Measuring phrasal knowledge in foreign language acquisition.

Research in ACQUILANG originally focused on the impact of instruction on the second language acquisition process, but thanks to the new research domain "Foreign language test development " and the attached 0,1 ZAP member the scope of attention has broadened. The present Research project "Measuring phrasal knowledge in foreign language acquisition" aims to develop test of collocational knowledge ina foreign language (English and Spanish). In doing so the project allows integrate the different fields of expertise within AQUILANG. According to recent applied linguistics literature fluent and efficient language use is largely dependent on the learner's ability to recognizeand recycle multiword units (called "Chunks"). The objective of the project is to
(a) develop an instrument to evaluate the collocation knowledge of foreign language learners and relate it to their other skills in the target language (i.e. receptive as well as productive language skills);
(b) further refine a new integrative test (Deleted essentials Test) that is an improved version of the well-known Cloze and c-tests (see Eyckmans et al. 2004)
these test formats will not only serve to profile beginners and low-intermediate learners but also advanced foreign language learners.