Effects of type of exercise and working memory capacity on support verb collocation learning in Spanish as a second language

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence that Spanish as a second language (SL2) learners are benefited from the mastery of formulaic language, and that collocations and other lexical chunks pose a special challenge for them. The so-called support verb constructions (SVA) represent a substantial group within collocations in Spanish. These constructions can be taught through several types of exercises: those that require the learner to match verbs with nouns and those that provide the learner with the intact collocation, among others. In this study, we intend to test both types of instruction in a group of 55 SL2 learners. Results did not reveal differences between the two types of instruction and both exercises provoked cross associations. Furthermore, we observed that high working memory capacity participants were benefited to a greater extent from the type of instruction based on matching verbs and nouns.