Chapter 1 the study of collocations

2.4.3  The Acquisition of Lexical Phrases 
 
 
The studies considered so far dealt with the acquisition of individual 
words.  Other studies have also dealt with the acquisition of combinations of 
two or more words. 
 
The investigation of the early acquisition and use of prefabricated 
patterns such as "can you", "where is", "how to" and others, revealed that in the 
initial stages of L2 acquisition learners learn to use multiword phrases as if they 
are individual lexical items (Hakuta 1974).  Hakuta poses the question of 
whether this rote memorisation of prefabricated patterns accelerates or 
decelerates language development.  Peters for one believes that 'chunks' play 
an important role in L1 acquisition (Peters 1983). 
 
Krashen and Scarcella (1978) have also identified the memorisation of 
syntactic patterns, i.e. prefabricated routines, as part of the early stages of L2 
acquisition.  However they conclude that, when more learning has taken place, 
"language development proceeds analytically, in the 'one word at a time' 
fashion" (Krashen & Scarcella 1978:297).  Krashen and Scarcella conclude that 
 
191

---

prefabricated routines and patterns are useful for establishing social relations 
and also for encouraging intake of target language.  However, this intake is 
insufficient for successful language acquisition and thus the teaching of 
routines and patterns should be minor (Krashen & Scarcella 1978:298).  Even 
though Krashen and Scarcella provide an answer (negative) to Hakuta's 
question, their conclusions are speculative since they have not been based on 
empirical evidence. 
 
Counter to Krashen and Scarcella's view of the usefulness of 
prefabricated routines, Nattinger and DeCarrico (1992) have argued that 
unanalysed chunks of language play an integral part in acquiring and using 
language.  Nattinger and DeCarrico identified the structural and functional 
properties of lexical phrases (e.g. 'I'm sorry to hear that X' (expressing 
sympathy), 'by the way' (topic shift), 'Could/Would you X ?' (request) 
(DeCarrico & Nattinger, 1993)), and suggested ways for utilising lexical phrases 
in language teaching.  Nattinger and DeCarrico's lexical approach to language 
learning draws attention to the systematic utilisation of lexical phrases in 
language teaching, however, there is still little empirical evidence on the way 
these 'lexico-grammatical units' are actually acquired by L2 learners; 
furthermore their approach is limited - for the purposes of this study - by being 
focused on the linguistic analysis of native adult language use (Weinert 1995). 
 
Pienemann et al. (1988) also underscore the importance of lexical 
phrases.  The use of formulae in the oral production of English L2 learners was 
classified as Stage 1 structure, i.e. low in processing complexity, and the 
 
192

---

formulae were used as indicators of linguistic development by Pienemann et al. 
(1988).  However, these 'formulae' were left unexplained and the individuals 
employed as 'assessors' of linguistic development had considerable difficulties 
in identifying when a formula was used or not.  It is possible that using an 
umbrella term, i.e. 'formulae', to refer to word combinations memorised as 
chunks, could create problems when this is used as an indicator of linguistic 
development as different formulae can exhibit different levels of complexity 
depending on factors such as the length of the collocational string, the 
frequency of the lexical items in the formula, the formality of the formula, etc.  
Thus, more refinement is needed in the description of formulae if it is going to 
be used as an indicator of linguistic development. 
 
The above studies suggest that the acquisition of formulae/lexical 
phrases is characteristic of the initial stages of L2 acquisition, and that their 
utilisation for language teaching would be of benefit to the learner.  However, 
their conclusions and suggestions are not based on empirical evidence, while 
the use of the term 'formula' or 'lexical phrase' to describe any combination of 
words that could be memorised as a whole is inappropriate and vague for a 
detailed investigation and description of the acquisition process of such word 
combinations.  Still, we need to know much more about the role of formulaic 
language in classroom L2 development (Weinert 1995).