The Relationship Between Controlled Productive Collocational Competence and L2 Proficiency

Abstract

This paper assesses the extent to which L2 learners' controlled productive collocational knowledge increases with proficiency level, and the extent to which controlled produc-tive collocational knowledge of L2 learners changes across word frequency levels. A proficiency test and a collocation test modelled after Laufer & Nation (1999) were administered to English majors at the University of Burundi. The results of the study suggest that controlled productive collocational knowledge develops alongside L2 proficiency without significant gains at low levels. This empirically supports Laufer's (1998) observation that productive vocabulary growth is slow in the first years and gains momentum later and strengthens the established relationship between productive collocation knowledge and L2 proficiency (Gitsaki, 1999; Bonk, 2001). Moreover, the study highlights the crucial role played by frequency in knowing words (cf. Nation & Beglar, 2007).

Productive knowledge of collocations may predict academic literacy

“…Especially, a number of studies have established a relationship between using collocations -productive knowledge -and overall linguistic proficiency (cf. Gitsaki, 1999;Bonk, 2001;Eyckmans et al, 2004;Boers et al, 2006;Nizonkiza, 2011). This relationship holds at the receptive level as well (Gyllstad, 2007).…”

“…This finding is quite revealing and corroborates previous findings that written productive knowledge of collocations grows alongside overall proficiency (cf. Gitsaki, 1999;Bonk, 2001;Eyckmans et al, 2004;Boers et al, 2006;Nizonkiza, 2011;among others). In other words, what appears to be an almost confirmed relationship between written productive knowledge of collocations and overall linguistic proficiency is here extended to academic literacy.…”

“…What is particularly interesting and worth pointing out is that even though these studies were conducted on participants from different backgrounds and learning stages, they seem to point to the same general tendency that more proficient students use more collocations. Students involved in these studies, for instance, include Greek students of English selected from three different proficiency levels (Gitsaki, 1999), Belgian students of English from an advanced proficiency level (Eyckmans et al, 2004;Boers et al, 2006), Burundian students of English from three different proficiency levels (Nizonkiza, 2011), Swedish learners of English from four different proficiency levels (Gyllstad, 2007). But, most of them if not all established a relationship between overall linguistic proficiency and mastery of collocations.…”

“…The test adopted in this study was used in an earlier study (Nizonkiza, 2011). The design of the test was inspired by Laufer & Nation's (1999) definition of controlled productive knowledge.…”

“…(cf. Gitsaki, 1999;Bonk, 2001;Eyckmans et al, 2004;Boers et al, 2006;Nizonkiza, 2011; among others). This study therefore concludes that growth in productive knowledge of collocations may entail growth in academic literacy; suggesting that productive use of collocations is linked to academic literacy to a considerable extent.…”