Collocational Knowledge and the Effect of the Mainstream Language

Collocational Knowledge and the Effect of the Mainstream Language

Ilerten, Ferda

The effect of the second language on the first has been investigated in various domains and this effect can be visible in the lexicon even in the first few years. Thus, in order to understand whether a group or individuals undergo some changes in the first language, it may be useful to start with the lexicon. Since the vocabulary is defined as the most “vulnerable”(de Bot&Weltens,1993) part, collocational knowledge was chosen as the unit to investigate. The study was conducted in the USA with 22 participants, 12 of whom were the first generation immigrants and 10 of whom represented the second generation, the children born to first generation immigrant parents. Also 15 Turkish people living in Turkey participated as the control group. (A pilot study was also conducted in the Netherlands) In order to see whether L2 English has an effect on the collocational knowledge of L1 Turkish in the first and the second generation, four questions were directed: -Does prolonged contact (10 years or more) with an L2 have an effect on L1 collocational knowledge? -How well can the first and the second generation immigrants recognise non-native-like collocations compared to Turkish L1 speakers in Turkey? -Does the performance differ in context based and non context based tasks? -How is the correctness judgement of collocations related to sociolinguistic variables? (Laufer 2003) Four tests were used in evaluating the collocational knowledge; naturalistic data, multiple choice test, translation task and finally they were presented cloze tests. Also in order to get sociolinguistic data, biodata forms were given and interviews were made.. In the interviews, the participants reflected their opinions about the homeland and their mother tongue. The results have shown that although the first generation immigrants showed that their L1 has influenced to some extent, the second generation immigrants has an immense loss or they could not acquire the language fully.

Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed

2012-05

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