Collocational Knowledge Research Articles

Familiarity with Collocations in EFL Context and Strategies Utilized in Translating Them into Arabic

This paper aims at examining the familiarity of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at Najran University with English collocations and the strategies being used when translating them into Arabic. The data of this study are collected from 40 female EFL learners of the English Department at Najran University. The participants’ familiarity with English collocations is measured by means of a two-part test adopted from Gyllstad (2007). A translation test consisting of 48 collocations in both short texts and short sentences has been used to determine the participants’ familiarity with translation strategies when translating English collocations into Arabic. Results show that Najran University EFL learners’ knowledge of collocations is unsatisfactory and below what is expected from them as English language major students. The results of the Pearson correlation test indicate a positive relationship between the learners’ familiarity with English collocations and their ability to translate them into Arabic using different translation strategies.

Effect of Persian and English colour collocations on L2 learners' proficiency

Collocations play an important role in L2 teaching and learning. The present study investigated the effect of color collocations in L2 learning. This study was done in 2 phases: In the first phase, the frequency of color collocations was calculated in English and Persian. Two lists of English and Persian color collocations were chosen. Each list included 100 color collocations. The English collocations were chosen from English collocation dictionaries, but the Persian color collocations were chosen by the Persian native speakers. Chi-square results indicated that there were some differences between the 2 languages, but the differences were not statistically significant. In the second phase, the (possible) effect of color collocations on upper-intermediate and advanced L2 learners� proficiency was investigated. Sixty upper-intermediate and advanced L2 learners, both male and female, were chosen from a private language institute in Isfahan, Iran. The minimum and maximum ages of the participants were about 15-38, and their homogeneity was tested by the OPT. Participants were given a pretest in order to measure their color collocational knowledge. Then, after the treatment, a posttest was administered. Results revealed that teaching collocations had a significant effect on the participants� proficiency.

Effects of differences in language aptitude on learning grammatical collocations under elaborated input conditions

The purpose of this study was to find out, whether three methods of presenting input, were effective in relation to language aptitude. Persian-speaking learners of English were provided with 20 grammatical collocations (verb–preposition collocations) embedded in authentic passages, lexically/grammatically elaborated passages, and lexically/grammatically elaborated passages with shorter sentences and enhanced target collocations. Participants were assessed on their receptive knowledge and productive knowledge of the grammatical collocations by a posttest and a delayed posttest, and their scores were correlated with various measures of language aptitude. The results suggested that modified elaborated input, which provided more focus on form (FonF), positively affected immediate and long-term gains in receptive knowledge and ruled out individual differences (IDs) in language aptitude. The results also implicated working memory (WM) as an explanatory variable in immediate and long-term achievements in productive knowledge under all the conditions of presenting input.

Non-nativelike outcome of naturalistic child L2 acquisition of Japanese: The case of noun–verb collocations

Abstract Many second language (L2) studies have shown that naturalistic L2 acquisition beginning from childhood leads to nativelike proficiency. The current study investigated whether the acquisition of such proficiency would be guaranteed, by examining a potential gap in the seemingly nativelike L2 proficiency of child L2 starters. At issue was the productive knowledge of noun–verb collocations by child L2 starters of Japanese (n=74, age 13–18) whose age of arrival (AOA) was between 0 and 11 and whose length of residence (LOR) was between 5 and 18 years. The collocation test included only items that were easy for native speakers (NSs) (n=162, age 13) age-matched for the youngest L2 participants. About one-third of the L2 participants, including the earliest arrivals, scored below the NS range on the collocation test. The current study concludes that early L2 onset does not guarantee nativelike productive knowledge of collocations, even when the collocations in question are very easy for NSs. The study also discusses pedagogical implications for child L2 starters, who are generally believed to become nativelike with ease.

Using collocation clusters to detect and correct English L2 learners’ collocation errors

In this article, we describe an online English collocation explorer developed to help English L2 learners produce correct and appropriate collocations. Our tool, which is able to visually represent relevant correct/incorrect collocations on a single webpage, was designed based on the notions of collocation clusters and intercollocability proposed by Cowie and Howarth. As they pointed out, in a collocation cluster L2 learners generally cannot distinguish true collocations (e.g., tell truth, state truth, and state fact) from impossible combinations (e.g., *say fact and *say truth). Accordingly, our tool applies natural language processing techniques to construct collocation clusters to enable learners to easily differentiate between correct and incorrect pairs. Relying on data from a reference corpus, our system instantaneously processes the collocability of users’ target combination (verb–noun or adj–noun) and all other relevant words and presents true/false collocations that L2 learners should master/avoid. To assess our tool, we investigated its performance in detecting and correcting learners’ V–N and A–N errors, with results comparable to those of most previous studies. Piloted using a sample of 13 intermediate- or upper-intermediate level English as a foreign language learners, our tool was found to help them self-correct their collocation errors effectively. Compared with similar tools or approaches, our tool requires much less data resources, but still demonstrates a remarkable capability to detect/correct errors and generate useful collocational knowledge in English.

Contributory Role of Praise in Improving Collocational Knowledge of University Students Majoring in TEFL and Linguistics

Contributory Role of Praise in Improving Collocational Knowledge of University Students Majoring in TEFL and Linguistics

Cloze Test and C-test Revisited: Appraising Collocational Competence on Second Language Learners’ Performance

The current study tried to investigate the particular role of the text in EFL learners’ performance on three types of tests, i.e. cloze test, C-test and open-ended test. This study aimed at comparing three test types of cloze test, C-test and open-ended test in measuring collocational knowledge of Iranian EFL learners. This was a quantitative research. This type of research placed more emphases on collecting data in the form of numbers. To this end, 84 Persian EFL learners were selected. They were both male and female with intermediate and advanced proficiency groups. The results showed that advanced participants in all of these three tests performed much more efficiently compared to their intermediate peers and indicated more collocational competence. The findings of this study had some implications for language learners, EFL instructors and material developers.

The Development of Implicit and Explicit Knowledge of Collocations: A Conceptual Replication and Extension of Sonbul and Schmitt (2013)

Sonbul and Schmitt (2013) showed that exposure to second language (L2) collocations in reading texts can produce gains in explicit knowledge, but they found no evidence of gains in implicit knowledge. This study is a conceptual replication and extension of Sonbul and Schmitt's research. Sixty‐two advanced English as a second language (ESL) speakers read texts containing repeated occurrences of low‐frequency medical collocations in three sessions over 2 days. The incidental learning treatments included reading only (no typographic enhancement), bolding, and bolding‐plus‐glossing. Collocational knowledge was assessed in tests of explicit knowledge (cued recall, form recognition) and a test of implicit knowledge (primed lexical decision). Repeated exposure to bolded collocations produced greater explicit knowledge than repeated exposure to typographically unenhanced collocations. Evidence of implicit knowledge development was observed in the unenhanced (reading only) treatment but not in the remaining treatments. These results replicated Sonbul and Schmitt's findings for explicit knowledge and extended their findings for implicit knowledge.Open PracticesThis article has been awarded an Open Materials badge. All materials are publicly accessible via the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/qy2c3. Learn more about the Open Practices badges from the Center for Open Science: https://osf.io/tvyxz/wiki.

Corpora and dictionaries as learning aids: inductive versus deductive approaches to constructing vocabulary knowledge

Corpora are well-known for the affordance to make linguistic regularities salient. Since the coinage of the term ‘data-driven learning’ (DDL) in the 1990s, much has been done to investigate the effects of DDL on learning vocabulary, most notably lexico-grammatical patterns. However, less researched is how learners construct vocabulary knowledge from scratch with DDL approaches. While generalizing recurring lexico-grammatical patterns is relatively straightforward, deducing meanings of unknown words from truncated concordances can be challenging. In this exploratory study, learners constructed knowledge of new words with the inductive approach or deductive one; and their retention of word knowledge was measured holistically using a word knowledge framework. The ways in which learners availed themselves of corpus data in the construction of word knowledge were also examined. The results provide evidence that the inductive approach is more conducive to developing collocational knowledge; and the deductive approach provides the opportunity to consolidate definitional knowledge of the newly acquired words.

Collocational Competence among Polish Students of Croatian as a Foreign Language

Collocations in the Croatian language have been described in detail (Blagus Bartolec 2014). However, research on collocational competence in Croatian as a first or foreign language is still sparse. Previously, only the factors that influence the collocational competence of Croatian native speakers (NSs) were investigated, showing that NSs have the best knowledge of collocations with high frequency and associative strength (Ordulj and Cvikić 2017). The most extensive research on collocational acquisition in Croatian as a foreign language (CFL) in heterogeneous groups was done by Ordulj (2017). This research showed that participants with lower proficiency had very poor collocational competence, while participants with higher proficiency showed an equal knowledge of noun collocations in the nominative case and in oblique cases. This paper aims to deepen previous findings and to examine productive knowledge of noun collocations based on their frequency, associative strength, morphological features, and the proficiency level of Polish students of Croatian. Collocations used in this research were collected from essays written by students of Croatian at B1 and B2 CEFR (2005) proficiency levels. The hrWaC corpus was used to count the frequency of collocations, and the associative strength of collocational constituents was assessed by native speakers of Croatian. The respondent sample comprised 27 students of Croatian in Krakow, Poland, who were divided into two proficiency level groups: lower (2nd and 3rd year of studies) and higher (4th and 5th year of studies). The influence of morphological features on collocational knowledge was tested with two fill-in-the-blank tasks containing collocations in the nominative and oblique cases. The analysis of productive tasks showed that morphological features do not influence collocational knowledge at the lower or higher proficiency level. In both cases participants produced the best results in tasks with collocations of high frequency.

Формирование коллокационной компетенции обучающихся на основе электронного лингвистического корпуса

We discuss the use of the linguistic corpus as a means for the development of collocational competence of students. We reveal the contents of the concepts of “lexis” and “lexical skill”. Lexical skills are divided into receptive (word perception) and productive (word use). We distin-guish the operations that underlie the lexical skill and the stages of the formation of the lexical skill. We define the skills for attaining mastery of language competence in high school students, according to the main general education program in the “English language” profile. In accordance with the modern trends of education computarization, the skill of working with corpus technology is worth to notice. In connection with the rapid development of a foreign language, there are doubts about the relevance of lexical data of educational literature, since its creation takes more than a year. Therefore, the electronic linguistic corpus is seen as the most effective means in solv-ing the problems of learning foreign language vocabulary. We review and analyze the definitions of the linguistic corpus and concordance given by previous researchers. Based on the analysis of previous works on this topic, the following didactic features of the electronic linguistic corpus are highlighted and described: a) multilingualism; b) the ability to search for specific information; c) contextual search results; d) the diversity of functional text types; e) sorting the search results; f) the relevance of the text data; g) accessibility on the Internet. In addition to the didactic features above, we add multi-level resources feature. The methodological functions of the linguistic corpus that determine its use in foreign language vocabulary teaching are identified. Collocation is singled out as a lexical unit, which plays the most significant role in the construction of the speaker's speech. Paper reveals the meaning of the terms “collocation” and “collocational competence”. After analyzing the scientific literature, we establish that knowledge of collocations increases the fluency and diversity of speech, which are necessary requirements in the modern communicative approach in teaching foreign language. The need to study collocations determines the development of collocational competence.

Probing the depths: Can both size and depth of productive vocabulary predict academic performance?

This study investigates the link between breadth (or size) and depth of vocabulary knowledge, and the relationship between the latter and academic proficiency. Breadth of vocabulary knowledge was measured using a productive version of the Vocabulary Levels Test (Laufer & Nation, 1995), while depth was operationalised by productive knowledge of collocations. A small sample of 60 university students of English whose examination scores were closest to the 25 th , 50 th and 75 th percentiles was selected. Relationships were determined between breadth of vocabulary knowledge and depth of vocabulary knowledge on the one hand, and between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic proficiency (represented by examination scores) on the other. While a relationship between breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge was found, suggesting a link between smaller vocabulary size and the production of deviant multiword units for the group as a whole, the relationship between depth of vocabulary knowledge and academic performance was not proved conclusively. It should, however, be kept in mind that numbers were relatively small. Further investigations using larger samples might find a more robust relationship.

Assessing Collocational Competence by Probating Emotioncy: Testing the Mediating Role of Gender in Educational Dimensions

The purpose of this paper was to examine at shedding more light into the effectiveness of emotioncy on gender in assessing Persian EFL learners’ collocational competence. This study used quantitative methods and the learners were from both intermediate and advanced proficiency groups. The results indicated that male participants who received emotioncy levels performed more efficiently on C-test and open ended test in comparison with females who recorded better performance on cloze test. The study suggested important results for EFL instructors that teacher’s experiences showed Iranian EFL learners generally have inadequate knowledge of English collocations in particular of restricted collocations. Moreover, some participants in this study believed that collocations could not be regarded as something that EFL learners could acquire without any instruction; therefore, it was essential to incorporate collocation instruction into EFL reading classes. The findings could help teachers and curriculum designers to classify errors in a continuum ranging from the least to the most problematic ones.

Productive Collocation Knowledge at Advanced CEFR Levels: Evidence from the Development of a Test for Advanced L2 French

Les auteures se penchent sur la relation entre les connaissances productives liées aux collocations et les niveaux élevés de l’échelle du Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues (CECR). Elles étudient plus précisément le potentiel de progression du niveau B2 au niveau C1 du CECR grâce à l’élaboration d’une épreuve de collocation productive en français langue seconde. Cette épreuve vise les collocations fréquentes verbe-nom dans le français langue seconde écrit, relevées à l’aide de la base de données Les Voisins de Le Monde. Les auteures présentent trois différentes études pilotes réalisées à la fois auprès de locuteurs natifs et d’autres locuteurs du français (dont les langues maternelles diffèrent), pour un total de 152participants. Le test est validé grâce à une épreuve de maîtrise générale et une épreuve de fiabilité. La dernière épreuve, menée auprès de 47 locuteurs du français de langue maternelle différente, consiste dans un test comportant au total de 30items dont les résultats présentent d’importants écarts pour les participants de niveau B2 et les participants de niveau C1. En plus d’offrir un outil efficace d’évaluation linguistique, cette étude confirme la place essentielle des connaissances productives liées aux collocations, aux niveaux élevés de maîtrise de la langue seconde.

Different Approaches to the Concept of Collocation in English: Why Learn Collocations?

Research background. A collocation is a combination of two or more words that are commonly used together in English. Collocation is an indispensable element of any English text and no piece of natural spoken or written language is totally free of collocation. There exist different approaches to the concept of collocations in English. However, there is no exhaustive and uniform definition or categorization of it. Second language learners do not have many guidelines to follow considering the admissibility of collocation, thus collocations seem to be an insurmountable obstacle to the attainment of native like fluency and is one of error generating areas in general English and especially in EAP (English for Academic Purposes) and ESP (English for Special Purposes).Research aims were to analyze and systemize different theoretical approaches to the concept of collocation in English with reference to the data of scientific research as well as give the answer why collocations should be learned and taught at all levels of language proficiency and within different registers.Research method used – theoretical analysis of classical and modern research articles on collocation in English.Research results. Various linguistic schools have had different approaches to the study of collocations. Acquisition of collocations can be the source of particular difficulties for L2 leaners in attaining native-level competence. Collocations should be taught from the very beginning at all levels of language proficiency .Discussion and conclusions. As a result of analysis and systemization of scientific data the following conclusions have been made:1. Collocation is a lexical co-occurrence of lexemes. In order a lexical combination could be called a collocation it should satisfy the criterion of frequency and grammatical structure;2. Lexis and grammar cannot be separated;3. Lexis is inseparable from semantics. 4. Knowledge of collocations can help develop language proficiency in such areas as English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP). Students’ motivation to learn collocations and make good use of them in their essays, research works and academic language should be increased.Keywords: collocational, co-occurrence, language acquisition, register.

Measuring productive collocational knowledge of the most frequent words

Collocational knowledge is associated with writing and speaking skills. Productive skills are essential for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students who express themselves in oral presentations or written assignments. Therefore, diagnostic measurement of collocational knowledge is important, especially in regard to the most frequent 1,000 word families that cover 81% and 85% of written and spoken text. This study measured 46 Iranian university EAP students’ productive collocational knowledge of the words at the 1,000 word frequency level. The findings indicate that while participants had the productive form‐meaning knowledge of the words, they did not seem to have extensive collocational knowledge of the same words. This assists in diagnosing area of weakness and the degree to which instructional emphasis on high frequency words might improve their knowledge.

The effects of explicit instruction on L2 learners’ acquisition of verb–noun collocations

This study investigates the relative effectiveness of two methods for teaching a set of English verb–noun collocations: form-focused instruction (FFI) and concept-based instruction (CBI). The sample comprised 73 Chinese-speaking learners of English taking intermediate English courses, who were randomly assigned to one of three groups: an FFI intervention group, a CBI intervention group, and a control group. In order to determine the effects of the two instructional methods, the participants’ collocational knowledge was measured in three ways: via form recall testing, form recognition testing, and meaning recall testing. Specifically, all of the participants took pretests, immediate posttests, and one-week delayed posttests. The results of a comparison of the learning gains between the three groups showed that the CBI and FFI approaches each had a positive effect on establishing initial form–meaning relationships for verb–noun collocations. The CBI group significantly outperformed the FFI group on both collocational acquisition and retention. This result suggests that CBI’s focus on learning verbal meanings through image schemas and conceptualization practice is associated with a deeper understanding of English verb–noun collocations. The study concludes with pedagogical implications for teaching second language (L2) collocations.

LEXICAL COLLOCATIONS: ISSUES IN TEACHING AND WAYS TO RAISE AWARENESS

Vocabulary knowledge is considered essential in using a foreign language either in spoken or written forms. Therefore, it is common to hear language learners referring to their poor vocabulary knowledge when they fail to produce enough content in writing or speaking. As it is estimated that there are almost 20,000 million words in English, they mention it as a reason for their misuse of words, phrases and collocations. It is too ambitious to aim language learners to learn that many words to communicate effectively in English, yet because language is phrasal in its nature, awareness and knowledge of collocations, i.e. words that occur together, may help learners comprehend written and spoken discourse (Wray, 2002). This article focuses on the nature and formation of collocations and the issues in learning and teaching collocations especially in foreign language settings. In an attempt to raise awareness of collocations, some practical ideas are also suggested. Article visualizations:

STATISTICAL SENSITIVITY, COGNITIVE APTITUDES, AND PROCESSING OF COLLOCATIONS

AbstractFrequency and contingency (i.e., co-occurrence probability of words in multiword sequences [MWS]) are two driving forces of language acquisition and processing. Previous research has demonstrated that L1 and advanced L2 speakers are sensitive to phrasal frequency and contingency when processing larger-than-word units. However, it remains unclear whether such statistical sensitivity is robust across tasks and among subcategories of MWS. In addition, little is known about whether cognitive aptitudes can moderate such sensitivity. This study examined L1 and advanced L2 speakers’ statistical sensitivity to phrasal frequency and contingency as well as cognitive aptitudes’ moderating effects on such sensitivity when processing English adjective-noun collocations. Participants performed a phrasal acceptability judgment task (PJT). Meanwhile, their aptitude profiles were measured by six aptitude tests, which loaded separately onto implicit language aptitude, explicit language aptitude, and working memory capacity. Linear mixed-effects modeling revealed that both L1 and L2 English speakers were sensitive to phrasal frequency and contingency of collocations, although L2 speakers’ sensitivity was much stronger than that of L1 speakers. None of the aptitudes was found to moderate language users’ statistical sensitivity to either collocation frequency or contingency. Interestingly, disassociation patterns between the PJT performance and the involvement of implicit or explicit language aptitude among the L1 and L2 speakers were found. It was concluded that L1 and L2 speakers differed in terms of the way they processed the collocations, as well as the nature of their collocational knowledge.

Examining Turkish ESL Learners’ Receptive Collocational Knowledge

Anadili konusanlar, kelimelerin kendi dillerinde nasil bir araya getirildigi konusunda kapsamli bir bilgiye sahiptir. Bu bilgi ve kombinasyonlarin sistematik kullanimi, ana dili konusabilme yeteneginin onemli bir unsuru olarak kabul edilir. Dilbilim literaturunde, “formulsel konusma” veya “esdizim”, sozcuksel yapilarin tekrarlayan kombinasyonlarini tanimlamak icin kullanilan terimlerdir. Bu arastirmada arastirmaci, hedef kitlenin, muhtemel esdizimleri tanimasi konusunda ne olcude sezgisel bir bilgi gelistirdigini ve secimlerini yaparken anadilleri tarafindan ne kadar etkilendiklerini bulmak amaciyla literaturdeki ilgili arastirmalara uygun olarak 5 dereceli bir olcme araci gelistirmistir. Mevcut calismadan elde edilen verilere gore, Turkiye'deki bir devlet universitesindeki Ingiliz Dili ve Edebiyati Bolumu'nun ucuncu sinif ogrencilerinin cogunun, uygun “esdizim” olusumlarini tanima konusunda sezgisel bir bilgiye sahip olduklari iddia edilebilir. Basari icin kesme noktasi 50 olarak belirlendiginde, sadece iki ogrenci bu degerin altinda puan almistir (33 ve 48). Ogrenci notlarinin geri kalani bu ortalamanin uzerindedir.