Abstract
One of the things that distinguishes native speakers and highly proficient language learners from less proficient language learners is their mastery of a large stock of semi-fixed lexical phrases, also known as ‘chunks’ (Pawley and Syder, 1983). It is well known that even advanced learners who have learned a great many words and ‘grammar rules’ nevertheless often fail to combine words the way native speakers do. For example, a learner may ‘know’ the words full, total and functional, and know the grammar rule that adjectives can usually be turned into adverbs by adding the suffix -ly, but still may not realize that fully functional, in the sense of ‘in optimal working order’, is much more idiomatic (that is, native-like) than totally functional This learner may also know that naked and nude are closely synonymous but not realize that stark naked is idiomatic whereas stark nude is not.2 Given the fact that most English words have synonyms, the chances of learners producing non-idiomatic word combinations are statistically quite considerable. Thus, the common learner strategy of transferring word partnerships from L1 to L2 is hardly reliable since combinations that are idiomatic in one language often sound awkward when translated word-for-word into another, even when both languages are closely related. For example, due to L1 interference Dutch-speaking learners of English may say *do an effort (instead of make an effort), *with other words (instead of in other words) and *take someone by the nose (instead of lead someone by the nose).
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© 2009 Frank Boers and Seth Lindstromberg
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Boers, F., Lindstromberg, S. (2009). Introduction. In: Optimizing a Lexical Approach to Instructed Second Language Acquisition. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245006_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230245006_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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