Adjective + Noun Collocational Competence of L1 Thai Learners: A Comparative Study of a Regular Program and an English Program

Paitoon Suwitchanphan,Supakorn Phoocharoensil

doi:10.5539/ass.v10n17p210

Abstract

The main purpose of the current research was to determine how Thai EFL students studying in the regular and English programs use adjective + noun collocations. The second purpose was to find out the relationship between school curricula and collocational competence of adjective + noun in three tests. The participants were 30 regular program students and another 30 English program students from a private secondary school in Bangkok, Thailand. The data collection instruments included the Gap-Filling Test (Test 1), the Collocation Selection Test (Test 2), and the Descriptive Written Task (Test 3). The main findings have shown that, in Test 1, the regular program participants (69.33%) scored higher than the English program participants (57.67%). According to the findings from Test 2, there was no significant difference between the curricula and the Collocation Selection Test. For Test 3, the regular program participants used more adjective + noun collocations (279 tokens) than did the English program ones (211 tokens). The pedagogical implications were also proposed to enhance learners’ collocational competence, especially adjective + noun collocations.

Highlights

Some English language teachers are likely to overemphasize the importance of grammatical structures instead of vocabulary in their lesson plans
Questions that had the highest inappropriate adjective + noun collocations were on Item 20 (63%) in the regular program, and on Item 2 and 20 (67%) in the English program
The total appropriate adjective + noun collocations in the regular and English programs accounted for 908 tokens (50.44%) and 984 tokens (54.67%) respectively

Summary

Introduction

Some English language teachers are likely to overemphasize the importance of grammatical structures instead of vocabulary in their lesson plans. 133), this might result from their strong confidence in teaching something that they know best, instead of things of which they are unsure Though they incorporate vocabulary in lesson plans, only individual words are typically taught rather than collocations General knowledge of individual words is not regarded as sufficient to achieve native-like commands of English; the knowledge of collocation is of paramount importance to every English learner to produce a group of chunks that makes his/her language sound more natural (Bahns, 1993; Brashi, 1999; Brown, 1974; Carter & McCarthy, 1988; Fontenelle, 1994; Ganji, 2012; Hedge, 2000; Hill, 2000; Hsu & Chiu, 2008; Karoly, 2005; Klerk, 2006; Leech, Cruickshank & Ivanic, 2001; Lewis, 1993; Mallikamas & Pongpairoj, 2005; McCarthy, 1990; Wallace, 1982)

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