Abstract

Accurate use of collocations is seen as a measure of a learner’s proficiency in a second/foreign language. However, research is not conclusive as to how to best test productive knowledge of collocations and, more fundamentally, there is no agreement on how vocabulary size, i.e. word comprehension, influences collocation production within a constrained or unconstrained context. This article elaborates on a battery of tests aimed at examining these issues. The tests were presented to both English as Foreign Language (EFL) and English as Second Language (ESL) students. The findings indicate that constrained and unconstrained contexts may represent different levels of productive knowledge, casting doubt on the definition of productive knowledge collapsing the two contexts – constrained and unconstrained – into one construct. Furthermore, both levels are influenced by the size of a learner’s receptive knowledge, which confirms Gyllstad’s earlier observation on the relationship between receptive knowledge of collocations and vocabulary size, which is extended here to include productive knowledge. On the basis of these results, we argue that a new definition for ‘productive knowledge of collocations’ is in order, where productive knowledge is categorised according to four levels based on the amount of context provided to the learner.

摘要

搭配的正确使用被视为学习者第二语言/外语水平的衡量标准。然而，关于如何最好地测试搭配的生产性知识的研究尚无定论，更根本的说，在受限制或不受限制的语境下，词汇量（即单词理解力）如何影响搭配产生尚无共识。本文详细介绍了旨在检查这些问题的一系列测试。考试同时面向英语作为外语（EFL）和英语作为第二语言（ESL）的学生。研究结果表明，受约束和不受约束的情境可能代表了不同水平的生产知识，这使人们对将受约束和不受约束的两种情境融为一体的生产知识的定义产生了怀疑。此外，这两个层次都受学习者接受知识的大小的影响，这证实了吉尔斯塔德对搭配词语的接受知识与词汇量之间关系的早期观察，在此将其扩展为包括生产性知识。根据这些结果，我们认为对“搭配的生产知识”的定义是有序的，其中，根据提供给学习者的上下文的数量，将生产知识分为四个级别。