Formulaic language has been found to play an important role in second language acquisition, comprehension and production. Therefore, the need for a list of frequent and useful multiword expressions to be included in the language-teaching classroom is greatly felt. Despite multiple attempts at compiling a definitive list with optimum pedagogical application, researchers and teaching experts are divided over which list is most comprehensive and could yield the most advantages for each particular teaching context. Among other reasons, this disagreement stems from the different definitions of multiword expressions and the criteria used in extracting such phrases from a corpus. Considering the importance of identifying the most pedagogically-valuable multiword expressions, the present study seeks to elicit value judgments from a number of experienced EAP instructors and advanced-level learners regarding items found in three recent notable lists. 100 EAP learners and instructors were asked to rate the expressions based on how valuable they believed them to be in the teaching/learning process. In spite of some differences between the instructors and learners, the findings, along with complementary data from an additional open-ended task, revealed a general preference for two-word expressions with a clear form-function mapping as well as multiword expressions that included collocating forms. The implications of these findings for language teachers and syllabus designers will be discussed.

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