Multi-wordunitsgivemeaningtotextandarepartofwhatwelearnwhenwe
learnalanguage.However,thenatureandroleofphraseologyinlanguagepeda- gogyhastendedtobeneglectedoverthelastfewdecades.Thismayseemsurpris-ingbecause,asSinclairetal.(1970:ix)acknowledgedintheOSTIreport,“the
ideaofcollocationfirstemergedintheworkoflanguageteachersbetweenthetwo
worldwars,particularlythatofHaroldPalmerinJapan”.Asearlyas1933Palmer
suggestedthat“acollocationisasuccessionoftwoormorewordsthatmustbe
learnedasanintegralwholeandnotpiecedtogetherfromitscomponentparts”
(1933:i);“Thereisavastandlittle-chartedlinguisticterritorylyingbetween(but
sometimesoverlapping)therespectivefieldsofthelexicographerandthegram-marian”(1933:11);“Amereselectionofcommoncollocationsisfoundtocontain
thousandsofexamples–andthereforetoexceedbyfarthepopularestimateof
thenumberofsinglewordscontainedinaneverydayvocabulary…”(1933:13).
Palmer’slanguageteachingmethodologyinvolvedurginghisJapanesestudentsto
learnlargenumbersofcollocationsbyheartasiftheyweresinglelexemes.
Morerecently,Firth(1957),Sinclairetal.(1970),Hakuta(1974),Halliday&
Hassan(1976),WongFillmore(1976),Nattinger(1980),Peters(1983),Pawley&
Syder(1983)andWray(2002)areamongthosewhohavekeptremindingusof
theformulaicnatureofmuchofourspeechbehaviour,andthatlearningalan-guageinvolveslearningmanymulti-wordsequences.
Inthislight,wemightbeforgivenforthinkingitwouldbeobviousthatin
additiontoprovidinginsightswhichcontributetothedescriptionofalanguage
andhowitisused,moderncorpus-basedresearchwouldhavethepotentialto
contributeconsiderablytolanguagepedagogy,notonlythroughdirectapplica-tionsofdistributionalinformationtocurriculumcontent,butalsobyinforming
teachersaboutthenatureoflanguagelearning.Further,asNesselhauf(2005:237)
hassuggested,uptoathirdofthecollocationsusedbylearnersofEnglishtendto
besourcesoferror,andlengthofexposuretoEnglishinEnglish-speakingcoun-trieshasamorepositiveeffectonlearningcollocationsthanthenumberofyears
alearnerhashadofclassroominstruction.Workonphraseologyinrelationto
languagelearninghastendedtoemphasisetheformandthearbitrarynatureof
collocations,rangingfromthedescriptionofso-calledproverbialsequencesof
words(e.g.Make hay while the sun shines),todescriptionsoflexicalisedcom-poundssuchas,civil war,andill-gotten gains, andso-called‘idiomatic’sequences
suchasheavy rain(ratherthanthick rain).
Ifwemaybepermittedtospeculateastowhyphraseologyhasnotfeatured
moreprominentlyinlanguagepedagogywemayconsiderthefollowing:
i. SincePalmer’s1933listofseveralthousandEnglishcollocations,subjectively
identified,therehasnotbeenareliablewayofestablishingwhatconstitutes
themulti-wordunitsinalanguage,and whatprinciplesmay governtheir
composition. The development of computer corpus-based analysis has of
coursemadeiteasiertoidentifyrecurringmulti-wordunits.
ii. Therehasbeenapersistenttensionamonglanguageteachersinmanypartsof
theworldoverthelast50yearsbetweenform-focusedandmessage-focused
approachestolanguagepedagogy.Analysisofphraseologyhastendedtofa- vourpedagogicalapproachesbasedonform.Itisrelativelyeasywithcom-puterassistancetodiscovermanytokensofaparticularstructuresuchasthe
following,forexample:at the__ of the__ (e.g.at the end of the day).Thereis
however,noobvioussemanticcoherencehere,andthereforelittletoengage
themotivationoflearners.
Theavailabilityofcorpus-baseddescriptionsofphraseologyfocusingespe- ciallyonformcameattheverytimethatlanguageteachingtheoryandprac-ticewasfavouringafocusonmessagesandfunction,through‘communicative
languageteaching’,takingaccountofadvancesinsociolinguistics,discourse
38 GraemeKennedy
iii. Thereisnotriedandtrue‘method’forteachingphraseology.Distributional
informationfromacorpusisnotnecessarilyareliableguideforinclusionina
could encourage learner autonomy, in some way suggesting that language
learnerscouldbemadetobelikeaspiringdescriptivelinguists,discovering languagesasunappliedsystems.Inadditiontobeinginfluencedbydescrip-tions of grammar and lexis, language teaching curriculum development is
alsodrivenbyerroranalysis(asdevelopedinlearnercorpora),andbyneeds
analysis.Further,itisnotnecessarilyefficienttohavetodiscoverthediffer-encesinusebetweentall,high,uprightandverticalthroughacorpus,when
thedifferencesaremadeexplicitingooddictionaries.
iv. Although teachers have long recognised that there are different kinds of
learninginvolvedinlanguagelearning,therelativeweightgiventoeachhas
nounpluralsand-edpasttensemorphemes,orthatadjectivesandnouns
havegenderagreementinFrench.Instructiononthecodeandonhowtouse
ittoperformspeechactsispartofexplicitlearning.However,itisobviously
impossibletomakeexplicitthewholecomplexgrammatical,lexicalandprag-maticsystemofalanguage.
Thefocusofexplicitteachingandlearningshouldbetheitemsofalanguage
whicharefrequentanduseful.FewlearnersofEnglishwilleverhavebeen
toldexplicitlythatinEnglishwesaythank you very much,butnot*thank you much;thatifwesayI completely forgot to ring youitisprobablylesslikelyto
seemoffhandorinsultingthanifwesayI forgot to ring you;thatwearemore
likelytoseea heavily-laden truckthana laden truck.Learningsuchphraseol-ogyhaslargelybeenlefttoimplicitlearningwhichoccurswhenthefocusof
pedagogyisonmessagesratherthanform.
Whilerecognizingthatitisnoteasytoteachexplicitlythekindofphraseo- logicalcomplexityrevealedbythecorpus,thechallengeforlanguageteach-ers is how to devise methodologies which maximize the opportunities for
implicitlearning,forlearnerstogetenoughexperienceofmulti-wordunits
inuseinordertointernalisethem.ItshouldbeclearfromTables1–8that
someofthecollocationswhichcontainthestrongestbonds,asmeasuredby
theMIscore,areinfactnotfrequent,andshouldnotbeapedagogicalprior-ity.Frequentcollocations(e.g.very good,enjoy life,give rise,send back,start again,find a way,stop talking,lose weight,at the moment),canfindaplacein
explicitteachingandlearninginacurriculum,whileinfrequentcollocations
suchasfinding solaceorlosing momentumshouldbelefttoimplicitlearning,
partofahiddencurriculumofbothcollocationalformsandsemanticprefer- ence.Fromapedagogicalviewpoint,itis,ofcoursethemostfrequently-oc-curringcollocationswhichnormallyneedtobelearnedfirst.Someexplicit
instructioninusingfrequently-occurringcollocationstaughtasvocabulary
isthereforealmostcertainlyworthwhile.
v. Thereismuchaboutphraseologythatlinguistsdonotyetunderstand.For
example,howmuchoflanguageuseisformulaic?Whatarethebestwaysof
teachingphraseology,ascomparedwithlearningitthroughexposure?Itis
alltooeasyforlinguistswhoarenotdeeplyinvolvedinlanguageteaching
toassumethatphraseologyshouldbepartoftheexplicitcurriculum.There
isaneed,however,formoreresearchevidencetosupporttheinclusionof
phraseologyintheexplicitcurriculum.Oneparticularironyisthatamong
Englishteachersatleast,phraseologyhasoftenbeencondemnedas‘cliché’
when formulaic, prefabricated multi-word units are produced by native
speakers,whereastheabilitytousesuchmulti-wordsequencesissimultane-40 GraemeKennedy
ouslyrecognisedasamarkoffluencyifappliedtosecondorforeignlanguage
learners.
vi. Corpus-based research has particularly challenged language educators to
workouthowtomaximizetheexposureneededforlearnerstoacquiremulti-wordsequencesthatcannoteasilybetaughtexplicitly.Theencouragement
ofautonomouslanguagelearning,especiallythroughreading,isobviously
veryimportanttohelpmaximizeexposuretolanguageinuse.Itmaybethat
readingofallkinds,includingliteraryworks,maymakeanoverduereturnfor
greaterattentioninlanguagepedagogy,forreadingdoesprovidethekindof
exposurewhichfacilitatesimplicitlearning.Inadditiontothiscontribution
tolanguageteachingpractice,researchinphraseologycanalsocontributeto
languageacquisitiontheorybyrevealingsomethingofthesemanticcomplex- ityoflanguagesandthecognitiveprocesseswhichliebehindlanguagelearn-inganduse,andwhichenableustobecomefluentlanguageusers.
Developingcapacityincorpus-basedresearchhasalreadyprovidedrichopportu- nitiesforresearcherstoundertakedescriptionsoflanguagesforpedagogicalpur- poses.Therehavealreadybeenadvancesinlexicographyfromcorpus-basedre-search,leadingtonewkindsofdictionaries.Thereisroomformore.Forexample,
adictionaryofthe2000mostfrequentwordsinEnglish(orinparticulargenresof
English)showingthelinguisticecologyofeachoftheheadwordsmorefullythan
hashithertobeenpossiblecouldbeausefulprojectforlanguagepedagogyandfor
revealingnewinsightsaboutlanguageuseandhumancognition.
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