COLLOCATIONS IN L2 WRITTEN TEXT PRODUCTION

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to gain insight into the mechanisms activated in L2 produc-tion, with a special focus on the use of collocations in written text production in L2 German. In order to achieve this aim, an empirical analysis of the use of collocations was carried out on a corpus of 210 compositions written by Croatian learners of Ger-man, with respect to the following aspects: L1 to L2 transfer and the number of errors in collocational concordance, the type of transfer and semantic transparency of collo-cations, the so called congruency effect, the level of proficiency in German, the frequency of occurrence of a certain collocation and its constituents, and the semantic field of a certain collocation. The inclusion of these aspects into the analysis enables us to gain a more detailed insight into collocational competence as an integrative part of lexical competence, which in turn contributes to a better understanding of collocatio-nal issues and creates a basis for practical implications. The results of the research show that in the analysed corpus the use of collocations which follow the rules of the standard German language prevails in those collocations that are congruent in L1 and L2 and, at the same time, semantically transparent; the deviations from the standard are seen in incongruent structures. The results also show that with increased profici-ency in L2 the use of collocations increases, but the number of errors, that is, deviations from the standard, does not decrease. This points to the need for develo-ping collocational competence in foreign language teaching, where special attention needs to be given to the acquisition of structures incongruent at the level of L1 and L2.