Stimulating the Intake of Formulaic Sequences in Texts: the Case of Typographical Enhancement

In the last couple of decades, linguistics and applied linguistics research have been characterised by a growing interest in the phenomenon of phraseology, also referred to as formulaic language. Formulaic language learning has been proposed as a key element in achieving nativelike production and in the language acquisition process at large (e.g. Boers et al., 2006; Siyanova-Chanturia, Conklin & Van Heuven, 2011; Sonbul, 2015). However, research suggests that acquisition of foreign language formulaic sequences occurs at a very slowpace (e.g. Laufer & Waldman, 2011; Li & Schmitt, 2010; Peters, 2014). Among the explanations for this slow pace are insufficient encounters with the same formulaic sequence in a short span of time, lack of attention given by learners to formulaic sequences that are semantically transparent or consisting of familiar words, and insufficient cognitive processing of the kind that fosters retention. While phraseological teaching approaches and materials are in vogue, the limited amount of instruction time in non-immersive learning contexts is bound to be insufficient to meet the challenge of mastering the formulaic dimension of a foreign language. Therefore, pedagogical interventions aiming to stimulate incidental intake from authentic texts that learners read autonomously, i.e. outside the language classroom, are also called for. This study assesses the effectiveness of a textual enhancement method aiming to direct learners’ attention to the formulaic sequences they encounter in textual input. Even though a given formulaic sequence may occur just once in an authentic text, textual enhancement has the potential to promote the learner’s noticing and thus intake of the formulaic sequence. The following research questions are addressed:  Does typographic enhancement of formulaic sequences foster their intake?  Does typographic enhancement of formulaic sequences foster intake of other formulaic sequences from the text beyond those that are enhanced?