Individual differences in L2 speaker intuitions of phrasal frequency and association strength of multiword sequences

Abstract

This brief report presents the results of a re-analysis of data by Yi, Man, and Maie (2023), who investigated L1 and L2 intuitive knowledge of phrasal frequency and collocation strength in multiword sequences. We utilized an individual-differences approach and examined which participant variables (age of onset, length of residence, language use, and L2 proficiency) predicted the participants’ accuracy in judging the phrasal frequency and association strength of multiword sequences in English. We found that the demographic variables were only related to the accuracy in judging association strength, but those variables differentially predicted the accuracy depending on whether the collocations were of high or medium association strength.