Factors influencing english multi-word units knowledge in russian speakers. Partial replication of revier (2009)

Abstract

Understanding and producing English multi-word units is an essential ability, which needs to be mastered for communicating successfully in English. Yet, it has been shown to be challenging for non-native speakers of English and is often neglected in teaching practice. Very little is known about the factors that may facilitate or hinder the acquisition of multiword units. The present study investigates the role of semantic transparency and the effect of the learners’ L1 on multi-word expression knowledge. Additionally, the study examines the relationship between the learners’ vocabulary size and their ability to use multi-word expressions. L1 Russian learners of English (n = 29) performed three online tests to measure their overall proficiency in English, productive vocabulary size and their knowledge of multiword expressions of three levels of semantic transparency. The target multi-word expressions used in the study were subjected to L1-L2 congruence analysis in order to establish the level of similarity between English expressions and their equivalents in Russian. The statistical analysis of the collected data revealed that non-transparent multi-word expressions posed more difficulties to the learners than transparent and semi-transparent. These results differ from findings in an earlier study on Danish high-school and university students, who showed gradually better knowledge of multi-word expressions with the increase of transparency across the three levels. Although L1-L2 congruence had been previously shown to have a facilitating effect on multi-word expressions for speakers of Danish and German, no effect of L1-L2 congruence was found for the Russian-English language pair. Finally, strong correlations were found between vocabulary size and multiword expression knowledge regardless of their semantic transparency level.