L1 frequency effects in input-poor environments: A corpus-based study of word combinations in learner writing

Paquot, Magali [UCL]

Frequency effects are central in current second language research and theory but they have often been restricted to effects of input frequency in naturalistic environments (e.g. Ellis, 2002; Ellis and Ferreira-Junior, 2009). In a large majority of EFL contexts, however, the amount of input in the foreign language is poor and the influence of the first language may be strong (Krashen, 1981). Research on cross-linguistic influence in SLA has indeed shown that it can impact learning in a number of ways (Odlin, 1989; Jarvis and Pavlenko, 2008). The main objective of this paper is to provide empirical data to support Gass and Mackey’s (2002) view that transfer deserves a more prominent position in the ongoing debate and investigation of frequency effects. The paper draws on findings from three consecutive corpus-based investigations of EFL learners’ use of word combinations in which I made use of Jarvis’s (2000) methodological framework to investigate transfer effects on learners’ use of lexical bundles, i.e. “recurrent expressions, regardless of their idiomaticity, and regardless of their structural status” (Biber et al., 1999), in the French component of the International Corpus of Learner English. The studies focused on 3-word lexical bundles that include a lexical verb, lexical bundles that function as text organizers (e.g. on the contrary, let us take the example) and bundles that are prominent in academic writing. Results suggest that transfer effects are detectable in French EFL learners’ selection of a number of English word combinations whose translational equivalents are deeply entrenched in their mental lexicon. L1 frequency proved to contribute to transferability in a significant way and the different manifestations of L1 influence displayed in the learners’ idiosyncratic use of word combinations were traced back to various properties of French words, including their preferred collocational use and syntactic structures, their functions and discourse conventions. Comparisons of interlanguages (e.g. the interlanguage of French vs. Spanish learners) and spot-checks in corpora of different first languages (e.g. French vs. Spanish) also provided further evidence that L1 frequency effects play a crucial role in learners’ use of word combinations in input-poor environments.