Article published in:
Spanish Learner Corpus Research: Current trends and future perspectives
Edited by Margarita Alonso-Ramos
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 78] 2016
► pp. 299–331

A corpus study of Spanish as a foreign language learners’ collocation production

| University of A Coruna
| University of Coruña
| University of Coruña
| University Universidade da Coruña
We carried out a learner corpus study with the aim of exploring Spanish as a Foreign Language learners’ collocation production. The study involved the manual annotation of collocations in a portion of the CEDEL2 corpus using a typology specific to learner collocation errors. The quantitative comparison of learners’ and native Spanish speakers’ collocation production showed that although the two groups use a similar number of collocations, learners have a smaller repertoire and they overuse frequent combinations with less variability regarding the choice of the collocate. An analysis of learner errors revealed that most lexical collocation errors affect the collocate, the element whose selection is restricted, and that most errors result from L1 transfer.
Keywords: collocations, learner corpus, Spanish as a Foreign Language, lexical errors
Published online: 16 December 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.78.11vin
References

References

Alonso-Ramos, M., Wanner, L., Vázquez Veiga, N., Vincze, O., Mosqueira Suárez, E. & Prieto González, S.
2010a Tagging collocations for learners. In Elexicography in the 21st Century: New Challenges, New Applications. Proceedings of eLex 2009 [Cahiers du Cental 7], Sylviane Granger & Magali Paquot (eds), 375–380. Louvain-la Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Alonso-Ramos, M., Wanner, L., Vincze, O., Casamayor, G., Vázquez Veiga, N., Mosqueira Suárez, E. & Prieto González, S.
2010b Towards a motivated annotation schema of collocation errors in learner corpora. In Proceedings of the Seventh Conference on International Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC’10), 19–21 May 2010, Valletta, Malta, N. Calzolari, K. Choukri, B. Maegaard, J. Mariani, J. Odjik, S. Piperidis, M. Rosner & D. Tapias (eds), 3209–3214. Paris: European Language Resources Association (ELRA).Google Scholar
Altenberg, B. & Granger, S.
2001 The grammatical and lexical patterning of make in native and non-native student writing. Applied Linguistics 22(2): 173–194. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bahns, J. & Eldaw, M.
1993 Should we teach EFL students collocations? System 21(1): 101–114. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biber, D.
1993 Representativeness in Corpus Design. Literary and Linguistic Computing 8(4): 243–257. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Biskup, D.
1992 L1 influence on learners’ renderings of English collocations. A Polish/German empirical study. In Vocabulary and Applied Linguistics, P.J.L. Arraud & H. Bejoint (eds), 85–93. London: Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Bonk, W.J.
2001 Testing ESL learners’ knowledge of collocations. In A Focus on Language Test Development: Expanding the Language Proficiency Construct across a Variety of Tests, T. Hudson & J.D. Brown (eds), 113–142. Honolulu HI: Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center, University of Hawaii at Mānoa.Google Scholar
Buckingham, L.
2008 Spanish verb support constructions from a learner perspective. ELIA: Estudios de Lingüística Inglesa Aplicada 8: 151–179.Google Scholar
Durrant, P.
2009 Investigating the viability of a collocation list for students of English for academic purposes. English for Specific Purposes 28(3): 157–169. Crossref.Google Scholar
2008 High Frequency Collocations and Second Language Learning. PhD dissertation, University of Nottingham.Google Scholar
Ellis, R. & Barkhuizen, G.
2005 Analyzing Learner Language. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Farghal, M. & Obiedat, H.
1995 Collocations: A neglected variable in EFL. International Review of Applied Linguistics 33(4): 315–331. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Ferrando Aramo, V.
2009 Materiales didácticos para la enseñanza-aprendizaje de las colocaciones: Análisis y propuestas. MA thesis, Universidad Rovira i Virgili.Google Scholar
García-Salido, M.
2014 O uso de construcións con verbos soporte en aprendices de español como lingua estranxeira e en falantes nativos. Cadernos de Fraseoloxía Galega 16: 181–198.Google Scholar
2016 Error analysis of support verb constructions in written Spanish learner corpora. The Modern Language Journal 100(1): 362–376Google Scholar
Granger, S.
1998 Prefabricated patterns in advanced EFL writing: Collocations and formulae. In Phraseology: Theory, Analysis and Applications, Cowie, A.P. (ed), 145–160. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Gyllstad, H.
2007 Testing English Collocations: Developing Receptive Tests for Use with Advanced Swedish Learners. PhD dissertation, Lund University.Google Scholar
Hausmann, F.J.
1979 Un dictionnaire des collocations est-il possible? Travaux de Linguistique et de Littérature 17(1): 187–95.Google Scholar
1985 Kollokationen im Deutschen Wörterbuch: Ein Beitrag zur Teorie des Lexicographishen Beispiels. In Lexicographie und Grammatik [Lexicographica. Series Maior 3], Henning Bergenholtz & Joachim Mugdon (eds), 118–29. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
1989 Le dictionnaire de collocations. In Wörterbücher, Dictionaries, Dictionnaires, Vol. 1., F.J. Hausmann, O. Reichmann, H.E. Wiegand & L. Zgusta (eds), 1010–19. Berlin: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
1998 O diccionario de colocacións. Criterio de organización. In Actas do 1 Coloquio Galego de Fraseoloxía, X.F. Ruibal (ed.), 63–81. Vigo: Xunta de Galicia.Google Scholar
Henriksen, B.
2013 Research on L2 learners’ collocational competence and development – A progress report. In L2 Vocabulary Acquisition, Knowledge and Use: New Perspectives on Assessment and Corpus Analysis [Eurosla Monograph Series 2], C. Bardel, C. Lindquist & B. Laufer (eds), 29–56. European Second Language Association.Google Scholar
Higueras García, M.
2006 Las colocaciones y su enseñanza en la clase de ELE. Madrid: Arco Libros.Google Scholar
Howarth, P.A.
1996 Phraseology in Enlgish Academic Writing. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
1998a The phraseology of learners’ academic writing. In Phraseology, Theory, Analysis and Applications, Cowie, A.P. (ed.), 161–86. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
1998b Phraseology and second language proficiency. Applied Linguistics 19(1): 24–44. Crossref.Google Scholar
Jensen, B.U.
2013 “A Chi-square showed that …” Or did it really? Presentation delivered at the Learner Corpus Research Conference (LRC 2013), Bergen/Os, Norway, 27–29 2013 <https://​lcr2013​.b​.uib​.no​/files​/2013​/09​/Jensen​-LCR2013​-Handout​.pptx
Kaszubski, P.
2000 Selected Aspects of Lexicon, Phraseology and Style in the Writing of Polish Advanced Learners of English: A Contrastive, Corpus-Based Approach. PhD dissertation, Adam Mickiewicz Univeristy, Poznań.Google Scholar
Koya, T.
2005 The Acquisition of Basic Collocations by Japanese Learners of English. PhD dissertation, Waseda University, Japan.Google Scholar
Laufer, B. & Waldman, T.
2011 Verb-noun collocations in second language writing: A corpus analysis of learners’ English. Language Learning 61(2): 647–672. Crossref.Google Scholar
Larson-Hall, J.
2010 A Guide to Doing Statistics in Second Language Research Using SPSS. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leech, G. & Fallon, R.
1992 Computer corpora – What do they tell us about culture? ICAME Journal 16:29–50.Google Scholar
Lorenz, G.
1999 Adjective Intensification – Learners versus Native Speakers: A Corpus Study of Argumentative Writing. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar
Lozano, C.
2009 CEDEL2: Corpus Escrito del Español L2. In Applied Linguistics Now: Understanding Language and Mind / La lingüística aplicada hoy: Comprendiendo el lenguaje y la mente, C.M. Bretones Callejas, J.F. Fernández Sánchez, J.R. Ibáñez Ibáñez, M.E. García Sánchez, M.E. Cortés de los Ríos, S. Salaberri Ramiro, M.S. Cruz Martínez, N. Perdú Honeyman & B. Cantizano Márquez (eds), 197–212. Almería: Universidad de Almería.Google Scholar
Lozano, C. & Mendikoetxea, A.
2013 Learner corpora and second language acquisition: The design and collection of CEDEL. In Automatic Treatment and Analysis of Learner Corpus Data [Studies in Corpus Linguistics 59], Ana Díaz-Negrillo, Nicolas Ballier & Paul Thompson (eds), 65–100. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Martelli, A.
2006 A corpus based description of English lexical collocations used by Italian advanced learners. In Atti Del XII Congresso Internazionale Di Lessicografia, Marello, C., E. Corino & C. Onesti (eds), 1005–1011. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso.Google Scholar
Mel’čuk, I.
1996 Lexical functions: A tool for the description of lexical eelations in the lexicon. In Lexical Functions in Lexicography and Natural Language Processing [Studies in Language Companion Series 31], Leo Wanner (ed.), 37–102. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
2006 Aspects of the Theory of Morphology. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Mel’čuk, Igor
2012 Phraseology in the language, in the dictionary, and in the computer. Yearbook of Phraseology 3(1): 31–56. Crossref.Google Scholar
Mel’čuk, I.
2015 Lexical functions: Description of lexical relations in a lexicon. In Semantics: From Meaning to Text [Studies in Language Companion Series 168], 155–279. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Mochizuki, M.
2002 Exploration of two aspects of vocabulary knowledge: Paradigmatic and collocational. Annual Review of English Language Education in Japan 13: 121–29.Google Scholar
Moreno Jaén, M.
2009 Recopilación, desarrollo pedagógico y evaluación de un banco de colocaciones frecuentes de la lengua inglesa a través de la lingüistica de corpus y computacional. PhD dissertation, Universidad de Granada.Google Scholar
Nesselhauf, N.
2003 The use of collocations by advanced learners of English and some implications for teaching. Applied Linguistics 24(2): 223–42. Crossref.Google Scholar
2005 Collocations in a Learner Corpus. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Nizonkiza, D.
2012 Quantifying controlled productive knowledge of collocations across proficiency and word frequency levels. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching 2(1): 67–92. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Oakes, M.P. & Farrow, M.
2007 Use of the chi-squared test to examine vocabulary differences in English language corpora representing seven different countries. Literary and Linguistic Computing 22(1): 85–99. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Pérez Serrano, M.
2014 Análisis de errores colocacionales en un corpus de aprendientes de ELE. Marco ELE: Revista de Didáctica de Español Como Lengua Extranjera, 19. http://​marcoele​.com​/analisis​-de​-errores​-colocacionales​-en​-un​-corpus​-de​-aprendientes​-de​-ele
Real Academia Española
n.d. Corpus de referencia del español actual. <http://​corpus​.rae​.es​/creanet​.html
Revier, R.L.
2009 Evaluating a new test of whole English collocations. In Researching Collocations in Another Language, A. Barfield & H. Gyllstad (eds), 125–38. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, J.M.
1987 Collocation: A progress report. In Language Topics: Essays in Honour of Michael Halliday, Vol. 2, R. Steele & T. Threadgold (eds), 319–331. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Siyanova, A. & Schmitt, N.
2008 L2 learner production and processing of collocation: A multi-study perspective. Canadian Modern Language Review/ La Revue Canadienne Des Langues Vivantes 64(3): 429–58. Crossref.Google Scholar
University of Wisconsin
1998 The University of Wisconsin College-Level Placement Test: Spanish (grammar) [Form 96M]. Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Uriel Domínguez, M.
2014 Las colocaciones en un corpus de aprendices valón y flamenco. MA thesis, Universitat de Barcelona/Universitat Pompeu Fabra.Google Scholar
Vincze, O., Alonso-Ramos, M., Mosqueira Suárez, E. & Prieto González, S.
2011 Exploiting a learner corpus for the development of a CALL environment for learning Spanish collocations. In Electronic Lexicography in the 21st Century: New Applications for New Users. Proceedings of eLex 2011, I. Kosem & K. Kosem (eds), 280–85. Ljubljana: Trojina, Institute for Applied Slovene Studies.Google Scholar
Wanner, L., Alonso-Ramos, M., Vincze, O., Nazar, R., Ferraro, G., Mosqueira, E. & Prieto, S.
2013 Annotation of collocations in a learner corpus for building a learning environment. In Twenty Years of Learner Corpus Research: Looking Back, Moving Ahead, Granger, S., G. Gilquin & F. Meunier (eds), 493–504. Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses Universitaires de Louvain.Google Scholar
Wray, A.
2002 Formulaic Language and the Lexicon. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Yorio, C.A.
1989 Idiomaticity as an indicator of second language proficiency. In Bilingualism across the Lifespan: Aspects of Acquisition, Maturity and Loss, K. Hyltenstam & L.K. Obler (eds), 55–72. Cambridge: CUP. CrossrefGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 3 other publications

Alonso-Ramos, Margarita & Marcos García Salido
2019. Testing the Use of a Collocation Retrieval Tool Without Prior Training by Learners of Spanish. International Journal of Lexicography 32:4 ► pp. 480 ff. Crossref logo
Salido, Marcos García, Paula Lorente & Almudena Basanta
2019. Las construcciones con verbos de apoyo del español en la producción escrita de aprendices francófonos. Journal of Spanish Language Teaching 6:1 ► pp. 32 ff. Crossref logo
Torner, Sergi & Blanca Arias-Badia
2019. Visual Networks As a Means of Representing Collocational Information in Electronic Dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography 32:3 ► pp. 270 ff. Crossref logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 october 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.