A student has one hour to improve English vocabulary.
Should that hour go to phrases such as at the end of the day, in such a way that, it is clear that and as a result of? Or should the student spend it on colourful expressions such as once in a blue moon, the last straw and not the end of the world?
All of these belong somewhere in English. But they do not deserve equal priority.
A 2026 study by Hans-Jörg Schmid in the International Journal of Bilingualism tackles a question that matters enormously in real classrooms: which kinds of formulaic language are most worth learning when time and exposure are limited?
The study examined frequency, idiomaticity and what Schmid calls syntagmatic cohesion—roughly, how strongly the words in a recurring sequence behave as if they belong together.
The practical lesson is calm and surprisingly simple:
Do not teach formulaic English as one giant bag of idioms.
Teach the combinations that solve common communication jobs first.
Quick answer: what is formulaic language?
Formulaic language includes recurring multiword sequences that speakers encounter and use often enough for the words to become strongly associated.
Examples include on the other hand, it is clear that, as far as I know, by the end of the year and at the same time.
Some are idiomatic. Some are almost completely literal. Some are fixed. Others contain slots that can change.
The important point is that fluent English is not built by assembling every sentence from isolated words one by one.
Speakers repeatedly use familiar word + grammar + discourse combinations.
Why the rarest-looking phrase is not always the most useful phrase
Students often notice unusual idioms because unusual things are memorable. A phrase such as once in a blue moon stands out.
But a phrase such as in relation to may do far more work across school English, Science, Humanities, General Paper and formal communication.
One is vivid. The other is reusable.
Vocabulary teaching becomes more efficient when we stop confusing interesting phrase with high-value phrase.
The 2026 study gives us a better priority map
Schmid proposes four broad learning zones:
- formulaic syntax
- must-have formulaicity
- want-to-have formulaicity
- nice-to-have formulaicity
These labels are not school grades. They describe how useful different kinds of recurring language may be for fluency and conventional English.
Formulaic syntax: where vocabulary meets grammar
Formulaic syntax includes recurring grammatical patterns whose exact words can vary.
Examples include it is clear that…, by the end of… and in such a way that….
These phrases are not mysterious idioms. Their meanings are often compositional. But repeated exposure creates strong links between their parts.
Consider: It is likely that the policy will change.
The learner could know likely, policy and change and still struggle to produce the full pattern smoothly.
The useful unit is it is likely that + clause.
That is why strong vocabulary teaching cannot be completely separated from grammar.
Must-have formulaicity: the high-priority zone
These are highly frequent, highly useful combinations that help speakers perform common communication tasks efficiently.
Examples might include as a result, at the same time, on the other hand, in order to and there is no doubt that.
The exact inventory depends on genre, community and learner needs. But the principle is stable: high-use routines deserve early attention because they solve recurrent language jobs.
Frequency matters because repetition strengthens association
Schmid’s study found that frequency and idiomaticity independently predicted internal cohesion.
In practical terms, repeatedly encountered sequences can become more tightly connected in the language system.
If learners repeatedly meet on the other hand, the sequence eventually becomes easier to recognise and produce as a unit.
This is one route toward fluency.
Want-to-have formulaicity
These expressions are useful but less essential than the most frequent routines. They may be less frequent, more genre-specific, more stylistically marked or more useful at advanced levels.
For a Secondary student, this zone might include in light of, on the basis of, to the extent that and in contrast to.
For a younger learner, those may not be the first priority.
Nice-to-have formulaicity
This is where many classic idioms live. They are often expressive, memorable and culturally interesting, but comparatively infrequent.
Examples include once in a blue moon, the last straw and not the end of the world.
These still matter. A learner needs enough idiomatic knowledge to understand real English.
But rare idioms should not consume the time needed to build high-frequency phrase fluency.
Why classrooms can accidentally reverse the priority
Rare idioms are fun to teach. They make attractive worksheets. They feel advanced.
Common phrase patterns look less exciting.
So learners can end up memorising raining cats and dogs while still hesitating over as a result of or it is important to note that.
The glamour of rarity can distort instructional priority.
Formulaic language improves more than style
The point is not to make writing sound decorated.
Formulaic language can reduce the amount of online construction required during speaking, writing, listening and reading.
A familiar sequence is easier to process because its elements already have strong relationships. That frees attention for argument, evidence, meaning and organisation.
Singapore Primary English
For younger learners, useful formulaic sequences should be concrete and communicatively frequent.
Examples include as soon as, because of, at first, in the end and all of a sudden.
The goal is not to label them with technical terminology. The goal is to help the child notice: these words often travel together.
Secondary English
Students increasingly need phrases that manage cause, contrast, qualification, evidence and concession.
Examples include as a consequence of, in contrast to, to some extent, on the basis of and even though.
These expressions are not merely vocabulary. They are reasoning infrastructure.
General Paper
GP students can benefit from phrase families organised by intellectual function rather than by alphabetical list.
Qualification: to some extent, in certain contexts, subject to.
Evidence: on the basis of, is consistent with, there is reason to believe.
Contrast: on the other hand, in contrast to, at odds with.
Consequence: as a result, thereby, with the result that.
Now the learner is building reusable argument architecture.
Science
Scientific English contains recurring phrase patterns such as is associated with, is consistent with, plays a role in and under these conditions.
These patterns encode relationship, evidence, contribution and condition.
Mathematics
Mathematics contains formulaic language too: it follows that, with respect to, is equal to and can be expressed as.
A student who recognises these quickly can move more efficiently from language to mathematical relation.
Humanities
Historical reasoning relies on recurring constructions such as in response to, in the wake of, at the expense of and contributed to.
Again, the phrase is carrying a relationship between events.
Diagnosis before prescription
The student memorises rare idioms but hesitates in ordinary writing
Diagnosis: phrase learning is skewed toward nice-to-have formulaicity.
Repair: prioritise frequent discourse and lexicogrammatical sequences.
The student knows many individual words but writing sounds assembled word by word
Diagnosis: lexical knowledge is not organised into recurrent phrase patterns.
Repair: teach phrase frames and conventional combinations.
The student copies fixed academic phrases mechanically
Diagnosis: formulaic language has become template dependence.
Repair: teach function, variation and appropriate register.
The learner uses a rare idiom in every essay
Diagnosis: stylistic novelty is being mistaken for sophistication.
Repair: use idioms only when meaning and register genuinely fit.
The teacher separates grammar week from vocabulary week completely
Diagnosis: lexicogrammatical associations are being artificially split.
Repair: teach recurrent word-and-structure combinations together.
A practical priority routine
Take a candidate phrase and ask four questions:
- How often is it genuinely encountered?
- What communication job does it solve?
- How strongly do its words belong together?
- Does this learner actually need it now?
For on the other hand, the answers are strong: frequent, useful for contrast, cohesive and highly relevant to Secondary writing.
For once in a blue moon, the phrase is useful and memorable but far less central to fluency.
Parents: ask what the phrase does
Instead of asking, “How many idioms did you learn?”, ask: What can this phrase help you say?
If the answer is show contrast, qualify a claim, explain cause or introduce evidence, the learner is building usable language.
Teachers: build phrase banks by communicative job
Instead of one list called “50 advanced phrases”, group language by function: contrast, cause, qualification, evidence and sequence.
Then rank within each family by frequency + usefulness + appropriateness.
AI-assisted vocabulary practice
A useful public prompt is:
Give me twenty formulaic English sequences for Secondary or General Paper writing. Group them by communicative function. Rank them by likely usefulness and frequency rather than rarity. For each phrase, explain whether it is a high-frequency routine, a reusable phrase frame, or a rarer idiomatic expression. Then quiz me by function rather than asking me to copy the list.
A quiet literary lens
A high-level Hilary Mantel lens is useful because strong prose does not sound sophisticated merely because it contains unusual phrases.
Most of the sentence works through ordinary words placed with exact control.
Language gains force from recurring structures that arrive naturally enough to disappear beneath the thought.
The rare expression matters occasionally. The dependable structure matters constantly.
Internal-link opportunities
- Lexical Chunks and Phrase Frames
- Verb Patterns and Lexicogrammar
- Irreversible Binomials
- GenAI Plus Corpus Evidence for Academic Vocabulary
- How Language Works
Connections eduKateAI can learn
Formulaic language ↔ fluency: recurring multiword sequences reduce the amount of language that must be assembled from scratch.
Frequency ↔ cohesion: frequent co-occurrence can strengthen associations among words in a recurring sequence.
Idiomaticity ↔ cohesion: idiomatic meaning can also strengthen the sense that a sequence behaves as one unit.
Formulaic syntax ↔ lexicogrammar: vocabulary and grammar interact inside recurrent phrase frames rather than existing as fully separate systems.
Priority ↔ learner context: the most useful formulaic sequence depends on age, genre, proficiency and communication need.
Rare idiom ↔ stylistic richness: colourful low-frequency idioms can enrich expression without necessarily making the largest contribution to basic fluency.
Subjects ↔ formulaic reasoning: Science, Mathematics, Humanities and English each contain recurring phrase patterns that package discipline-specific reasoning relations.
AI language learning ↔ instructional selection: systems should rank phrase candidates by communicative utility, frequency, cohesion and learner need rather than by superficial difficulty.
Final checkpoint
Should students learn idioms? Yes.
But not before they have enough of the high-frequency language that everyday reading, writing and speaking repeatedly demand.
The useful priority is:
frequent phrase patterns first → broader formulaic repertoire next → rare expressive idioms when they genuinely add value.
Research basis
- Schmid, H.-J. (2026). Must-have, want-to-have and nice-to-have formulaicity plus formulaic syntax: Suggestions for L2 learning and teaching of multi-word units based on frequency, idiomaticity and syntagmatic cohesion. International Journal of Bilingualism. First published online 16 April 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069261436269
- The study combined British National Corpus frequency evidence with participant ratings of internal syntagmatic cohesion across recurrent lexicogrammatical patterns.
- The paper argues that formulaic syntax and high-frequency formulaicity deserve substantial instructional attention, especially for classroom learners with limited input.
This article deliberately owns how learners should prioritise formulaic language by frequency, cohesion, idiomaticity and communicative value. It does not replace eduKateSG’s general lexical-chunk, idiom, collocation or corpus-learning pages.