Chapter 1 the study of collocations

CHAPTER 2 
 
SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND THE DEVELOPMENT 
 OF COLLOCATIONAL KNOWLEDGE 
 
2.0  Introduction 
 
 
In the 1970's, research in L1 acquisition provided evidence of 
developmental patterns and stages that characterise child language acquisition 
(see Brown 1973).  Along similar lines, studies in L2 acquisition investigated 
how a L2 is acquired and whether it follows a similar developmental route.  
Theories of L2 acquisition were formulated, deductively or inductively, and 
research in the L2 classroom flourished.  Longitudinal and cross-sectional 
studies were conducted (for a critique see Miesel, Clahsen & Pienemann 1981; 
Rosansky 1976) and the data were analysed to reveal "developmental 
sequences" of L2 acquisition.  These sequences were then compared to L1 
developmental sequences and found to be either similar (Ravem 1968, 1970, 
1974; Dato 1970; Milon 1974; Gillis & Weber 1976) or different (Wode 1976). 
 
Among the studies investigating L2 development there is great variation 
in the way language "development" is operationalised.  Some studies describe 
the various "stages" that the learner's interlanguage goes through before a 
particular language structure is considered to be acquired, e.g. the five stages of 
 
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the acquisition of word order in German (Meisel et al. 1981).  Such stages form 
a "developmental sequence" that all learners seem to traverse regardless of their 
native language or the learning context.  Other studies describe "acquisition 
orders" for certain language components, e.g. it has been shown that the 
acquisition of a number of English morphemes follows such a predetermined 
acquisition order (see Krashen 1977).  Such orders have also been referred to as 
"accuracy orders" because the criterion for a certain item to enter an order is its 
accurate use by the L2 learner.  Morpheme acquisition orders also support the 
existence of developmental sequences in L2 acquisition.  The most commonly 
researched aspects of language for developmental sequences were the areas of 
morphology (Dulay & Burt 1973, 1974; Bailey, Madden & Krashen 1974; Larsen-
Freeman 1975; Krashen, Sfelazza, Feldman & Fathman 1976; Mace-Matluck 
1977; Fuller 1978; Fathman 1978; Makino, 1979; Lightbown 1983), word-order 
and syntax (Huang 1970; Butterworth 1972; Ravem 1974; Wagner-Gough 1975; 
Adams 1978; Cazden, Cancino, Rosansky & Schumann 1975; Gillis & Weber 
1976; Meisel et al. 1981; Pienemann, Johnston & Brindley 1988). 
 
This chapter reviews studies on developmental sequences pertaining to 
different aspects of L2 acquisition and highlights the motivation for the present 
study, i.e. the investigation of evidence of development in the acquisition of 
English collocations.