Phraseology and second language proficiency

It is now generally accepted that advanced learners of English need to have command of a nide range of complex lexical units, which are for a native speaker processed as prefabricated chunks, fixed, or semi-fixed expressions. However, although there has been an increasing amount written about the role of phraseology in second language acquisition, there remains a lack of detailed description of learners' phraseological performance as the basis for understanding how phraseological competence develops. This paper addresses certain current issues in the description of collocations in English, and, in discussing the major approaches to the linguistic description of prefabricated language, the need for detailed categorization is emphasized, particularly for those interested in the development of this component of proficiency in a second language. Data is presented from native speaker language use, illustrating what can be revealed by one such descriptive model. Finally, the findings of a number of studies of native and non-native academic writing in English are discussed.