Phonological Short-Term Memory and the Operation of Cross-Linguistic Factors in Elementary and Pre-Intermediate Adult L2 Learners’ Collocational Usage

This chapter addresses the link between Phonological Short-term Memory (PSTM) and collocational transfer between L1 and L2, which to date has been relatively unexplored. According to Bonk (2001), elementary and intermediate L2 learners “may not have sufficient available processing capacity to pay careful attention to how words are conventionally combined” and when not sure of the correct L2 form they may resort to avoidance or transfer from L1. In this connection we hypothesize that in L2 learners with lower PSTM capacity L1 transfer may be more discernible than in those with higher PSTM capacity. We report on an empirical study involving adult Polish learners of English attending a six-month English language course in Ireland—30 students at elementary level and 30 at intermediate level—whose mean age was 29.8 years. The testing battery we deployed included decontextualized multiple-choice questions, collocation accuracy judgement sentences, fill-in-the-blank sentences and writing tasks. The findings from the study are broadly supportive of our hypothesis.