This study tests the hypothesis that frequency and collocational association make independent contributions to the processing time of English multiword collocational, phrases for L1 and L2 English speakers. The results suggest that these constructs do play a role in the processing of 4-word, corpus-extracted phrases. In this sample, L1 speakers demonstrated reduced processing time for both highly frequent and highly associated phrases, while L2 speakers demonstrated reduced processing time for highly frequent phrases. Evidence exists in the data that highly proficient L2 speakers may develop similar patterns of reduced processing time as L1 speakers. Additionally, some L1 speakers did not show the sensitive to higher levels of association typical of this group. Understanding these contributions has the potential to elucidate the most useful targets of phrasal instruction for ESOL students and the psychological mechanisms of associative learning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:pdx.edu/oai:pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu:open_access_etds-3005 |
| Date | 18 September 2014 |
| Creators | Morgan, J. Arianna |
| Publisher | PDXScholar |
| Source Sets | Portland State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Dissertations and Theses |
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