Abstract
Learning phrasal paraphrases could enrich writing (Chen et al., 2013; Laufer, 1991). For example, the phrases “take a lead in,” “set an example by,” “play an exemplary role in,”and “give a lead in” share semantic equivalence but different usages. Grouping these synonymous phrases could help language learners systematically acquire a set of formulaic sequences along with their corresponding usages in various contexts, and promote productive language use. To help language learners expand their vocabulary knowledge, we adopted an automatic paraphrase suggestion system, PREFER (Chen et al., 2013) to equip learners with various formulaic expressions uses. This system suggests paraphrases with their corresponding Chinese translations, usage patterns and example sentences. Such information is able to underpin language learners’ comprehension of individual phrase usages and facilitate their decisions on the proper formulaic expression use for a specific context while writing or speaking. In other words, this system aims to assist language learners' productive language skill.