Andrew Barfield

Introduction: Researching L2 Collocation Knowledge and Development

For anyone learning or teaching a second language, collocation is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating (and at times frustrating) challenges that they will face. Equally, for those interested in researching second language (L2) collocation knowledge and development, the challenges are both fascinating and frustrating, but for different reasons. Although several wide-ranging volumes of research in L2 vocabulary acquisition have been published in the last 15 years or so (Arnaud and Bejoint, 1992; Coady and Huckin, 1997; Schmitt and McCarthy, 1997; Read, 2000; Schmitt, 2000; Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2004; Bogaards and Laufer, 2004; Daller et al., 2007; Fitzpatrick and Barfield, 2009), they have rarely included dedicated studies of L2 collocation knowledge and development. In fact, in the last decade, only five book-length publications in English stand out for the more specific focus that they take on L2 collocation knowledge and use (Cowie, 1998c; Lewis, 2000; Nesselhauf, 2005; Schmitt, 2004; Meunier and Granger, 2008). The first situates collocation within the broader field of phraseology and provides a far-ranging exposition of corpus-based studies, some of which are collocation-focused. Teaching Collocation, edited by Lewis, is also multi-authored and is directed towards the pedagogic treatment of collocations in the classroom.

Local Engagements Enhancing Practitioner Action and Knowledge for Learner Development and Autonomy within a Collaborative Teachers’ Network

This chapter explores socially situated dimensions to teacher learning within a particular collaborative teachers’ network, or special interest group (SIG). The reconstruction of significant episodes in the development of this network reveals how the creation and diffusion of practitioner knowledge about pedagogies for autonomy and learner development can be innovatively undertaken and promoted at the local level as a collective interest on teachers’ behalf (Vieira 2009). These episodes address, first and foremost, issues to do with the inclusion and development of new voices, processes and perspectives in the production of research and writing about learner autonomy, as well as the creation of egalitarian and participatory approaches to small-scale practitioner research projects to do with learner autonomy and development. In that these issues involve access to publication, peers and knowledge across different institutions and educational sectors, the critical reconstruction of these social dimensions raises fundamental questions about the politics of knowledge (Kincheloe 2010) in how practitioners may collectively engage in professional development within a local context. How can access to writing be enabled for practitioners new to publication so that different, local voices can be shared with a wider peer community?

Following Individuals’ L2 Collocation Development over Time

As a particular feature of language use that sits uneasily at the crossroads between formulaic and novel language (Pawley and Syder, 1983; Sinclair, 1991; Wray, 2002; Hoey, 2005), collocation constrains linguistic choice. This restriction of choice raises not only lexical and psycholinguistic questions, but also important sociocultural issues about how second language (L2) adult learners may differently cope with their L2 collocation development. At the lexical and psycholinguistic levels, Wray (2002: 209–12) proposes that, unlike native speakers, post-childhood L2 learners may break collocations down, at the point of encountering them, into individual lexical units, and are then later faced, at the point of use, with the challenge of relinking such separate items, without knowing what might constitute appropriate pairings. Insofar as that is the case, then we could expect that learners are constantly faced with problems of lexical decision making when they attend to their L2 collocation development. Assuming also that we use language, including collocation, to express individual identity and claim group membership, such decision making may be different for an adult English native speaker and an adult L2 learner, with the result that, for some learners, ‘a perfectly nativelike performance may be of relatively little importance’ (Wray, 2002: 212). If so, then we can predict that learners’ shifting sense of identity within particular contexts and communities of use also impinges on their processes of L2 collocation development.