Collocations and Second Language Use

Collocations have recently received increased attention in applied linguistic studies; however, still relatively little is known about the way in which collocations are used by speakers of foreign languages. This article provides an overview of the research which has been carried out in this area, and makes some suggestions as to the directions for future investigations. Collocations are understood here as word combinations such as bitterly cold or commit murder, that is phrases which are more restricted than free combinations (very cold) and less restricted than idioms (get the cold shoulder). Although this is, of course, a very rough definition, it will suffice for the purpose of the present discussion; any attempt at a more precise description would be the topic for a separate article, as collocations are notoriously difficult to define and different (often slightly contradictory) definitions proliferate in the literature. This overview will be restricted to studies that directly address the issue of using collocations by learners of English as a second or other language. Research dealing more specifically with other types of multi-word units, such as idioms or proverbs, will not be discussed here. Neither is there space to present psycholinguistic aspects relevant to the topic (for an overview, see Leśniewska 2006b).