Association of lexical and collocation knowledge: A comparative analysis of a learner corpus of English and a native speaker corpus

Abstract

This study compared L2 learners' (EFL) use of single words and collocations with that of native speakers (NSs). The study compiled two text corpora, one from an existing native corpus and the other with texts from Korean EFL learners at three proficiency levels. The study found a significant difference in the lexical diversity of single words between the two corpora. The difference between the advanced EFL learners and NSs was, however, non-significant, which means that advanced learners were on par with NSs in terms of using a diverse range of words. In a comparison of lexical distribution of single words, however, these advanced learners were found to use words between the 1K (the first 1,000 words) and 4K level (4,001(similar to)5,000 words) whereas NSs used words beyond this level. This suggests the need to cover a wider range of words in classroom teaching and assessment. Regarding collocational knowledge, the difference between the NSs and EFL group was apparent and statistically significant, regardless of learners' proficiency levels. Namely, EFL learners used far fewer collocations in a smaller range than their counterparts. The learners' limited collocational competence indicates that collocations should be considered an integral component of the curriculum, instruction, and assessment.