Elisheva Barkon

ETAI International

Jerusalem 2010

Presentation outline:

� The nature of fluency� Evidence for the importance of fluency� Fluency development and fluency activities� Closing comments

Characteristics of speech

A speaker with a normal speech rate produces some 150 words per minute…- on the average, one every 400 milliseconds. Under time pressure the rate can easily be doubled to one every 200 milliseconds. A normal, educated adult speaker has an active vocabulary … of about 30,000 words. A speaker makes the right choice from among these, 30,000 or so alternatives not once, but in fluent speech, continuously two to five times per second – a in fluent speech, continuously two to five times per second – a rate that can be maintained without any clear temporal limit. There is probably no other cognitive process shared by all normal adults whose decision rate is so high. Still, the error rate is very low. Garnham (et al .1982) found … 191 slips of the tongue in a text corpus of 200,000 words – about one slip per 1000 words.Levelt 1989:199Cited in, Field, 2003:33

What makes fast speech possible?

The question is how is it possible to maintain such a fast speech rate, make so many correct lexical decisions when there are so many lexical options, with decisions when there are so many lexical options, with such a low error rate and still stay focused on what one has to say?Before we attempt an answer let’s clarify the terminology we’ll be using.

Terminology

Different terminology has been used over the years to describe the phenomena of multi-word vocabulary or chunks. Labels include lexical phrases, prefabricated patterns, routine formulae, formulaic sequences, lexicalized patterns, routine formulae, formulaic sequences, lexicalized stems, chunks, (restricted) collocations, fixed expressions, multi-word units/expressions, idioms etc.

O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007:63

Language is made up of formulaic sequences

One of the most important findings from corpus research is that language is made up of not only individual words, but also a great deal of formulaic language.

Formulaic language has been defined in a number of ways, Formulaic language has been defined in a number of ways, but in essence, most definitions indicate that individual formulaic sequences behave much the same as individual words, matching a single meaning or function to a form, although that form consists of multiple orthographic or phonological words.

Martinez and Schmitt (forthcoming)

Lexical phrases and language acquisition/input

…vocabulary is not necessarily learned word by individualword, but is often learned initially in ‘lexical phrases’several words long.several words long.Lexical phrases are sequences of words which the mindlearns as wholes and attaches a single meaning to.They are single lexical items which are cognitivelyprocessed much the same as single words.

Schmitt and McCarthy, 1997

Multi-word units/output

What corpora reveal is that much of our linguisticoutput consists of repeated multi-word units ratherthan single words.than single words.

Language is available for use in ready-made chunks toa far greater extent than could ever be accommodatedby a theory of language which rested upon the primacyof syntax.

O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007:60.

Chunks and the creation of meaning

Pursuing this radical view that it is lexis, rather thansyntax, which accounts for the organisation andpatterning of language, Sinclair argues that there aretwo fundamental principles at work in the creation oftwo fundamental principles at work in the creation ofmeaning. He calls these the ‘idiom principle’ and the‘open choice principle’.

The idiom principle is the central one in the creation of text and meaning in speech and writing.

O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007: 60

Chunks and the creation of meaning

The idiom principle holds that speakers/writers haveat their disposal a large store of ready-made lexico-grammatical chunks (i.e., the grammar of such chunksis preformed as part of their lexical identity, ratheris preformed as part of their lexical identity, ratherthan vice-versa).

Syntax, the slots where there are choices to be made (the open choice principle) far from being primary, is only brought into service occasionally, as a kind of ‘glue’ to cement the lexical chunks together.O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007: 60

Chunks and fluency

Chunks are ready for use at any moment and do not need re-assembling every time they are used.

Thus we can also partly account for the notion of ‘fluency’, a term frequently used to describe smooth, effortless performance in a language but one that is often only loosely defined.

O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007:61.

Lexical phrases and fluency

Native speakers have a repertoire of lexical phrasesrunning to tens of thousands. Fluency is based onthese lexical phrases.these lexical phrases.Hill, 1999

Fluency is a natural consequence of a larger and more phrasal mental lexicon.http://stewardess.inhatc.ac.kr/philoint/usage/collocation-4.htm

Ready-made language is the key to fluency

Native speakers can only speak at the speed they speak because they are calling on a vast repertoire of ready-made language in their mental lexicons. made language in their mental lexicons.

Similarly, they can listen at the speed of speech and read quickly because they are constantly recognisingused chunks.

http://stewardess.inhatc.ac.kr/philoint/usage/collocation-4.htm

Reading fluency

Now that we’ve seen that the key to fluent speech and listening is a phrasal lexicon let’s consider how this listening is a phrasal lexicon let’s consider how this applies to reading.

Definition of reading fluency

Fluency combines accuracy, automaticity, and oral reading prosody, which, taken together, facilitate the reader’s construction of meaning. It is demonstrated during oral reading through ease of word recognition, during oral reading through ease of word recognition, appropriate pacing, phrasing, and intonation. It is a factor in both oral and silent reading that can limit or support comprehension.

Kuhn et al. 2010:240

Automaticity

According to Logan (1997) processes are considered to be automatic when they possess four properties: speed, effortlessness, autonomy and lack of conscious awareness.awareness.Speed is thought to emerge concurrently with accuracy as learners engage in practice. Effortlessness refers to the sense of ease with which a task is performed and to the ability to carry out a second task while carrying out the first automatic one. Kuhn et al. 2010: 231-232

Automaticity

Autonomy : automatic processes are autonomous in the sense that they occur without intention, beginning and running to completion independent of the and running to completion independent of the direction or intent of the person undertaking the act. Lack of conscious awareness: Once lower level word recognition skills become automatic, the conscious awareness of the subskills that comprise them disappears.Kuhn et al. 2010: 231-232

Prosody

A second critical component of reading fluency is the ability to read with prosody; that is, with appropriate expression or intonation coupled appropriate expression or intonation coupled with phrasing that allows for the maintenance of meaning .Kuhn et al. 2010:233-234

Prosody

Prosody is the music of language. Indeed, some anthropologists have claimed that speech prosody served as the protolinguistic base from which music itself may as the protolinguistic base from which music itself may have emerged (Simpson, Oliver, & Fragaszy, 2008).Prosody captures the rise and falls of pitch, rhythm, and stress—the pausing, lengthening, and elision surrounding certain words and phrases that is found in the pull of linguistic communication (Hirschberg, 2002).Kuhn et a.l 2010:234

Prosody features

Pitch rising and falling pitch. Needs to be considered relative to a speaker’s voice range and native language.

Duration Vowels in stressed words are usually longer than in unstressed words and even longer in phrase final position. Stressed syllables tend to also have greater intensity, or volume. Duration has to be taken in context with the speaker’s overall speaking rate.

Kuhn et al, 2010:234-235

Prosody featuresStress is a property in speaking that makes one syllable in a word more prominent than its neighbors.Function words tend to be unstressed. English favors a regular distribution of stressed and unstressed syllables.

Pausing is noted by a spectrographic silence in oral reading beyond that invoked by some consonant combinations. Intrasentential pauses tend to be shorter than intersentential ones. Pauses tend to be larger both preceding and following syntactically complex phrases and as information load increases.Kuhn et al.2010:234-235

Appropriate pacing/reading rate/reading speed

What are good reading speeds?A good oral reading speed is around 150 words per minute. minute. A good careful silent reading speed is around 250 words per minute.A good skimming speed is around 500 words per minute. Nation 2009;72

Fluency, rate and phrasing

Reading rate may be an indicator of fluent or disfluentreading.

A slow reading rate may be symptomatic of inefficientword recognition or lack of sensitivity to the phrase – thenatural unit of meaning in reading.

Rasinski, 2000

Fluency development: Changing the size of the basic unit

Readers develop skill in decoding in two related ways:� Through practice they become faster at recognizing

the unit they are working withthe unit they are working with� They change the size of this basic unit

Fluency development involves not just becoming faster, it also involves changing the size and nature of the basic unit that the reader is working with. Nation 2009:64

The nature of fluency development: Changing the size of the basic unitWhat this means is that fluency in reading, like in speech and listening, depends on a larger basic unit, namely, the phrase. You could argue that learning to read means learning You could argue that learning to read means learning to recognize increasingly larger units:letter parts to letters (e.g., circles: location – top/bottom, direction – left/right and stalks: straight or bent)letters to word parts (initial, medial, final position)word parts to words (developing sight vocabulary)words to phrases (automatic recognition of phrases)

Summing up: The nature of fluency

� In speech and listening, fluency is linked to a phrasal lexicon (chunks/multiword units etc).

� In reading, fluency is linked to prosody which depends � In reading, fluency is linked to prosody which depends in part on the ability to recognize phrases (chunks etc).

� We will now look at evidence for the importance of chunks/phrases in language acquisition and language processing, especially in reading.

Learning from input: Needs Only Analysis

Within first language acquisition (which continues through an individual’s life), a major strategy for learning from input, and indeed the one that operates by default, is Needs Only Analysis (NOA):by default, is Needs Only Analysis (NOA):

The process of analysis which the [native speaker] child engages in is not that of breaking down as much linguistic material as possible into its smallest components. Rather, nothing is broken down unless there is a specific reason.Wray, 2008:17.

Needs Only Analysis: Minimizing processing

The impetus for NOA can be conceptualized in terms of minimizing the speaker’s and/or hearer’s processing, in that it is preferable to engage in as few operations as possible to express or interpret a operations as possible to express or interpret a message.

Fewer operations are required to select a partly-fixed unit and apply one or more lexical insertion rules, than to select individual morphemes and words and assemble them using rules. Wray 2008:18

Needs Only Analysis: Social pressure

Another way to conceptualize the motivation for NOA is in terms of the social pressure to speak like others, something that can be achieved by adopting the something that can be achieved by adopting the multiword patterns already in use in the speech community.

Wray 2008:18

Needs Only Analysis: Minimizing processing as default

The default is to engage in the least processing necessary in order to map the intended idea(s) onto linguistic forms that can be understood effectively by others.others.The need to communicate effectively, however, means that along with the speaker’s own needs or preferences for how an idea is expressed, the needs and expectations of the hearer must also be taken into account.Wray 2008:20

Needs Only Analysis: Formulaic language makes for easy encoding and decodingTaking the hearer into account will generally encourage the speaker to be more formulaic. Just as formulaic material is easier for the speaker to encode, so also, when hearers have a lexical entry for a word so also, when hearers have a lexical entry for a word string, they will find it easier to decode, compared with something more novel.That is, where a novel word string could be interpreted on the basis of any reasonable meanings arising from the word combination, a formulaic one will often be pre-associated with particular overtones or significance. Wray 2008: 20

Needs Only Analysis: Directs interpretation

As a result, a great deal of meaning can be triggered with very little processing and, more importantly, other possible meanings can be downgraded as other possible meanings can be downgraded as candidates for interpretation.

Wray 2008:20

Collocations and expectations

…collocations permit people to know what kinds of words they can expect to find together.

We have certain expectations about what sorts of We have certain expectations about what sorts of information can follow from what has preceded, and so often are able to guess the meaning after hearing only the first part of familiar collocations.

This is another demonstration of the fact that we understand in ‘chunks’.Nattinger, 1988

Evidence for the essentialness of formulaic language

Formulaic language is ubiquitous in language use.Formulaic language makes up a large proportion of any discourse.any discourse.Meanings and functions are often realized by formulaic language.Formulaic language items realize a wide number of referential, communicative, and textual functions in discourse. Martinez and Schmitt, forthcoming

Evidence for the essentialness of formulaic language

Formulaic language has processing advantages.Automatic use of acquired formulaic sequences allows chunking, freeing up memory and processing resources.resources.Formulaic language can improve the overall impression of L2 learners’ language production.The attainment of fluency, in both native and foreign languages, involves the acquisition of memorized sequences of language.Martinez and Schmitt, forthcoming

Chunks liberate the learner

There is evidence that the use of chunks ‘frees up’ the cognitive processing load so that mental effort can be allocated to other aspects of production such as allocated to other aspects of production such as discourse organization and successful interaction. In that sense, chunks liberate the learner and allow a degree of automaticity to take over in both comprehension and production.

O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007: 77

What Are the Psycholinguistic Functions of Prosody?

1. Prosody provides a variety of natural breakpoints in continuous speech that allow parsing.

2. Prosody provides a basic cognitive skeleton that allows one to hold an auditory sequence in working memory.one to hold an auditory sequence in working memory.

3. Prosody serves to disambiguate semantically and syntactically ambiguous sentences.

4. Different prosodic patterns convey different emotions.

5. Prosody carries discourse information. Kuhn et al. 2010:235 236

Summing up: Evidence for the importance of fluency

Memory span is limited by the number of chunks itcan hold where a chunk is a meaningfully coded unit.

The idea of chunking is that a group of pieces ofinformation can be organized into a new unit that iseasier to process mentally than the several individualunits of which it is composed.

Clark and Clark, 1977

Summing up: Evidence for the importance of fluencyOne of the earliest findings from memory research was that short term memory holds a fairly constant number of units, units likely to be chunks of information, composed of several rather than single items. information, composed of several rather than single items.

Even though these chunks may be larger and contain more information than discrete items, their number still remains fairly constant in memory, and their size increases as we become more familiar with remembered material, permitting us to store and recall more information.

Nattinger and DeCarrico, 1992

Fluency development and fluency activities

Now that we have seen the evidence for the importance of chunks/phrases and in language acquisition, language processing it is time to consider acquisition, language processing it is time to consider the how fluency can be promoted.

The four strandsA well-balanced language course should consist of four roughly equal strands:meaning-focused input (receiving ideas and messages)meaning-focused output (conveying ideas and messages)meaning-focused output (conveying ideas and messages)language-focused learning (deliberate learning of language items and features such as pronunciation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar and discourse)developing fluent use of known language items and features over the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing (becoming fluent with what is already known)Nation 2009:1-3

The fluency strand

The fluency development strand should involve all the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

In this strand, the learners are helped to make the best use of what they already know. Like meaning-focused input and output, the fluency development strand is also meaning-focused. That is, the learners’ aim is to receive and convey messages.

Nation 2007:7; Nation 2009 :9.

The fluency strand

The fluency strand only exists if certain conditions are present.(1) All of what the learners are listening to, reading, (1) All of what the learners are listening to, reading,

speaking or writing is largely familiar to them. That is, there are no unfamiliar language features, or largely unfamiliar content or discourse features.

(2) The learners’ focus is on receiving or conveying meaning.

Nation 2007: 7

The fluency strand(3) There is some pressure or encouragement to

perform at a faster than usual speed.(4) There is a large amount of input or output.Nation 2009, p. 9Nation 2009, p. 9

3. There is support and encouragement for the learner to perform at a higher than normal level. This means that in an activity with a fluency development goal, learners should be speaking and comprehending faster, hesitating less, and using larger planned chunks than they do in their normal use of language. A fluency development activity provides some deliberate push to the higher level of performance often by using time pressure.,

Nation and Newton 2009:153

The fluency strandIf the activity involves unknown vocabulary, it is not a fluency activity.If the focus is on language features, it is not a fluency activity. fluency activity. If there is no push to go faster or more smoothly, it is not a fluency activity.The fluency strand should make up about one-quarter of the course time. It is time out from learning new items and is a time for getting good at using what is already known.Nation 2009:9

The fluency strand

In most language courses not enough attention is given to fluency development, possibly because it does not involve the learning of new language items and not involve the learning of new language items and thus is not seen as moving the learners forward in their knowledge of the language.Nation 2009:10

Fluency development activities are a very useful bridge between knowing and using.Nation and Newton 2009:163

Fluency development and larger language chunks

Schmidt (1992) describes a range of theories to explain fluency development. What is common to many of fluency development. What is common to many of these is that fluency development involves more formulaic use of larger language chunks or sequences (Wood, 2006). Fluency, accuracy and complexity are most likely interdependent.Nation 2009, p. 9

Paths to fluency

There are two main paths to fluency:The well beaten path: using repetition to develop fluency (e.g., the 4/3/2/ activity). fluency (e.g., the 4/3/2/ activity). The rich and varied map: doing things which differ slightly from each other but draw on the same kind of knowledge (e.g., extensive reading - the stories differ but vocabulary and grammatical structures recur).Nation 2009

Fluency development: Speaking

SpeakingStudies of the 4/3/2 technique where the same talk is repeated to different listeners in a decreasing time repeated to different listeners in a decreasing time frame have shown increase in fluency during the task, but surprisingly also increases in grammatical accuracy and grammatical complexity.

Nation and Newton 2009

Fluency development: Memorizing phrases

In the early stages of language learning especially, there is value in becoming fluent with a repertoire of useful sentences and phrases.useful sentences and phrases.This fits with Palmer’s (1925) fundamental guiding principle for the student of conversation-Memorise perfectly the largest number of common and useful word groups! Palmer explains that “perfectly” means to a high level of fluency.Nation 2009:10

Longer expressions and the pronunciation pay-offBecause students create most of what they say from the individual words they know, their pronunciation, stress, and intonation, can be difficult for the listener. The great added bonus to knowing a large number of The great added bonus to knowing a large number of collocations and other longer expressions is that we learn the stress pattern as a whole when we meet the item. The more longer lexical items students know, the better their stress and intonation will be. The more and bigger the lexical items students know, the more brain-space they have to think about the content of what they are saying. http://stewardess.inhatc.ac.kr/philoint/usage/collocation-4.htm

The nature of fluency development activities in order of development

Increasing oral reading speed:Reading aloudReading aloudRepeated readingPaired reading4/3/2/ readingExtensive reading aloudRead- and-look-upNation 2009:67-68

The nature of fluency development activities

Increasing careful silent reading:Speed reading courseSpeed reading courseEasy extensive readingSilent repeated reading Issue logsNation 2009:69

The nature of fluency development activities

Increasing silent expeditious reading speed:SkimmingSkimmingScanningNation 2009:70

Read-and-look-up

The read-and-look-up activity does not meet many of the conditions for a fluency activity but is one that encourages learners to work with a larger basic unit.encourages learners to work with a larger basic unit.Michael West (1960: 12-13) devised this technique as a way of helping learners to learn from written dialogues and to help them put expression into the dialogues. Nation 2009:68

Read-and-look-up

West regarded the physical aspects of read-and-look-up as being very important for using the technique properly.properly.The learners work in pairs facing each other.One is the reader the other the listener.The reader holds piece of paper/book containing the dialogue at about chest level and slightly to the left.This enables the reader to look at the text and then at the listener moving only their eyes, not their head.Nation 2009:68

Read-and-look-up

The reader looks at the text and tries to remember as long a phrase as possible. The reader can look at the paper for as long as is The reader can look at the paper for as long as is necessary.When ready, the reader looks at the listener and says the phrase.When looking at the text the reader doesn’t speak.When speaking the reader doesn’t look at the text.Nation 2009:68

Read-and-look-up

These rules force the reader to rely on memory. At first the technique is a little difficult to use because the reader has to discover what length of phrase is the reader has to discover what length of phrase is most comfortable and has to master the rules of the technique. The technique can also be practised at home in front of a mirror.Nation 2009:68

Read-and-look up

West saw value in the technique because the learner “has to carry the words of a whole phrase, or perhaps a whole sentence, in his mind. The connection is not whole sentence, in his mind. The connection is not from book to mouth, but from book to brain, and then from brain to mouth. That interval of memory constitutes half the learning process… Of all methods of learning a language, Read-and-Look-up is, in our opinion , the most valuable” (West, 1960:12).Nation 2009:68

Summing up: Fluency development

� We first saw that fluency means a larger more phrasal lexicon.

� This phrasal lexicon makes for more efficient � This phrasal lexicon makes for more efficient comprehension, memory and production.

� In terms of fluency development this means that learners need to be pushed to recognize, store and use larger basic units.

� In other words, fluency fitness entails stretching language units!

Two final points:

1. One addresses the reciprocal relationship between fluency and accuracy.fluency and accuracy.

2. The second closing comment addresses cognitive analysis in the learning/ teaching of collocations.

The reciprocal relationship between fluency and accuracy

Fluency and accuracy are not competing factors in language performance. Instead, fluency builds automaticity and chunking (recognizing bigger units). automaticity and chunking (recognizing bigger units). As a result, fluency promotes accuracy, and accuracy is an indication of increasing fluency in language performance (as well as in other types of cognitive performance).Grabe 2010 p.76

The reciprocal relationship between fluency and accuracyNation (1989, 1991, 1996) made a strong argument for rejecting the distinction between fluency and accuracy, showing that this distinction misrepresents the long-term reciprocal supportive relationship between fluency and accuracy. Increasing fluency should lead to increasing accuracy. Increasing fluency should lead to increasing accuracy, as more time can be devoted to quality of production or reception. As Nation states, “it is not surprising….that developments in fluency are related to developments in accuracy” (Nation, 1996, p. 10), and 13 years later, “fluency is….accompanied by improvements in accuracy and complexity” (Nation 2009, p. 65). Grabe 2010, p. 78

Processing efficiency

Wray (2000) stresses the non-analytical nature offormulaic language in native speaker competence.

Attempts by teachers and textbooks to encourage theanalysis of chunks by learners are, in Wray’s words,‘pursuing native-like linguistic usage by promotingentirely unnative-like processing behaviour’ (p.463, heremphasis).

O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007:78

Processing chunks

The more the learner has successfully acquired arepertoire of chunks, the easier it becomes to reflectand analyse them at a later stage, so that certainand analyse them at a later stage, so that certainaspects of grammatical acquisition may flow from theknowledge and use of chunks, rather than vice-versa.

O’Keeffe, McCarthy and Carter, 2007:79

Cognitive analysis in the learning of collocations� Liu argues that students will benefit from knowing why the

words in L2 collocations collocate the way they do.p. 11� For example, a cognitive analysis of strong wind versus � For example, a cognitive analysis of strong wind versus

heavy rain shows that these collocations (like many others) are not really arbitrary.

� Rain is made up of water and as such, it has weight. Therefore, the use of heavy to modify rain makes perfect sense.

� In contrast, wind has basically no weight, but it has force. Hence, the use of strong to describe wind is entirely logical.

Liu 2010: 20

Take/make/have/do a trip� Take a trip-used for a trip of leisure

Take a field/boat trip� Make a trip- typically used for business or a trip that appears

particularly purposeful/effortful from the speaker’s point of viewMake a special tripMake a special trip

� Have a trip used as an expression of good wishes for a safe tripHave a wonderful trip.Do a trip -used to convey the meaning of complete a trip as an achievementMy wife and I just did a 9,200-mile trip around the country in 1991.Based on his analysis concludes that, “…the make/take/have/do a trip collocations are not arbitrary but semantically motivated.”

Liu: 17

Dominant practices in collocation teachingCollocations are primarily taught as fixed units – most of the teaching activities, including cross-linguistic, are noticing-memorization.Activities include:Identifying or marking collocations in a passage or in collocation Identifying or marking collocations in a passage or in collocation dictionariesReading passages with collocations highlighted or markedFilling in the blanks with the right word in a collocationChoosing or matching correct collocatesTranslating collocations from L2 back into L1 or vice versaMemorizing type activities like repetition and rehearsalLiu 2010:21

Liu’s suggestion is to add cognitve analysis (semantic-anaylsis ) learning activities

The rationale for incorporating a cognitive analysis in the learning/teaching of collocations

Although collocations are generally not arbitrary, they are taught mostly as prefabricated chunks using primarily noticing-memorization strategies. This approach is problematic because:problematic because:� It ignores the motivated nature of most collocations� It takes away from the study of collocations any

cognitive and linguistic analysis, a very important and useful part of any language acquisition process.

� Bottom line: This approach does not allow students to generalize what they learn.

Liu 2010: 22

Useful collocation learning and teaching strategies that incorporate corpus-based cognitive analysis:

� Comparing-contrasting-explaining differences between similar pairs of collocations (e.g., make/take/have a trip and the typical make vs. take vs. have vs. do collocations).

� Examining the motivations of collocations in comparison � Examining the motivations of collocations in comparison or contrast with their counterparts in learners’ L1 (e.g., take medicine vs. eat medicine in Chinese).

� Making good use of corpora and (general and collocation) dictionaries in identifying collocations and learning their motivations

� Organizing collocations by meaning, based on semantic motivations rather than in an undifferentiated way.

Liu 2010: 26

Benefits

Corpus-based cognitive analysis can:� help learners better understand collocations� help learners use collocations more productively� help learners use collocations more productivelyThis is because there are too many collocations to memorize.Knowing the different motivations for typical collocations of e.g., make/have may help students understand and use the verbs more accurately.Liu 2010

Benefits

� Because not all collocations are motivated a search for motivation(s) may fail. Still the cognitive exploration process provides additional opportunity for processing the collocation and directs attention to its the collocation and directs attention to its composition.

� The exploration process raises consciousness to the collocation, which, in turn, should result in better retention.

� A cognitive analysis enables students to gain a better understanding of the key words in the collocations.

Liu 2010: 26

BenefitsFor example, in the process of gaining an understanding of the semantic motivations of make a trip vs. take a trip, the students should simultaneously learn, explicitly or implicitly via corpus examples, the learn, explicitly or implicitly via corpus examples, the core meaning of the two verbs involved.This can result in a better understanding of the make + noun collocations vs. the take + noun collocations. Liu 2010:.27

(You can generalize what you learn)Note: corpus-based cognitive analysis might not work well for everyone.

References

Clark, H. H. and Clark, E. V. (1977). Psychology and Language. HBJ.

Field, J. (2003). Psycholinguistics A resource book for students. Routledge: UK.students. Routledge: UK.

Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language –Moving from theory to practice. Cambridge University Press.

Grabe, W. (2010). Fluency in reading—Thirty-five years later.Reading in a Foreign language, 22, 1,. 71–83

References

Hill, J. (1999). Collocational competence. ENGLISH TEACHING professional, Issue 11, 3-7.

Kuhn, M. R. , Schwanenflugel, P.J. and Meisinger, E.B. Kuhn, M. R. , Schwanenflugel, P.J. and Meisinger, E.B. (2010). Aligning theory and assessment of reading fluency: Automaticity, prosody, and definitions of fluency. Reading Research Quarterly, 45 (2), 230-251.

Liu, D. (2010). Going beyond patterns: Involving cognitive analysis in the learning of collocations. TESOL Quarterly, 44, 1, 4-30.

References

Martinez , R., and Schmitt, N. (2010) A phrasal expressions list. TESOL Quarterly, (forthcoming).

Nation, P. (2007).The four strands. Innovation in Nation, P. (2007).The four strands. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching 1,12-13.

Nation, I.S. P. (2009). Teaching EFL/ESL Reading and Writing. New York: Routledge.

Nation, I.S.P. and Newton, J. (2009). Teaching EFL/ESL Listening and Speaking. New York: Routledge.

ReferencesNattinger, J. (1988). Some current trends in vocabulary

teaching. In R. Carter and M. McCarthy, Vocabulary and Language Teaching. Longman

Nattinger, J. R. and. DeCarrico J. S. (1992). Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching. Oxford University Phrases and Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.

O’Keeffe , A., McCarthy, M. and Carter , R. (2007). From Corpus to Classroom: Language Use and Language Teaching. Cambridge University Press. Chapters 1-3.

Rasinski, T. (2004) Creating Fluent Readers EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP, 61, 6, 46-51.

References

Schmitt, N. and McCarthy, M. (1997). Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and Pedagogy. Cambridge University Press.

Wray, A. (2008). Formulaic Language: Pushing the Boundaries. Oxford University Press.