The current study examined the degree to which collocation use (i.e., meaningful co-occurrences of multiple words) was related to L1 raters’ intuitive judgements of L2 speech. Speech samples from a picture description task performed by eighty-five Japanese learners of English with varied L2 proficiency profiles were transcribed and assessed by 10 L1 raters for global comprehensibility (how easily speech can be understood) and lexical appropriateness (the extent to which words are used adequately and naturally in context). The samples were then submitted to a range of lexical measures tapping into the collocation (frequency, association), depth (abstractness) and breadth (frequency, range) aspects of L2 vocabulary use. Results of the statistical analyses showed that the raters’ comprehensibility and lexical appropriateness scores were strongly determined by the L2 speakers’ use of low-frequency combinations containing infrequent, abstract and complex words (i.e., mutual information).

中文翻译：

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多字单元还是单字单元？搭配使用在可理解和上下文适当的第二语言语音中的作用

目前的研究检查了搭配使用（即多个词的有意义的共同出现）与 L1 评分者对 L2 语音的直觉判断的相关程度。来自具有不同 L2 水平的 85 名日本英语学习者执行的图片描述任务的语音样本被 10 名 L1 评分者转录和评估，以评估整体可理解性（语音被理解的难易程度）和词汇适当性（单词在多大程度上被理解）在上下文中充分和自然地使用）。然后将样本提交给一系列词汇测量，这些测量涉及 L2 词汇使用的搭配（频率、关联）、深度（抽象性）和广度（频率、范围）方面。