L2 phraseology research at the interface between Learner Corpus Research and Psycholinguistics

Empirical and experimental data deriving from Learner Corpus Research (LCR) and psycholinguistics, respectively, is able to inform us on a number of phenomena occurring in the context of second and foreign language learning (Forti 2020). The different nature of the two data elicitation contexts (Gilquin & Gries 2009) represents an invaluable opportunity to investigate second language learning issues from different perspectives, especially when combining them in addressing specific research questions (Römer, Skalicky, & Ellis 2018). This paper focuses on the different ways in which LCR and psycholinguistic data have been combined in research studies on L2 phraseology so far. In drawing on Durrant & Siyanova-Chanturia (2015)’s work, it expands, discusses and updates some of the points dealt with by the two authors. In particular, it shows how both LCR and psycholinguistic studies tend to reach out to other domains, it briefly illustrates the main arguments supporting the theoretical compatibility of the two kinds of data, and then describes and exemplifies the three main ways in which corpus and psycholinguistic data have been combined in L2 phraseology research. Finally, it outlines what lies ahead in terms of expanding the scope of this specific perspective within second/foreign language learning research, with specific reference to the notion of phraseological complexity (Paquot 2019).