Abstract
Research into delexical structures is not common in Thailand and is in fact a neglected area of investigation despite the fact that knowledge of collocations can improve language competence. This study investigated the learning strategies that caused deviant delexical-verb use by Thai EFL learners. The study was undertaken with two groups of Thai EFL learners of differing English proficiencies who completed a 20-item gap-filling translation test and participated in an interview. The results revealed that learners relied on three major learning strategies - native language transfer, synonymy, and overgeneralisation that could lead to uncommon and deviant use of English delexical structures by learners. It was also discovered that both high and low proficiency learners were most familiar with the delexical verb take. The study also revealed that teachers of English should consider the significant role of these strategies when preparing English collocations and lessons on delexical verbs. Keywords: delexical verb; delexical structure; collocation; learning strategies; learner errors
Highlights
One of the most challenging areas in English vocabulary acquisition is collocation, i.e. words that are used together or that are extremely likely to occur together (Sinclair 1991)
The researcher could assume that take was probably the most familiar delexical verb since the majority of the participants in both low and high groups were able to give the targeted translation of delexical structures with take such as take a picture and take a bath
The purpose of highlighting the problematic verb in EFL classrooms is to familiarise the learners with the difficult verbs, especially in the form of collocation, to avoid mismatch of the delexical verbs and the nouns following them. It was clearly portrayed in this study that the three major learning strategies, namely L1 transfer, synonymy, and overgeneralisation, were the prime sources of the delexical-verb deviations
Summary
One of the most challenging areas in English vocabulary acquisition is collocation, i.e. words that are used together or that are extremely likely to occur together (Sinclair 1991). The expression make a mistake is more likely to be mentioned in comparison with cause a mistake. Other verbs, such as do or create, are not acceptable as collocates of mistake, even though do and create are regarded as synonyms of make. Delexical verbs are named “because of their low lexical content and the fact that their meanings in context are conditioned by the words they co-occur with” O’Keefe et al mentioned that delexical verbs are problematic since they occasionally occur with low-frequency items and learners have difficulty understanding the meaning of the whole expression
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