Collocation Learning Research Articles

The effects of video caption types and advance organizers on incidental L2 collocation learning

This study examined the effects of captioned videos and an advance-organizer strategy in incidental learning of collocations. Videos were enhanced by (1) inserting various types of captions (i.e., full captioning, keyword captioning, and no captioning); (2) administering or not administering an advance-organizer activity prior to video viewing; and (3) the combined effects of these two variables. This study adopted a 2 (+/− advance-organizer strategy) × 3 (types of captioning) between-subjects design, resulting in six possible conditions. A total of 361 Chinese primary school students learning English as a second language (L2) each watched a series of four videos in one of the six conditions. Data from the post-intervention test revealed that full captioning led to better performance in incidental learning of collocations than keyword captioning or no captioning. Administering the advance-organizer strategy resulted in better collocation learning gains compared to no administration. Learners who completed the advance-organizer strategy in the full-captioning condition achieved the best results on incidental learning of collocations. Incidental learning of collocations occurs at a rate similar to the learning of single words. This article highlights the importance of fully captioned videos and an advance-organizer strategy for incidental learning of collocations among primary school L2 learners.

The Development and Evaluation of a Corpus-based Spanish Collocation Error Detection and Revision Suggestion Tool

The topic of collocation has drawn attention for the past three decades in the lexical area of theoretical and applied linguistics. Our research team developed and evaluated a corpus-based assisted tool for collocation learning in Spanish. Based on the two constructed corpora (CEATE and CPEIC) and a Spanish collocation extraction tool (HCE), this computer-assisted learning tool, SpColEDRS, is easy to use to detect errors and also suggests revisions for Spanish collocations. Based on the evaluation, the research results indicated that the tool developed in this research can assist learners effectively, especially in the case of beginners. In addition, the results of the satisfaction survey provided positive confirmation of the effectiveness of this tool in assisting the learning of Spanish collocations. Finally, this study shed light on pedagogical applications of the constructed corpora and the learning of Spanish collocation with a corpus-based approach in a multilingual acquisition setting.

The Effects of Receptive and Productive Collocation Learning Task Types on Elementary School Students’ English Vocabulary Acquisition

The Effects of Receptive and Productive Collocation Learning Task Types on Elementary School Students’ English Vocabulary Acquisition

The Effect of Textual Enhancement on Collocation Learning: The Case of Arab EFL Learners

The Effect of Textual Enhancement on Collocation Learning: The Case of Arab EFL Learners

Developing and Evaluating a Learner-Friendly Collocation System With User Query Data

Learning collocations is one of the most challenging aspects of language learning as there are literally hundreds of thousands of possibilities for combining words. Corpus consultation with concordancers has been recognized in the literature as an established way for language learners to study and explore collocations at their own pace and in their own time although not without technological and sometimes cost barriers. This paper describes the development and evaluation of a learner-friendly collocation consultation system called FlaxLC in a design departure away from the traditional concordancer interface. Two evaluation studies were conducted to assess the learner-friendliness of the system: a face-to-face user study to find out how international students in a New Zealand university used the system to collect collocations of their own interest and a user query analysis—based on an observable artefact of how online learners actually used the system over the course of one year—to examine how the system is used in real life to search and retrieve collocations.

CIRC and STAD in Iranian context: Through the five elements to cooperative learning of lexical collocations

AbstractCooperative learning is an approach of teaching and learning that roots in communicative language teaching (CLT). There are five elements that build up the essence of this approach and its ...

The Effects of Spaced Retrieval on L2 Collocation Learning

The Effects of Spaced Retrieval on L2 Collocation Learning

Collocation in learning vocabulary: the Problems and pedagogical suggestions

This was a descriptive qualitative research which was administered to 20 students of STMIK Jayanusa Padang. The data from the observation shown that the lack of collocation competence of the students noticeable when non-native speakers of English need productive language knowledge. they only experienced the limited number of lexical collocations they know or under the influence of their first language “create” unnatural and farfetched collocations. In order to solve this problem, this investigation aimed to expose the students' collocation problems in vocabulary teaching by using collocation tests and questionnaire. The data found were used to offer some pedagogical suggestions that can be applied in class as a starting point, especially to advanced students. Then it is hoped that students will have properly developed and balanced in learning collocations which will help them speak and write English in a more natural way.

The effects of pictures on short and long-term retention of congruent and incongruent English collocations

The present study investigates the effects of pictures on short and long-term retention of English collocations. It also explores whether retention ability varies according to Korean-English collocational congruency. Participants in the study were Korean elementary school students who learn English as a foreign language (N = 64). These students were assigned to either a Picture or No-Picture condition, and were instructed to remember eight congruent English collocations (i.e., collocations that have Korean translation equivalents) and eight incongruent collocations (i.e., collocations that do not have Korean translation equivalents). Their short- and long-term retention of these collocations was assessed using collocation tests, both immediately and one week after learning. Overall findings indicate that pictures may be useful in promoting both short and long-term retention of English collocations. The study also found that the effects of pictures on collocational recall may not vary according to Korean-English collocational congruency. Given that this study is the first to examine the role of pictures in collocation learning, its findings appear to make significant contributions to existing L2 acquisition literature. Additionally, findings from this study could have an important influence on collocation teaching and learning for young EFL learners.

How dictogloss can facilitate collocation learning in ELT

This instructional intervention investigated the potential for the text reconstruction task dictogloss to facilitate the learning of English verb–noun collocations, for example ‘carry a risk’. Research has shown that learners have difficulties in using such collocations, but few useful instructional techniques are on offer. Participants in the study were 64 L1 Swedish adolescent learners of English. The effectiveness of two modified versions of the dictogloss was compared in a within-subjects design. This implied that participants in pairs co-reconstructed two texts containing target collocations, where each co-reconstruction was preceded by a specific priming activity to induce learners to process collocations as intact wholes. Results showed that having learners elaborate on the meaning of collocations in a pre-task activity outperformed a form-oriented pre-task activity on all measures, notably for productive knowledge on delayed post-tests. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research and their implications for ELT.

Minding the Gap in Vocabulary Knowledge: Incidental Focus on Collocation through Reading

The present study seeks to contribute to our knowledge of the effectiveness of reading in the incidental learning of collocations. The study also addresses the question whether out-of-class exposure such as watching TV, listening to radio or music, reading English books and using social media plays a significant role in the learning of collocations. The research participants were 46 Arabic-speaking young adult EFL learners. They were asked to read a modified text containing 10 pseudo-word collocations and to verify that all were unfamiliar to them. One week later, they read a text containing the actual 21 target collocations, which had been selected on the basis of appearing in instructional materials and a reference corpus, as well as of frequency. Participants were then asked to complete a meaning-recall cloze test in the form of a gap-filling task in which the 21 target collocations were embedded in sentences. Subsequently they were administered a self-report survey about any incidental exposure to English. The analysis of the quantitative results revealed that the target collocations can be learned incidentally through reading although the level of mastery was limited. The survey data showed a positive correlation between the learners’ knowledge of collocations and activities such as watching TV, listening to radio and reading English books. The study also confirmed that collocations are particularly difficult for adult EFL learners and is thus an aspect of vocabulary knowledge in need of further empirical investigations.

Reforming the Students’ Writing Errors in Collocation by Applying Collocation Learning

As a language, English has now spread all over the world and has been known by quite a few people currently. English is known as crucial and salient to learn. The language quite reveals complexities that make some people sometimes give in to continue studying it. It has such as grammar, linguistic terms, and other rules that play a very significant role while applied to daily life. One of the rules that are quite hard to do is combining words within a sentence called as collocation. This paper aims at investigating whether the students at University of Islam Malang have known about collocation. In this study, the researcher conducted a quick survey. The data was collected with an open-questionnaire containing five different sentences in which the students should translate the Indonesian sentence into English correctly using a correct combination of words. The result of the study revealed that the students from University of Islam Malang still have been committing errors in combining words in a sentence; it is due to their little acquaintance with collocation even having no knowledge of it. Since it has happened to the students, by conducting this small research, the researcher expects that the students may learn much more about collocation either from this paper or other resources with regards to collocation learning in English.
 
 Keywords: English, Collocation, Students of University of Islam Malang

Elaborative text modification vs. input flooding: a case study on non-congruent collocations

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effects of input flooding and input elaboration on the learning of non-congruent collocations by Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The participants of the study included 60 EFL learners at the intermediate level of language proficiency who were divided into two equal groups. They received the instruction of non-congruent collocations based on input elaboration and input flooding methods and their knowledge of non-congruent collocations was measured before and after the instruction. The results of paired samples t-tests run on the pretest and posttest scores of each group showed that input flooding and input elaboration had both significantly affected the learning of non-congruent collocations by the participants. However, the results of ANCOVA run on the pretest and posttest scores of non-congruent collocations test indicated that there was no significant difference between the two groups receiving input elaboration and input flooding in terms of their knowledge of non-congruent collocations after the treatment. This led to the conclusion that input flooding and input elaborations are two effective methods for teaching non-congruent collocations to Iranian EFL learners.

Examining the Collocational Knowledge of Libyan Arabic-Speaking Learners of English in Different Learning Environments: Classroom Learning vs. Naturalistic Learning

The recognition that collocation is an important, yet challenging, variable in second language development has attracted extensive research into how to enhance collocation learning. This study examines the collocational knowledge of Libyan Arabic-speaking learners of English by focusing on the influence of two main factors, the learning environment and the native language (L1), since it has been claimed that these factors affect L2 collocation development. Unlike previous studies on collocations which have largely focused on testing classroom learners, this study compares the use of English collocations by both naturalistic learners and classroom learners to explore which learning environment enhances collocation development more. Thirty-six Libyan learners participated in this study (18 formal classroom learners and 18 informal naturalistic learners); they were asked to complete production and reception tests of English collocations. A questionnaire and a vocabulary recognition task (VRT) were additionally used to facilitate interpretation of the data, by eliciting information about learners’ degrees of exposure to informal, naturalistic English and their knowledge of the individual words in collocations. The results showed that collocations are a problematic aspect of language for all L2 learners in the study. However, a naturalistic setting was found to provide a better learning environment for collocation development than a classroom setting. Additionally, the native language of the learner was also found to have an effect on their L2 collocational knowledge. This influence had more of a positive effect on naturalistic learners’ knowledge, and a more negative effect on classroom learners’ knowledge. The findings also revealed a strong correlation between learners’ collocational knowledge and their amount of exposure to informal, naturalistic English.

The Effect of Reading Short Stories on Learning English Collocation among Pre-Intermediate EFL Learners

One of the most problematic areas for foreign language learning is collocation. Iranian EFL learners mostly complain about being unable to talk voluntarily in class since they are not able to produce collocations and new vocabularies because they have of feeling anxious. This study aimed at investigating the effect of reading short stories on learning English collocations among pre-intermediate EFL Learners. The study had an experimental design and the sample of the study consisted of 54 students chosen from the results of a placement test to determine the pre-intermediate level students in Simin Language Institute in Sari. They were placed into 2 groups of experimental and control. Data of the study were collected through a collocation test used as pretest and posttest. The teacher assessed the effect of reading short stories on learning English collocations among pre intermediate EFL learners. The collected data were analyzed through statistical methods by SPSS software version 21. Results showed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the measure. This indicated that reading short stories had a statistical significant effect on EFL learners’ collocation learning. Results had implications for teachers, learners and material developers.

Minding the Gap in Vocabulary Knowledge: Incidental Focus on Collocation Through Reading

The present study seeks to contribute to our knowledge of the effectiveness of reading in the incidental learning of collocations. The study also addresses the question whether out-of-class exposure such as watching TV, listening to radio or music, reading English books and using social media plays a significant role in the learning of collocations. The research participants were 46 Arabic-speaking young adult EFL learners. They were asked to read a modified text containing 10 pseudo-word collocations and to verify that all were unfamiliar to them. One week later, they read a text containing the actual 21 target collocations, which had been selected on the basis of appearing in instructional materials and a reference corpus, as well as of frequency. Participants were then asked to complete a meaning-recall cloze test in the form of a gap-filling task in which the 21 target collocations were embedded in sentences. Subsequently they were administered a self-report survey about any incidental exposure to English. The analysis of the quantitative results revealed that the target collocations can be learned incidentally through reading although the level of mastery was limited. The survey data showed a positive correlation between the learners’ knowledge of collocations and activities such as watching TV, listening to radio and reading English books. The study also confirmed that collocations are particularly difficult for adult EFL learners and is thus an aspect of vocabulary knowledge in need of further empirical investigations.

The Effects of Using Corpus Tools on EFL Student Teachers' Learning and Production of Verb-Noun Collocations

The Effects of Using Corpus Tools on EFL Student Teachers' Learning and Production of Verb-Noun Collocations

Incidental acquisition of collocations in L2

AbstractAs collocations are very numerous, at least a part of them has to be learned incidentally when acquiring a second language. There is now an increasing body of evidence showing that incidental learning of collocations seems to be possible. The present study sets out to investigate whether collocations can be learned incidentally if encountered in their nonadjacent form (with words intervening between collocates). It also looks at the role of prior vocabulary knowledge in incidental acquisition of adjacent and nonadjacent collocations. The results show that nonadjacent collocations can be learned equally well as adjacent ones, at least to the recognition level of knowledge. Also, larger prior vocabulary knowledge seems to lead to better chances of learning both adjacent and nonadjacent collocations incidentally.

The Different Effects of Spoken- and Written-based Collocation Learning on Elementary Students’ Speaking Ability

영어에 대한 노출이 적은 EFL환경의 학습자들은 많은 어휘를 습득하기 어려우므로 의사소통 능력 신장에 도움이 되는 효과적인 어휘 지도법을 적용해야 한다. Lewis(1993)는 영어가 여러 단어로 된 구(multi-word phrases)로 이루어져 있음을 설명하면서 연어(collocation) 중심의 학습을 제시하였다. 연어와 관련된 선행연구들은 개별 어휘학습과 비교하여 연어학습의 효과를 검증하는 연구가 대부분이다. 본 논문에서는 선행 연구들의 결과를 종합하여 연어중심의 어휘학습이 개별 어휘학습보다 효과가 있다는 것을 전제로 한다. 연어중심의 어휘학습이 효과적이라면, 연어를 어떻게 지도하는 것이 학습자의 의사소통능력 향상에 도움이 되는지 연구하고자 한다. 구체적으로 음성언어를 중심으로 연어를 학습했을 때와 문자언어를 중심으로 연어를 학습했을 때, 초등학교 3, 4학년 학습자의 말하기 능력과 정의적 영역에 어떤 영향을 미치는지 분석하였다. 본 논문의 연구 결과, 단기적으로 음성언어 또는 문자언어 중심의 연어학습이 초등학생의 말하기 능력에 영향을 미치지 않았지만, 장기적으로 음성언어를 중심으로 연어를 학습하였을 때 3학년 학습자의 말하기 능력과 정의적 영역에 긍정적인 영향을 미쳤다. 따라서 본 연구는 연어 중심 어휘 학습 지도 방법에 초점을 두어 말하기 능력에 미치는 영향을 고찰했다는 점에 의의가 있다. 3학년 학습자들은 음성언어를 중심으로, 4학년 학습자들은 문자언어의 비율을 확대하여 연어를 학습하는 것이 말하기 능력 향상에 도움이 될 수 있다는 지도 방향을 제시할 수 있다. 후속 연구로 학년 군, 연어 유형에 따른 연어 지도법을 구체화하는 연구가 필요할 것으로 보인다.

Instructed second language acquisition (ISLA)

Definitions are proposed for instructed second language acquisition (ISLA) and ISLA research. The quantity of research is partly driven by external geopolitical forces, its quality improved by such methodological developments as the growing deployment of statistical meta-analyses, new technology, especially eyetracking, and new instrumentation, e.g. Hi-Lab, a measure of aptitudes for both explicit and implicit language learning. Three major constraints on the design of L2 instruction are that: (1) the learning task is too large for either explicit or implicit learning alone; (2) direct effects of instruction are limited to manipulations of the linguistic environment, with intended cognitive processes ultimately under learner control; and (3) development of implicit knowledge is the priority. Three learning conditions that speak to what can best be achieved through incidental and intentional language learning are illustrated by recent studies of (1) resetting L1 parameters and dealing with blocking, and (2) instance learning of lexical items and collocations. Comparisons of L2 learning under the three conditions can help resolve long-standing disagreements over the merits of codefocused and meaning-focused instructional approaches.