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3. What barriers do our students encounter in using formulaic sequences in their writing?
Allsixstudentsinmysmallpilotstudyhadjustcompletedtheirfirstyearofuni-
versitystudyandonaveragehadspenttwoandahalfyearsinNewZealandstudy-ingavarietyofmajors:HumanResourceManagement,EnglishLiterature,Media
carbon emissions)orwereeitherreasonablytransparentoreasilytranslatedinto
theirfirstlanguage(asinride-share).Alackofknowledgeofthewordsoralack Riskwasafactormoststudentsreportedasahindranceinusingfreshlyen-countered phrases in context. Avoidance was the main coping strategy in this
case.Anextremeexampleofriskaversionwasonewriterwhorefusedtouseemit
they had read about the topic in newspapers or magazines or as part of their
studiesatMasseyinsubjectareassuchasFinance.Notallretrievalofpreviously
learnedphraseswasaccurate,asJones&Haywood(2004)andCortes(2004)re- portedintheirstudies.Oneparticipantusedtheexpression‘adangerphenom-enon’andidentifieditasonesheknowswellbecauseshelearneditfromatextin
158 AverilCoxhead
Chineseandalsoinheracademicstudy.Otherstriedhardtoincorporateknown
phrasesintotheirwriting.Severaltriedbutgaveupbecauseofinaccuraterecall
orbeingunabletolocatethesequenceinadictionary(oneparticipantchecked
thedictionaryfor‘thecatrace’whenheactuallywantedtowriteabout‘therat
race’).Anotherproblemwasconnectingthetargetphrasewiththetopicathand.
Moststudentsreportedthattheydidnotthinkaboutcollocationsatallduringthe
readingandwritingtask.
Therewasagenuineconcernamongstparticipantstouseacademicandpro-fessionalphrasesintheirwritingsotheirwriting‘soundsacademic’.Themain
reasonsforthisconcernwerethatlecturersmightthinktheiressayswere‘easy’
ifthestudentsjustusedeasywords,thattherewasanexpectationfromlectur-ing staff that specific words and phrases from subject areas would be used by
students,andthatindoingso,thetextswouldbeimproved.Itseemsthatthese
studentsmightalmosthavereadWray’s(2002)workonformulaicsequencesfa-cilitatingtheexpressionofidentitywithinagroup.
Afinalbarriertolearningandusingphraseswasapragmaticlearningap-proach outlined by one participant but touched upon by several others. This
particularstudenthaddecidedthatlearningonewordwashardenough,sowhy
learntwoormore?Verbswerehertarget,supposedlybecausetheyoccurontheir
own.Shedidnotbotherwithadverbsoradjectivesbecausetheyrequiredextra
learning.Anotherstudentwriterreportedthatshewouldbemoreconfidentin
usinginherwritinganounthatshehadjustencounteredinherreading,than
averboradverb,becausetheirmeaningsare‘moredifficulttoguess’.Schmitt&
Zimmerman(2002),intheirstudyofderivativewordforms,foundthatstudents’
knowledgeofadverbsandadjectiveswasnotasstrongasthatofnounsandverbs.
Pragmaticapproachestolearningsuchasdecidingtoonlylearnverbsortofocus
onlearningonewordatatimehaveamajorimpactonthelexicalknowledgeof
studentsandontheirabilitytotakeadvantageofwhatlexicalbundleshaveto
offertheirlanguagedevelopment.WhenmoreresearchonEAPlexicalbundles
becomesmorereadilyavailable,wemighthavemorestudentsrecognisingtheir
valueasonestudentdidwhenhereportedfindingtheAWLwordsreallyuseful
becauseheconstantlyencounteredtheminhisuniversitystudies.
4. Conclusion
InthischapterIhavebrieflyoutlinedadilemmaforlanguageteachersandlearn-ers.Weneedtoapplycontemporaryresearchandconceptsinourteachingof
phrasesandcollocations,buthowcanwesupporttheso-called‘end-users’intheir
endeavourstomakeprogresswhenthenatureandextentoftheseitemshasyetto
bedescribed?Onewaywemightbeabletoanswerthisquestionisdescribedby
Wible(thisvolume),inwhichhediscussesthecontributiondigitalenvironments
mightmaketosupporttheacquisitionofmulti-wordexpressionsandthedevel- opmentofresourcesforteachersandlearners.Anumberofresearchersarework-inginavarietyofexcitingwaystoidentifylexicalbundlesthatgivegoodreturn
for learning. Meanwhile, the lack of theoretical underpinnings directly related
toteachingandlearningcollocationsandphrasescausesdifficulties,asdoesthe
problemoftheanalyticalnatureoflanguageclassroomsencounteringtheunana-lysedchunksofformulaicsequences(Wray2000).Researchintowhethercurrent
teachingmethodologiesaresuccessfulintheirapproachtoteachingandlearning
suchsequencesisbeginningthroughthedevelopmentofsuchmeasuresasthe
InvolvementLoadHypothesis(Hulstijn&Laufer2001).Itappearsthatstipulat-ingtheuseoftargetstructuresintaskshelpslearnersfocusonthem.Listening
tostudents’voicesisalsoimportant,becausetheyhavemuchtocontributetothe
discussion.TakingupthechallengeoffurtherresearchintophraseologyandEAP
mayleadtoopportunitiestoconvinceteachersandlearnersthatitisworthfocus-singonmorethanjustonewordatatime.
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