Choosing motivated chunks for teaching

In this contribution we qualify the following two recommendations that have been made in the Instructed Second Language Acquisition (ISLA) literature regarding formulaic sequences, also known as chunks: (i) Given the time constraints in teaching, priority should be given in the classroom to high-frequency chunks, while less frequent chunks must be relegated to the chances of incidental acquisition, (ii) Given the assumed arbitrariness of chunks, there is little teachers can say about them; about all teachers can do is help students to take notice of them. We qualify these recommendations by arguing the following: (i) It is actually high-frequency chunks that stand the best chance of being picked up by learners autonomously. Therefore, class-time should be devoted to medium-frequency chunks, (ii) Cognitive Linguistics (CL) research has shown that many chunks are motivated in one way or another. Crucially, research has shown that revealing this motivation to students can be quite beneficial for their learning. The principal aim of our contribution is to explore a kind of motivation for the composition of chunks that has largely gone unnoticed even in the CL camp, but one that has wide 'coverage', i.e. phonological motivation. We present evidence of the role played by consonance and assonance in the formation of chunks as well as evidence that alerting students to these sound patterns positively influences retention. We conclude by making a plea for the explicit targeting by teachers and materials writers of medium-frequency chunks that are particularly teachable due to their motivated nature.SCOPUS: ch.b