0. Introduction Advances in computer analysis of the English language have shown that lexical patterns are widespread in language use. Some researchers call them “lexical phrases” (Nattinger and DeCarrico,1992) or “lexical chunks” (Lewis, 1993); others use the term “multi-word chunks” or just “chunks”of language. Whatever the terms are, they are characteristic of language use and language acquisition 0. Introduction Advances in computer analysis of the English language have shown that lexical patterns are widespread in language use. Some researchers call them “lexical phrases ” (Nattinger and DeCarrico, 1992) or “lexical chunks ” (Lewis, 1993 ) others use the term “multi-word chunks ” or just “chunks ” of language. Whatever the terms are, they are characteristic of language use and language acquisition