The development and initial validation of LexCombi 2: a research-oriented elicitation instrument for L2 learners’ productive collocation knowledge
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Dale Brown
Abstract
Collocations are ubiquitous in language and important in successful second language (L2) use. Yet L2 learners’ knowledge of collocations, particularly their productive knowledge, is often considered inadequate. To further understanding of how learners’ productive collocation knowledge develops, effective methods of accessing and assessing this knowledge are necessary. To date, validated instruments for measuring productive collocation knowledge are lacking and ad hoc tools that appear to have undergone limited development prevalent. This paper therefore reports on the development of an instrument for measuring L2 learners’ productive collocation knowledge. Starting with an existing instrument that was considered promising, the paper sets out how a series of iterative trialling and development studies were undertaken to assess the instrument and enhance its validity. With revisions to its format, scoring and cues, a summative evaluation of the new form of the instrument, LexCombi 2, is described, and an initial evaluation of LexCombi 2’s validity given.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Jon Clenton for comments on an earlier version of this paper.
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Research ethics: The local Institutional Review Board deemed the study exempt from review.
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Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study, or their legal guardians or wards.
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Author contributions: The author has accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
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Conflict of interest: The author states no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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