Exploring the potential of multiple CORE meanings in learning L2 verb-noun collocations: A corpus-based discovery learning approach

Collocational knowledge is a critical component of second language (L2) learning. However, L2 learners often rely on first language (L1) translations, leading to the production of deviant collocations. To address this issue, this study investigates the pedagogical potential of teaching collocations through multiple CORE meanings (capitalised), in contrast to approaches that rely on a single core meaning of verbal nodes. Multiple CORE meanings are characterised not only by their typical nominal collocates, but also by other aspects of how they typically pattern. While previous accounts have tended to treat high-frequency verbal nodes as polysemous, we argue that many verbal nodes are better understood as examples of homonymy, which carries several semantically distinct CORE meanings (i.e., ‘draw’ meaning ‘to pull or move something’, ‘to divide something into two’, or ‘to make a picture’), and that this might offer a more logical way for learners to discover and learn collocational patterns. We first identified CORE meanings for six high-frequency verbal nodes through corpus-based analysis, and then tested their pedagogical potential with 240 EFL high school learners. Learners were taught verb-noun collocations using either a CORE meaning-based discovery approach or conventional L1 translations, and they completed a pre-test and two post-tests assessing productive recall and collocability judgement. Results showed that CORE meaning-based instruction enhanced productive recall, though the advantage did not extend to collocability judgement. These findings suggest that presenting learners with multiple CORE meanings can be a promising way to strengthen L2 collocational competence, although further refinement in instructional design is warranted.