Formulaic Language in Acquisition and Production: Implications for Teaching

Formulaic language units, ready-made chunks and sequences ofwords, have been the subject ofa large and growing body ofresearch. Although formulaic language has been largely overlooked in favor ofmodels of language that center around the rule-governed, systematic nature of language and its use, there is increasing evidence that these multiword lexical units are integral to firstand second-language acquisition, as they are segmented from input and stored as wholes in long-term memory. They are fundamental to fluent language production, as they allow language production to occur while bypassing controlled processing and the constraints ofshort-term memory capacity. This article defines and describes formulaic language units and surveys the research evidence of their role in language acquisition and production. The implications of this knowledge for classroom teaching are considered, with particular emphasis on attending to input and fostering interaction to facilitate the acquisition of a repertoire of formulaic language.