Formulaic sequences comprise a large body of language and their mastery is supposed to be a key determiner of language proficiency. However, despite their significance in language learning, they are seldom taught in any principled manner in language classrooms and their correct and appropriate use remains a particular challenge to language learners, even at advanced levels. To address this issue, the current study investigated the relationship between knowledge of formulaic sequences and language proficiency as well as the most efficient method of instructing formulaic sequences. Participants of the study were 42 Japanese learners of English as a foreign language at three different levels of language proficiency (low intermediate, intermediate, and high intermediate) at the intensive English program of a university in Japan. Instruments used for data collection consisted of a reading comprehension book containing a large number of formulaic sequences for intervention sessions and an oral-production discourse completion task adopted from Bardovi-Harlig et al. (2015) for testing knowledge of formulaic sequences as pre-test, post-test, and follow-up test. The study followed an experimental design by administering the pre-test, randomly assigning participants to two equal groups of ‘focus on form’ and ‘focus on forms’, conducting intervention sessions for four consecutive weeks (following the noticing, retrieving, and generating process) to teach formulaic sequences to both groups but at different levels of explicitness, administering the post-test immediately following intervention, and administering the follow-up test a period of time following the post-test. The findings of the study revealed that knowledge of formulaic sequences is a strong predictor of language proficiency and both ‘focus on form’ and ‘focus on forms’ methods of instructing formulaic sequences are equally effective in developing and retaining knowledge of formulaic sequences. The pedagogical implications of the findings suggested incorporating knowledge of formulaic sequences in every language instruction.

中文翻译：

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公式序列知识在语言能力中的作用：意义和理想的教学方法

公式化序列包含大量语言，其精通程度应被认为是语言熟练程度的关键决定因素。但是，尽管它们在语言学习中具有重要意义，但很少在语言教室中以任何有原则的方式来教他们，正确甚至正确地使用它们仍然是语言学习者面临的特殊挑战，即使是在高级水平上也是如此。为了解决这个问题，当前的研究调查了公式序列的知识和语言熟练程度之间的关系，以及最有效的公式序列指示方法。这项研究的参与者是日本大学的英语强化课程的42名日语学习者，他们分别以三种不同的语言水平（低中级，中级和高中级）学习英语作为外语。用于数据收集的工具由一本阅读理解书组成，该书包含大量的干预会话用语序，以及Bardovi-Harlig等人采用的口头制作话语完成任务。（2015年），用于测试公式化序列的知识，如预测试，后测试和后续测试。该研究遵循实验设计，管理预测试，将参与者随机分为“关注形式”和“关注形式”两个相等的组，连续四个星期进行干预（注意，检索和生成过程） ）向两组人员讲授公式化序列，但要有不同的明确度，在干预后立即进行后期测试，并在后期测试后的一段时间内进行后续测试。该研究的发现表明，公式序列的知识是语言熟练程度的强力预测指标，指示公式序列的“专注于形式”和“专注于形式”方法在开发和保留公式序列的知识方面都同样有效。研究结果的教学意义暗示，在每种语言教学中都应纳入公式化序列知识。