This part of the book reports on some relevant findings from the Trinity College Dublin (henceforth TCD) Modern Languages Research Project (henceforth MLRP). As was indicated in the Foreword and Introduction, although this project did not focus specifically or exclusively on the lexicon, it nevertheless gave rise to data which shed light on some much-debated lexical issues. These data have already been discussed elsewhere in diverse presentations and publications, but this volume seems an appropriate place in which to bring the relevant findings together for consideration of a more integrated kind. On a more personal note, the project was the trigger which occasioned my own return to an interest in lexical research; on this ground alone, as far as I am concerned, it warrants acknowledgement as a factor in the genesis of this book.

The project was inaugurated in October 1988. It was based in the TCD Centre for Language and Communication Studies, but also had the active support of the TCD Departments of French, Germanic Studies, Italian and Spanish. Its general aim was to monitor the L2 development of university-level learners and to examine the possibility of connections between these learners' L2 development and their previous general educational and language-learning experience. After a pilot phase from October 1988 until September 1990, the project became fully operative in October 1990. Data collection ended in 1995. The account of the TCD MLRP given in this chapter outlines the project's subjects and methodology, sketches the approach taken to its computerization, and indicates the kinds of lexical issues that have been explored using project findings.