The Effect Of Repetition On Incidental Learning Of Collocations

The importance of formulaic sequences in developing learners' influent and idiomatic language ability has long been recognized in both first language acquisition and second language acquisition since 1970s.Collocation is one type of formulaic sequences and mastering collocations is an indicator of learners' competence.Corpus studies reveal that collocations pose great challenge for second language learners at all proficiency levels.How second language learners learn collocations effectively has long been the interest of researchers.Previous studies reveal that incidental learning is an effective method for learners,to acquire single-word items after meeting the targets repetitively in reading materials.However,little has been known about whether collocations can be learned incidentally through reading.Therefore,further study is still in need with regard to the effect of repetition on incidental learning of collocations.This thesis explores how many times of repetition is necessary for collocations to be retained incidentally through reading graded readers.In the present study,three research questions are put forward as follows:1.Can collocations be learned incidentally through reading graded readers by Chinese second language learners?2.How many times of encounters(1,3,6)are needed for learners to retain the form of the collocations through reading graded readers?3.How many times of encounters(1,3,6)are needed for learners to retain the form and meaning of the collocations through reading graded readers?To answer the research questions,this study asked 150 Chinese high school students to read three versions of modified graded readers,in which 10 unknown collocations occurred once,three times and six times respectively.Collocational knowledge of the participants was tested immediately after they read the materials from respective knowledge and productive knowledge.First of all,Chinese learners of English can learn collocations incidentally through reading graded readers.Frequency effect has a positive effect on retaining collocations incidentally.The more frequently learners encounter the target collocations in reading,the more likely they recognize them and recall them.Secondly,encountering the collocations the same times contributes to greater receptive knowledge of the form of the collocations than productive knowledge of the form through implicit learning in reading.Learners can recognize more than half of the collocations after encountering the target collocations six times.Thirdly,learners gain more receptive knowledge of form and meaning than the productive knowledge.Six times of encounters is not enough for learners to retain the form and meaning effectively in reading graded readers.More encounters are necessary for second language learners to acquire the form and meaning of collocations incidentally.Both theoretical and practical implications are drawn from this study.Theoretically,this study deepens the understanding of the effect of repetition on incidental learning of collocations in reading,which supplements the present way of collocation acquisition.Practically,language teachers can make use of the results to help learners retain collocations effectively in a more interesting way.