow and win the prize.
9. Few people believed Peggy had the right qualities to _____________ a business, but
she proved them wrong. She’s now head of one of the most profitable firms in the
country.
10. For five years, Nazi Germany _____________ war on its neighbours.
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11. For several minutes nobody said anything, but then Bill decided to _______________
the silence and inquired if anyone had been to the movies lately.
12. Her daughter is barely four years old but she can already _______________ the time,
even when a clock is up-side-down!
13. I know it’s been hard work, but you’ll soon ______________ the rewards of all the
efforts you’ve made.
14. I know you must feel disappointed by yet another rejection letter. But don’t
_______________ heart; I’m sure you’ll get a good offer soon.
15. I told Bill to move the barbecue away from the garden hedge. I was afraid it would
_______________ fire, since that kind of tree burns very easily.
16. I’ll have to work late tonight if I want to _______________the deadline for the
assignment.
17. If you ______________ lies all the time, no-one will believe you when you’re truthful
for a change.
18. If you go out with Sarah, you’ll ______________ the risk of losing Jenny’s friendship
because Sarah is her worst enemy.
19. It took a long time for Darwin’s theory of evolution to ______________ ground
because many people objected to the idea that apes and men could share the same
ancestry.
20. James was arrested for drunk driving but his dad managed to ________________
strings and have the charges dropped. His dad must be a very influential man.
21. Jerry wanted to sell his CD collection, and so he told his friends to _______________
the word and make sure as many people as possible would know about it. It wasn’t
long before his room was crowded with people making their choice.
22. Many action movies follow the typical story-line: the hero’s loved ones are killed or
badly hurt by the bad guys, but he will ______________ revenge on them.
23. Mrs Hamilton opened the meeting by cracking a couple of jokes. That ____________
the tone for the whole of the meeting, which was relaxed and friendly.
24. My parents always _________________fault with the friends I go out with. I’m
beginning to believe they don’t want me to go out at all.
25. Sherlock Holmes was the only one who could _______________ the case. No other
detective could find clues like he could.
26. Sweatshop bosses pay their workers low wages for long hours, and they
____________ corners on health and safety, too.
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27. The authorities have decided to ______________ new standards for health and safety
at work because the old ones are out of date.
28. The court expects complete honesty, so please swear to _____________ the truth and
nothing but the truth.
29. The new Italian government is determined to ______________ the tide on fraud and
corruption, which has been a major problem for many years.
30. The nurse asked me to _______________ my breath while the X-ray of my chest was
taken.
31. They think they’ve got a great idea for a new business. They hope to _____________
a fortune in just a few years, retire, and lead a life of luxury forever after.
32. When he was first elected mayor he believed he was going to be able to
______________ mountains and make life better for everyone in the city. He soon
realised there were limits to what he could achieve.
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6.2 List of expressions for study phase
make a presentation (een spreekbeurt
geven)
take revenge (on) (wraak nemen)
gain ground (veld winnen)
take a toll (een tol eisen)
spread the word (een gerucht verspreiden)
find fault (with) (op een fout wijzen)
seek solace (troost zoeken)
make a fortune (fortuin maken)
crack the case (de oplossing vinden)
hold your breath (je adem inhouden)
tell a lie (een leugen vertellen)
sell your soul (je ziel verkopen)
wage war (oorlog voeren)
turn the tide (het tij keren)
lose heart (de moed verliezen)
take a test (een test afleggen)
set the tone (for) (de toon aangeven)
cause a commotion (commotie
veroorzaken)
face the facts (de feiten onder ogen zien)
catch fire (vuur vatten)
cut corners (het niet zo nauw nemen)
tell the time (de tijd lezen)
play a sport (een sport doen)
draw conclusions (conclusies trekken)
set a standard (een norm stellen)
run a business (een zaak beheren)
pull strings (invloed aanwenden)
break the silence (de stilte breken)
tell the truth (de waarheid zeggen)
speak volumes (boekdelen spreken)
reap the reward (vruchten plukken)
hit the target (doel treffen)
run a risk (een risico lopen)
meet a deadline (een deadline halen)
move mountains (bergen verzetten)
launch a campaign (een campagne
lanceren)
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6.3 (Near) immediate post-test
Name _________________________
TRY TO FILL IN THE BLANKS WITH A VERB + NOUN EXPRESSION.
REMEMBER THE LIST OF SUCH EXPRESSIONS YOU STUDIED PREVIOUSLY.
1. Alcohol addiction can ________________________________on your health, and can
shorten your life by many years.
2. My parents always _________________________________ with the friends I go out
with. I’m beginning to believe they don’t want me to go out at all.
3. I’ll have to work late tonight if I want to __________________________________
for the assignment.
4. Mrs Hamilton opened the meeting by cracking a couple of jokes. That __________
____________________________ for the whole of the meeting, which was relaxed
and friendly.
5. I told Bill to move the barbecue away from the garden hedge. I was afraid it would
__________________________________, since that kind of tree burns very easily.
6. If you go out with Sarah, you’ll ______________________________________ of
losing Jenny’s friendship because Sarah is her worst enemy.
7. Jerry wanted to sell his CD collection and so he told his friends to ______________
_______________ and make sure as many people as possible would know about it. It
wasn’t long before his room was crowded with people making their choice.
8. I know it’s been hard work, but you’ll soon __________________________
___________________ of all the efforts you’ve made.
9. For five years, Nazi Germany _____________________________________ on its
neighbours.
10. Sweatshop bosses pay their workers low wages for long hours, and they __________
________________________ on health and safety, too.
11. The new Italian government is determined to ________________________________
on fraud and corruption, which has been a major problem for many years.
77
12. Her daughter is barely four years old but she can already ______________________
__________________ ,even when a clock is up-side-down!
13. It took a long time for Darwin’s theory of evolution to ___________________
______________________ because many people objected to the idea that apes and
men could share the same ancestry.
14. Few people believed Peggy had the right qualities to ______________________
________________________, but she proved them wrong. She’s now head of one of
the most profitable firms in the country.
15. When he was first elected mayor he believed he was going to be able to
_________________________________________________ and make life better for
everyone in the city. He soon realised there were limits to what he could achieve.
16. David probably thinks his feelings for Jennifer are a well-hidden secret, but he doesn’t
realise that the way he looks at her _________________________________.
17. I know you must feel disappointed by yet another rejection letter. But don’t
______________________________________; I’m sure you’ll get a good offer soon.
18. James was arrested for drunk driving but his dad managed to _________________
_______________________ and have the charges dropped. His dad must be a very
influential man.
19. After he lost his wife, he got depressed and he started to _______________
____________________ in alcohol.
20. After having been an ardent communist for so many years, when he accepted the
managerial post at a multinational company he felt like he was ______________
_____________________________.
21. The court expects complete honesty, so please swear to ____________________
_____________________ and nothing but the truth.
22. Sherlock Holmes was the only one who could _______________________________.
No other detective could find clues like he could.
23. For several minutes nobody said anything, but then Bill decided to _______________
_________________________________ and inquired if anyone had been to the
movies lately.
24. The authorities have decided to __________________________________________
for health and safety at work because the old ones are out of date.
78
25. As part of the job application procedure you will need to _____________________
___________________. It contains a diversity of questions meant to evaluate your
knowledge and reasoning skills.
26. If you ________________________________________all the time, no-one will
believe you when you’re truthful for a change.
27. Because we haven’t heard all the facts, I don’t think it’s wise to ____________
_______________________________ yet.
28. They think they’ve got a great idea for a new business. They hope to ____________
__________________________ in just a few years, retire, and lead a life of luxury
forever after.
29. “Instead of wasting your time on computer games, you should choose to
__________________________________________”, my Dad pleaded, adding that
someone my age should be in better physical condition.
30. Many action movies follow the typical story-line: the hero’s loved ones are killed or
badly hurt by the bad guys, but he will ___________________________________ on
them.
31. Despite the long distance, Robin Hood managed to __________________________
__________________ with his last arrow and win the prize.
32. The nurse asked me to __________________________________ while the X-ray of
my chest was taken.
79
6.4 Delayed post-test
Name _________________________
VERB + NOUN EXPRESSIONS
TRY TO FILL IN THE BLANKS WITH ONE VERB EACH.
REMEMBER THE LIST OF SUCH EXPRESSIONS YOU STUDIED PREVIOUSLY.
1. When he was first elected mayor he believed he was going to be able to
______________ mountains and make life better for everyone in the city. He soon
realised there were limits to what he could achieve.
2. They think they’ve got a great idea for a new business. They hope to _____________
a fortune in just a few years, retire, and lead a life of luxury forever after.
3. The nurse asked me to _______________ my breath while the X-ray of my chest was
taken.
4. The new Italian government is determined to ______________ the tide on fraud and
corruption, which has been a major problem for many years.
5. The court expects complete honesty, so please swear to _____________ the truth and
nothing but the truth.
6. The authorities have decided to ______________ new standards for health and safety
at work because the old ones are out of date.
7. Sweatshop bosses pay their workers low wages for long hours, and they
____________ corners on health and safety, too.
8. Sherlock Holmes was the only one who could _______________ the case. No other
detective could find clues like he could.
9. My parents always _________________fault with the friends I go out with. I’m
beginning to believe they don’t want me to go out at all.
10. Mrs Hamilton opened the meeting by cracking a couple of jokes. That ____________
the tone for the whole of the meeting, which was relaxed and friendly.
11. Many action movies follow the typical story-line: the hero’s loved ones are killed or
badly hurt by the bad guys, but he will ______________ revenge on them.
80
12. Jerry wanted to sell his CD collection, and so he told his friends to _______________
the word and make sure as many people as possible would know about it. It wasn’t
long before his room was crowded with people making their choice.
13. James was arrested for drunk driving but his dad managed to ________________
some strings and have the charges dropped. His dad must be a very influential man.
14. It took a long time for Darwin’s theory of evolution to ______________ ground
because many people objected to the idea that apes and men could share the same
ancestry.
15. If you go out with Sarah, you’ll ______________ the risk of losing Jenny’s friendship
because Sarah is her worst enemy.
16. If you ______________ lies all the time, no-one will believe you when you’re truthful
for a change.
17. I’ll have to work late tonight if I want to _______________the deadline for the
assignment.
18. I told Bill to move the barbecue away from the garden hedge. I was afraid it would
_______________ fire, since that kind of tree burns very easily.
19. I know you must feel disappointed by yet another rejection letter. But don’t
_______________ heart; I’m sure you’ll get a good offer soon.
20. I know it’s been hard work, but you’ll soon ______________ the rewards of all the
efforts you’ve made.
21. Her daughter is barely four years old but she can already _______________ the time,
even when a clock is up-side-down!
22. For several minutes nobody said anything, but then Bill decided to _______________
the silence and inquired if anyone had been to the movies lately.
23. For five years, Nazi Germany _____________ war on its neighbours.
24. Few people believed Peggy had the right qualities to _____________ a business, but
she proved them wrong. She’s now head of one of the most profitable firms in the
country.
25. Despite the long distance, Robin Hood managed to ______________ the target with
his last arrow and win the prize.
26. David probably thinks his feelings for Jennifer are a well-hidden secret, but he doesn’t
realise that the way he looks at her _________________ volumes.
27. Because we haven’t heard all the facts, I don’t think it’s wise to ________________
conclusions yet.
81
28. As part of the job application procedure you will need to ______________ a test. It
contains a diversity of questions meant to evaluate your knowledge and reasoning
skills.
29. Alcohol addiction can _________________a heavy toll on your health, and can
shorten your life by many years.
30. After he lost his wife, he got depressed and he started to _______________ solace in
alcohol.
31. After having been an ardent communist for so many years, when he accepted the
managerial post at a multinational company he felt like he was _________________
his soul.
32. “Instead of wasting your time on computer games, you should choose to
_____________ a sport”, my Dad pleaded, adding that someone my age should be in
better physical condition.
82
6.5 Questionnaire Concreteness – Imageability rating
NAME: __________________________________ AGE: ________
In these collocations, how imageable (inbeeldbaar) are the words in bold type? Please give a
separate rating for each collocation in bold type on a scale of 1 (difficult to form an image) to
9 (easy to form an image). (No half scores, please).
Hoe goed kan je je de volgende vetgedrukte collocaties inbeelden? Bvb : kan je je bij ‘to make a presentation’
heel moeilijk (1) of heel gemakkelijk (9) een persoon inbeelden die een presentatie geeft? Duid dat aan op een
schaal van 1 tot 9. (Geen halfjes graag).
take revenge (on) (wraak nemen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
gain ground (veld winnen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
take a toll (een tol eisen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
spread the word (een gerucht verspreiden)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
find fault (with) (op een fout wijzen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
seek solace (troost zoeken)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
make a fortune (fortuin maken)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
crack the case (de oplossing vinden)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
hold your breath (je adem inhouden)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
tell a lie (een leugen vertellen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
sell your soul (je ziel verkopen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
wage war (oorlog voeren)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
turn the tide (het tij keren)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lose heart (de moed verliezen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
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take a test (een test afleggen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
set the tone (for) (de toon aangeven)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
catch fire (vuur vatten)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
cut corners (het niet zo nauw nemen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
tell the time (de tijd lezen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
play a sport (een sport doen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
draw conclusions (conclusies trekken)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
set a standard (een norm stellen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
run a business (een zaak beheren)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
pull strings (invloed aanwenden)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
break the silence (de stilte breken)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
tell the truth (de waarheid zeggen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
speak volumes (boekdelen spreken)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
reap the reward (vruchten plukken)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
hit the target (doel treffen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
run a risk (een risico lopen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
meet a deadline (een deadline halen)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
move mountains (bergen verzetten)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
84
