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Research comparing equal and expanding spacing schedules in relation to L2 single words is limited. Moreover, none of the existing studies has examined the learning of formulaic language. The current study aims to address this gap by investigating the impact of equal and expanding intervals on the long-term retention of L2 collocations in deliberate learning contexts. Eighty-three university learners of English l (L1 Arabic) participated in the study. They were divided into three groups: equal spacing (7-7-7) condition, expanding spacing (1-5-15) condition, and a control condition (no exposure). The experimental groups completed four treatment sessions in which they were asked to deliberately learn 23 collocations. To assess collocation knowledge before and after the treatment, all groups took form recall and form recognition tests. Results show that both spacing conditions led to significantly higher gains than the control group in both tests. The difference between the two experimental groups was not significant for the recall measure but it was significant for the recognition measure (higher gains under 'equal spacing'). Moreover, estimated language proficiency modulated the difference between the control and expanding conditions, with a sharper difference as proficiency increased. Important implications for language teaching and classroom instruction based on these findings are discussed.

Research investigating lag effects in second language (L2) collocation learning is very limited. To date, no intervention study has examined the relationship between intersession intervals (ISIs) and retention intervals (RIs) in relation to incidental acquisition of collocations. To fill this gap, the current study collected data from two groups of students in Saudi Arabia (Experiment 1, n = 73; Experiment 2, n = 69), using a pretest-treatment-delayed posttest design. The participants learned 25 incongruent adjective-noun collocations incidentally during five reading sessions at either a 3.5-day ISI (Experiment 1) or a 7-day ISI (Experiment 2). Two control groups received no treatment. Learning rates were assessed at the form recall and meaning recall levels of sensitivity following an RI of 14 days in Experiment 1 and an RI of 28 days in Experiment 2. Results show that both spacing schedules were equally effective for the incidental acquisition of collocations.

Previous studies investigating the effects of spacing on vocabulary learning have primarily focused on single words. There is limited research on how distributed practice affects the learning of the phrasal lexicon. The present study addresses this gap by focusing on collocations. In a pretest-treatment-delayed-posttest design, two controlled quasi-experiments (N = 55 and N = 50) were conducted in order to evaluate two spacing schedules, spaced versus massed. The participants learned 25 adjective-noun collocations either incidentally (Experiment 1) or deliberately (Experiment 2). In each experiment, a control group was included. Participants’ collocational gains were measured at a form-recall level of mastery three weeks after the treatment. Mixed-effects regression modelling results indicate that spacing had a significantly large effect on vocabulary gains in the deliberate learning condition and a small effect on gains in the incidental learning condition. Massing, on the other hand, appears to be more effective (with a medium effect) in incidental learning situations. Implications for pedagogy and materials design are followed by suggestions for future research.

As shown by research conducted in the fields of corpus linguistics, psycholinguistics and second language acquisition (SLA), formulaic sequences (e.g. collocations, idioms, phrasal verbs, lexical bundles etc.) form a crucial part of second language learners’ language competence. One of the main characteristics of some of these multi-word combinations is their idiomatic nature and idioms have been widely researched as being the most compositional type. However, little is known whether collocations can be idiomatic too. Therefore, this thesis aims to fill that gap with a specific focus on statistically-derived collocations. Three studies have been carried out to this end. The first study examined the extent of collocations whose meanings were the sums of their component parts, those that were figurative (compositional or idiomatic) and finally, collocations that were polysemous, i.e. had both literal and figurative meanings. A corpus search was performed to find the most common V+N and Adj+N combinations and results showed that the majority of them had additive meanings (as reflected in traditional definitions of collocations), very few were completely opaque and a substantial percentage were those that allowed both literal and figurative interpretation. The second study was conducted in the Chilean classroom context and it focused on the knowledge of the figurative meanings of collocations. A meaning-recall test was used as a measurement instrument and variables such as corpus frequency, semantic transparency and language use factors were manipulated. The findings demonstrated rather weak figurative knowledge and a positive relationship between this knowledge and the amount of outside engagement. The last study investigated the same type of collocations, namely how non-native speakers acquired figurative meanings incidentally through reading. An authentic novel was used as a means to manipulate one single variable, frequency of exposure. Results showed that the figur