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ITL - International Journal of Applied Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Towards a graded lexical inventory of multi-word combinations

The distribution of collocations across Spanish CEFR levels

ORCID logo | Universitat de Barcelona
| Universitat de Barcelona
| Universitat de les Illes Balears

Collocations have become increasingly important in our understanding of foreign language learning. When it comes to setting vocabulary learning goals, concerns about how to address collocations still arise today. This article explores the distribution of collocations in L1 and L2 Spanish production with the ultimate goal of informing the design of graded lexical inventories of multi-word combinations. To do so, we explore three defining properties of collocations in L1 and L2 production data, and across different levels of L2 proficiency: syntactic structure, semantic transparency, and the strength of association. Results indicate that there is an increase of collocational density and diversity, but that isolated features of collocations fail to predict L2 proficiency. Findings suggest the need to evaluate collocation use at a high level of granularity.

Keywords: graded collocations, Spanish as a foreign language, productive vocabulary by CEFR-levels
Article outline
  • On the notion of collocation
  • The Study
  • Method
    • Data
    • Identification of collocations
      • TIPUS: Test for the Identification of Phraseological Units
    • Defining collocational features: Syntactic structure, semantic transparency, and strength of association
    • Data analysis
  • Results
    • On the specific nature of collocations in L1 and L2 Spanish
      • Syntactic structures of collocations in L1 and L2
      • Semantic transparency of collocations in L1 and L2
      • Strength of collocations in L1 and L2
    • Additional insights on L2 Spanish preferred collocations across proficiency levels
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 26 February 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/itl.22021.cub
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