Investigation of collocational priming in tertiary level Turkish EFL learners’ mental lexicon

Year 2022, Volume: 8 Issue: 1, 1 - 21, 28.04.2022

Ahmet Aktürk , Ali Şükrü Özbay , Hakan Cangır

https://doi.org/10.31464/jlere.934690

Cited By: 1

Abstract

Much research in EFL context investigated language use of the learners in terms of lexical combinations but failed to recognize collocations in terms of psycholinguistic framework. Inspired by Lexical Priming Theory, the current study both emphasizes that collocations are not only textual but also psychological phenomena and underlines that non-native-like language use by EFL learners may stem from the fact that collocations are not mentally represented as a single unit in mental lexicon. Thus, a lexical decision task was designed where the participants were asked to classify the words flashing on their screens as words/ non-words. Reaction times concluded that verb-noun collocations are not primed in the learners’ mental lexicon. Mixed effects modelling analysis demonstrated the frequency of the prime words in collocations had a significant effect in the process. The findings were discussed in the light of vocabulary acquisition theories, and suggestions were provided for further research.

Keywords

collocational priming, lexical priming, psycholinguistics, lexical decision task, verb-noun collocations

References

• Ackermann, K. & Chen, Y. H. (2013). “Developing the Academic Collocation List (ACL) – A Corpus-Driven and Expert-Judged Approach”, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 12 (4), 235 – 247.
• Alshahrani, M. A. (2016). The level of anxiety on the achievement of the Saudi EFL learners. Arab World English Journal, 7(3), 65-76. doi: 10.24093/awej/vol7no3.5
• Atay, D. & Kurt, G. (2006). Prospective teachers and L2 writing anxiety. Asian EFL Journal, 8(4), 100-118.
• Aydın, B. (1999). A study of the sources of foreign language classroom anxiety in speaking and writing classes. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey.
• Ballester, E. P. (2015). Verbal and nonverbal teacher immediacy and foreign language anxiety in an EFL university course. Porta Linguarum, 23, 9-24.
• Benson, M., Benson, E., & Ilson, R. (2009). The BBI combinatory dictionary of English: your guide to collocations and grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Bıçkı, A. (2012). Acquisition of English Collocations by Adult Turkish L2 Learners, [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Çukurova University, Adana, Turkey.
• Cambridge University Press (2010). English Unlimited Placement Test. Cambridge University Press.
• Çam, E. & Karatepe, Ç. (2020, November 24-26). A qualitative study on Metacognitive Knowledge of Turkish EFL Students about writing [Conference Presentation]. IVth International Conference on Research in Applied Linguistics 2020, Bursa, Turkey.
• Cangır, H., & Kantarcıoğlu, N. (2017). Investigating Collocational Priming in Turkish, Journal of Language and Linguistic Studies, (2), 465-486.
• Cangır, H. (2018). Investigating the Relationship Between L1 and L2 Collocational Processing in the Bilingual Mental Lexicon. [Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation]. Hacettepe University, Graduate School of Social Sciences.
• Council of Europe. (2001). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge, U.K: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge.
• Cunnings, I. (2012). An Overview of Mixed Effects Statistical Models for Second Language Researchers. Second Language Research, 28 (3), 369-382.
• De Groot, A., & Nas, G. (1991). Lexical Representation of Cognates and Non-Cognates in Compound Bilinguals. Journal of Memory and Language, 30, 90 – 123.
• Durrant, P. & Schmitt, N. (2009). To what extent do native and non-native writers make use of collocations? International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 47 (2), 157-177.
• Ellis, N. (2003). Constructions, Chunking, and Connectionism: The Emergence of Second Language Structure. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.). The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 63-103). Oxford: Blackwell.
• Ekmekçi, E. (2018). Exploring Turkish EFL Students’ Writing Anxiety. The Reading Matrix: An International Online Journal. 18 (1) 158-175.
• English Vocabulary Profile (2012). About the English Vocabulary Profile, Retrieved December 14, 2020 from http://vocabulary.englishprofile.org/staticfiles/about.html
• Fernandez, B. & Schmitt, N. (2015). How much collocation knowledge do L2 learners have? The effects of frequency and amount of exposure. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 166 (1), 94-126.
• Frenck-Mestre, C. & Prince, P. (1997). Second Language Autonomy. Journal of Memory and Language, 37 (4), 487 -501.
• Gass, S. & Selinker, L, (1994). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey.
• Hoey, M. (2005). Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language. London: Routledge.
• Jaworska, S., Krummes, C. & Ensslin, A. (2015). Formulaic Sequences in Native and Non-Native Argumentative Writing in German. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 20 (4), 500-525.
• Jiang, N. (2012) Conducting Reaction Time Research in Second Language Studies. New York, NY: Routledge.
• Kara, S. (2013). Writing anxiety: A case study on students’ reasons for anxiety in writing classes. Anadolu Journal of Educational Sciences International, 3(1), 103-111.
• Kırmızı, Ö. & Karcı, B. (2017). An Investigation of Turkish Higher Education EFL Learners’ Linguistic and Lexical Errors. Educational Process: International Journal, 6(4), 35-54. Kırmızı, Ö., & Kırmızı, G. D. (2015). An investigation of L2 learners’ writing self-efficacy, writing anxiety and its causes at higher education in Turkey. International Journal of Higher Education, 4(2), 57-66. doi:10.5430/ijhe.v4n2p57
• Kjellmer, G. (1991). A Mint of Phrases. In K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (Eds.), English Corpus Linguistics (pp. 111-127). New York, NY: Roudledge.
• Lucas, M. (2000). Semantic Priming Without Association: A Meta-Analytic Review. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 7 (4), 618- 630.
• Miller, G. (1956). The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on Our Capacity for Processing Information. Psychological Review, 101 (2), 343-352.
• Nesselhauf, N. (2003). The Use of Collocations by Advanced Learners of English and Some Implications for Teaching. Applied Linguistics, 24, 223-242.
• Nesselhauf, N. (2005). Collocations in A Learner Corpus. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
• Özen, E, Alpaslan B. İ., Çağlı, A., Özdoğan, İ., Sancak, M., Dizman, A. O., & Sökmen, A. (2013). Turkey National Needs Assessment of State School English Language Teaching, Mattek Matbaacılık, Ankara
• Pawley, A. & Syder, F. (1983). Two Puzzles for Linguistic Theory: Nativelike Selection and Nativelike Fluency. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt (Eds.). Language and Communication (pp. 191- 226), New York, NY: Routledge.
• Schmitt, N. (2008), “Review Article: Instructed Second Language Vocabulary Learning”, Language Teaching Research, 12 (3), 329 – 363.
• Sinclair, J. (1991). Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Wolter, B. & Gyllstad, H. (2011). Collocational Links in the L2 Mental Lexicon and the Influence of L1 Intralexical Knowledge. Applied Linguistics, 32 (4), 430-449.
• Wolter, B. & Gyllstad, H. (2013). Frequency of Input and L2 Collocational Processing. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 35, 451-482.
• Wolter, B. & Yamashita, J. (2014). Processing Collocations in a Second Language: A Case of First Language Activation. Applied Psycholinguistics, 36 (5), 1-29.
• Wray, A. (2002). Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Yalçın, I. (2010). Turkish speaking first year and third year ELT students’ syntactic errors in their argumentative essays. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation], Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Turkey.
• Yamashita, J. & Jiang, N. (2010). L1 Influence on the Acquisition L2 Collocations: Japanese ESL Users and EFL Learners Acquiring English Collocations. TESOL Quarterly, 44 (4), 647- 668.
• Ying, Y. & O’Neill, M. (2009). Collocation Learning through an ‘AWARE’ Approach: Learner Perspectives and Learning Process. In A. Barfield & H. Gyllstad (Eds.), Researching Collocations in Another Language (pp. 181-193). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.