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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychol.
Sec. Psychology of Language
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1417786

The Effects of Cross-language Overlap and Semantic Transparency on the Processing of L2 Collocations

Provisionally accepted
Abdulaziz Altamimi Abdulaziz Altamimi *
  • Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Although extensive research has been carried out on collocation processing, it is still unclear how cross-language overlap and transparency influence the processing of collocations by L2 learners. In the current study, a phrase judgment task was used to investigate the processing of congruent (i.e., exist in both English and Arabic) and incongruent collocations (i.e., exist only in English) by Arabic non-native speakers of English. The semantic transparency of the items was controlled for. Results demonstrated the effect of congruency on processing: congruent items yielded more correct responses and faster response times than incongruent items. The effect of congruency was modulated by proficiency, with congruency having a stronger effect on lower-proficiency learners than higher-proficiency learners.Transparency had no effect, with no differences in response times and accuracy between transparent and opaque collocations.

    Keywords: langauge processing, collocation processing, Semantic transparency, congruency, L2 proficiency

    Received: 15 Apr 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Altamimi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Abdulaziz Altamimi, Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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