Teaching Of Collocations Research Articles

The effects of cross-language overlap and semantic transparency on the processing of L2 collocations.

Although extensive research has been carried out on collocation processing, it is still unclear how cross-language overlap and transparency influence the processing of collocations by L2 learners. In the current study, a phrase judgment task was used to investigate the processing of congruent (i.e., exist in both English and Arabic) and incongruent collocations (i.e., exist only in English) by Arabic non-native speakers of English. The semantic transparency of the items was controlled for. Results demonstrated the effect of congruency on processing: congruent items yielded more correct responses and faster response times than incongruent items. The effect of congruency was modulated by proficiency, with congruency having a stronger effect on lower-proficiency learners than higher-proficiency learners. Transparency had no effect, with no differences in response times and accuracy between transparent and opaque collocations. The findings have implications for the learning and teaching of L2 collocations.

A Study of the Effectiveness of Corpus-Assisted Collocation Teaching on Improving College Students’ English Writing Ability Based on Random Matrix Theory

Abstract This paper presents a semantic analysis of corpus-assisted collocation teaching based on the random matrix theory, taking into account the characteristics of the computer corpus. The construction of a word-document matrix is based on the potential semantic analysis of the corpus and the intrinsic relationships between words and documents. The aggregation and combination relations of collocation, i.e., the lexicon of word meanings, are used to calculate affirmative sentence similarity, incorporating dependent syntactic and semantic analysis. The error analysis method was applied to the teaching of collocations to analyze the common types of errors and the variability of writing errors in English writing and to discuss the correlation between the performance of English composition and the number of collocations used. The correlation coefficient between composition scores and the number of collocations in compositions was 0.924, and the composition scores of college students had a positive linear relationship with the number of collocations.

Collocation Teaching in Second Language

Collocation Teaching in Second Language

EFFECTS OF EFL VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION ON ARAB LEARNERS’ USAGE OF LEXICAL COLLOCATIONS IN SPEAKING PERFORMANCE

For many decades, the role of the learner's mother tongue in foreign and second language classrooms has been a topic of debate. EFL teachers may present and explain vocabulary in student’s native language, they may do so in the target language, or they may keep switching between the two. The aim of the current study is to investigate how EFL vocabulary instruction affects EFL Arab learners' usage of English lexical collocations in their speaking performance through implementing several working memory strategies. A quasi-experimental, mixed method design was adopted comparing teacher code-switching and L2 explanations in teaching lexical collocations. Within twenty-six sessions of teaching intervention to teach lexical collocations to EFL learners, the study measured learners' responses to vocabulary instruction in the two experimental groups. The study also explored how working memory strategies used by learners in response to vocabulary instruction may enhance learning lexical collocations by EFL learners. For this purpose, 45 Arab elementary EFL learners in the English language centre in Kuala Lumpur were divided into three groups (code-switching, L2 explanation group, and control group); they completed three speaking tests, pre, and post-test and delayed post-test. The results indicated that both the code-switching group and the L2 explanation group were improving their vocabulary; however, the study showed an important role of L1 in learning lexical collocation. The findings revealed that working memory strategies assisted learners to retain collocations effectively. The study included several pedagogical suggestions and implications for future research to improve the standard for teaching, learning, and retention of lexical collocations in speaking performance.

Deliberate Teaching of Collocations – an Intervention Study of Czech Upper-Intermediate EFL Students

Collocation knowledge is claimed to be poor even among upper-intermediate and advanced learners of English as a second language, which implies that not enough attention is being drawn to these lexical items in lessons. To address this problem, we designed a 12-week teaching intervention in which the participants (39 students of Charles University in Prague) were divided into two groups: an experimental group with an intensive explicit collocation focus (20) and a control group with no such care dedicated to collocations (19). Th e division of the students was performed in such a way that the groups were equal in terms of the variables whichtend to infl uence the learning process the most, namely language aptitude, anxiety, motivation, and learning strategies. Th e results showed that the experimental group achieved signifi cantly higher scores for collocation knowledge. No signifi cant diff erence was found between the groups in understanding of word meanings. Deliberate teaching of collocations with systematic revisionand practice thus proved to be more eff ective than meaning-focused teaching of individual words.

Психолого-педагогические условия формирования коллокационной компетенции студентов на основе корпусных технологий

Importance. The development of linguistic students’ collocational competence is one of the main goals of foreign language teaching at a university. Corpora is one of the modern digital technologies that can be used to achieve this goal. However, there are a number of problems in the methods of collocational competence development based on corpora, the consideration of which will affect the effectiveness of the implementation of these teaching methods. The purpose of the study is to determine the psychological and pedagogical conditions for the effective collocational competence development based on corpora. Research methods. On the basis of a theoretical analysis of the scientific and methodic literature and systematization of the conceptual approaches of researchers, psychological and pedagogical conditions were identified, with the help of a comparative analysis and synthesis of empirical data, the effectiveness of taking into account psychological and pedagogical conditions for the collocational competence development based on corpora was theoretically substantiated. Results and Discussion. Psychological and pedagogical conditions for collocational competence development based on corpora are identified and substantiated, which must be taken into account when developing a methods for teaching collocations. These conditions include: a) motivation of students to develop collocation competence based on corpora; b) the development of information and communication technologies competence of a foreign language teacher; c) students’ foreign language proficiency at level B1; d) adherence to the identified stages of project activities. Conclusions. The collocational competence development based on corpora should be carried out while following the entire complex of identified psychological and pedagogical conditions. The results obtained can be used to improve the effectiveness of collocation teaching methods based on corpora.

한국 대학생 영어작문 학습자 코퍼스에 나타나는 어휘결합과 오류분석

This study aims to investigate the lexical combination and errors in Korean university students’ English composition corpus. The result shows that Korean university students frequently use nouns, lexical verbs, articles, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs, to infinitive, be verbs, personal pronoun, coordinating conjunctions, subordinate conjunctions, have verbs, and do verbs in their English writings. Moreover, in the use of lexical combinations of the four different genres of English writings, the noun and verb combinations show most frequent, yet the adjective and adverb or adverb and preposition combinations are less frequent. As a result of an analysis of word combination errors, word selection errors are relatively frequent compared to the word omitting errors. Based upon such findings, this study will provide effective ways to make collocational lists based on the learner-made collocational errors and help raise awareness of English collocation teaching in Korean EFL classrooms.

Lexical knowledge and L2 general language proficiency: collocational competence and vocabulary size as determinants of lexical knowledge.

This study investigates the contribution of receptive collocational competence and receptive vocabulary knowledge to L2 general language proficiency, and how well collocational knowledge develops in relation to knowledge of single-word items. To achieve this aim, measures tapping receptive collocation knowledge, receptive vocabulary knowledge and general language proficiency were administered to 86 Arabic-speaking learners of English at the university level. Results showed positive significant correlations of collocational competence (r = .78) and vocabulary knowledge (r = .70) with general language proficiency. Regression analysis revealed that collocational knowledge predicted the largest variance in general language proficiency, over and above, the prediction value of vocabulary knowledge. The results also showed that collocational knowledge develops as vocabulary knowledge increases, and that learners appear to first acquire collocations of items from more frequent word bands. Furthermore, the results indicated that knowledge of collocations and individual words within the third and fifth frequency levels predicted the largest variance in L2 general language proficiency. The findings of the study have important implications for the teaching and learning of L2 collocations and development of a learner's vocabulary knowledge, as these two variables appear to be determinant factors of L2 general language proficiency.

Tathbiq Taqniyyah Fazzi Dalfi fi Siyaghah Ahdaf Ta’lim al-Mutalazimat al-‘Arabiyyah bi Istikhdam al-Ansyithah al-Tafa’uliyyah al-Iliktruniyyah

This study aimed to collect experts’ opinions and consensus towards the objectives of teaching Arabic collocations. A questionnaire distributed to experts was the technique employed to garner the data. 12 professionals participated in this study, and Delphi's Method was used to analyse the data. In recent years, a great number of researchers have focused their emphases on the teaching of collocations to Arabic language learners. This is because multiple studies have shown that mastering collocational words affects one's proficiency in a second language. However, the precise use of Arabic collocation continues to be a substantial hurdle for students, to the point where it indirectly affects their competency to produce language. Additionally, educators lack direction and do not know where to begin. The study's findings demonstrated that all components of teaching objectives; knowledge, skill, and application met the fuzzy Delphi requirements, which called for a value threshold of less than 0.2 with a percentage of the experts’ group above 75%. This demonstrated that the fundamental components in determining the educational objectives contained critical components required by students according to experts’ agreements.

Effectiveness of second language collocation instruction: a meta-analysis

Abstract This study reports a meta-analysis of studies that investigated the effectiveness of instruction on second language collocation learning. A total of 64 research projects in 17 primary studies (the number of participants = 3,859) were included in the meta-analysis. Aggregated results confirmed the effectiveness of collocation instruction for facilitating second language collocation learning (d = 1.415, 95% CI: 1.189, 1.641). The results of moderator analysis indicated that the intervention method was a significant predictor of intervention effectiveness. To be specific, 1) explicit interventions produced larger effect sizes than implicit interventions; 2) interventions with low session frequency did not produce larger effect sizes than those with high session frequency; 3) long interventions did not show larger effect sizes than short interventions; and 4) constrained-constructed responses, selected responses, and multiple outcome measures did not produce larger effect sizes than free-constructed responses. The study also offered explanations for the results, as well as implications for the teaching and research of collocations.

Translation competence and collocation knowledge: Do congruency and word type have an effect on the accuracy of collocations in translation?

ABSTRACT Experimental research on the interface between second language vocabulary knowledge, including collocations, and translation competence is scarce. The present study investigates the role played by three determinants of collocation knowledge (knowledge level – recall versus recognition, congruency, and constituent word types) in the accuracy of collocation translation. The study involved thirty-nine female Arabic translation students completing three tasks: an L2 (English) – L1 (Arabic) contextual translation task, a form recall test, and a form recognition test. The target items were 40 English collocations (10 adjective + noun congruent, 10 adjective + noun incongruent, 10 verb + noun congruent, and 10 verb + noun incongruent). The results of mixed-effects modelling show that producing an acceptable L1 translation was predicted by congruency and form recall knowledge of collocations while word type and form recognition knowledge made no significant contribution. These results have important implications for the teaching of collocations to student translators.

CLEC-based Error Analysis of Collocations of Chinese English Learners

China’s voice in the international arena is gradually increasing in the present era of economic globalization. In order to further strengthen the multifaceted communication with the world, Chinese students must improve their English learning and application skills. However, due to the distinct difference between Chinese and English, and the lack of an authentic communication environment, English collocation has always been a significant difficulty for Chinese students in the process of learning English. As a result, pragmatic errors frequently occur in their usage. Aimed to address Chinese students’ difficulties in applying collocation, this article takes the Chinese Learner English Corpus (CLEC) as the research object and AntConc as the retrieval tool to collect the noun-noun collocation errors (CC1) in CLEC, then further analyses and interprets the data obtained. It’s discovered that learners’ usage errors in noun-noun collocation are mainly divided into the following three categories: grammar error, Chinese English expression, and overgeneralization. By further interpretation and analysis, it is reckoned that negative transfer of native language, interlanguage fossilization, second-language teaching methods, negligence of collocation structure, and semantic constraints are the main reasons for noun-noun collocation errors. In terms of the above situation, this article proposes corresponding countermeasures for second-language teaching methods and English learning to enrich the current research on English collocations, seeking to provide a reference for the use and teaching of noun-noun collocations.

STRONG BOND BETWEEN ACADEMIC WRITING SKILL AND ENGLISH WELL-STRUCTURED COLLOCATIONS

The given article is dedicated to reveal how crucial is learning collocations, while getting new fixed expressions in boosting academic writing skills of ESL learners. A thousand research articles written in English in the field of collocation teaching and the role of them in writing. Types of collocations were analyzed and categorized. The categorized collocations were improved through collocations dictionaries to make a comprehensive list of collocations. The findings illustrated that ESL learners rely on collocations while writing academic texts. Additionally, learners’ cognitive abilities, mother tongue impact, linguistic features of collocations, educational context, proficiency of language, teachers’ and learners’ perception of collocations, and the use of corpus-based materials might make contributions to learners’ collocational acquisition.

An investigation into collocational profile in English textbooks for Vietnamese students

Collocations play a significant role in language teaching and learning. In an environment where English is taught as a foreign language, English textbooks are the major source of exposure for learners. Therefore, this study investigates (1) the compatibility of collocations targeted to high frequency collocations suggested in the literature, and (1) how collocations targeted are reused throughout the textbook series. An English corpus of 312,770 word tokens was built from the textbook series from which 13,292 collocations of verb-noun and 11,079 collocations of adjective-noun patterns were identified. The study found that the frequencies of occurences of collocation tokens an collocation types increase gradually from one grade level to the next. Collocations that the textbook series intentionally introduce to the learner account for only 10,5% of the high frequency collocations in an academic collocation list. 11,4 % of the targeted collocations were duplicated in different units, and 19,3% were identified not high frequency collocations. 76% of collocations targeted are reused not to the point that learners can retain and be ready to use. Based on the findings, the study discusses some implications for collocation teaching and material designing.

The Effect of Learning Conditions on Collocation Gains: A Case Study of Task-based Dictionary Use Instruction

To examine the effect of learning conditions on collocation gains, 88 Chinese EFL students were assigned randomly to one of three different learning conditions, i.e. dictionary use with prior instruction, dictionary use without training, or explicit collocation teaching. They were asked to fill in the missing verb in ten V + N target collocations embedded in sentences. A screen recorder was used to keep track of the students' lookup behaviour in the two conditions involving dictionary use such as every input of the searched word, every move and click of the mouse, every step of collocation search and the time length of dictionary consultation. After completion of the assignment all the students were given corrective feedback to the collocation task and marked their corrections on the test paper. Two weeks later, an unexpected retention test was administered. The study showed that dictionary use following a five-step training session reaped significantly more collocation gains than dictionary use without prior instruction and explicit collocation teaching. Compared with those who used the dictionary without prior training, the students with prior dictionary instruction employed more effective strategies concerning the selection of lookup words and the location and identification of collocation information. They took a more conscientious approach to dictionary use and retrieved more correct target verbs. Apart from lending new support to the continuous appeal for a position of dictionary use instruction in the EFL pedagogy, the study also provides a detailed demonstration of task-based dictionary training applicable to classroom practice.

PROFILING COLLOCATION USE IN ENGLISH TEXTBOOKS FOR VIETNAMESE STUDENTS

The study investigates (1) collocational profiles of an English textbook series for students from elementary to high schools in Vietnam, (2) the relevance of collocations targeted to high frequency collocation lists suggested in the literature, and (3) the recycling of the targeted collocations. An English corpus of 312,770 word tokens was built from the textbook series from which 13,292 collocations of verb-noun and 11,079 collocations of adjective-noun patterns were identified. The study found that frequencies of occurrences of collocation tokens and types increase from one grade level to another. Collocations targeted in the textbooks only cover 10.5% of the collocations recommended in an academic collocation list, and 31% were identified not high-frequency collocations. 76% of collocations are not recycled or recycled not to the point where learning is likely to occur. Implications for learning and teaching collocations and materials designing are discussed.

The effects of loanword-based collocation teaching on vocabulary retention of kindergarten children

Loanwords have many linguistic advantages in teaching L2 vocabulary due to their similarity to cognate words. Collocations help students to learn syntactic rules of vocabulary and to communicate fluently by providing them with multiple examples of vocabulary usage. The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of vocabulary instruction using loanword-based collocations on the retention rate of kindergarten children. To this end, classroom activities for the collocations were developed, short-term and long-term retention rates were compared between loanwords and non-loanwords, and between two teaching methods: teaching words individually and through collocations. The results revealed that loanwords and the collocation method appeared to be more effective than non-loanwords and the individual method for short-term and long-term retention. Since Koreans frequently employ English vocabulary in their daily conversation, the dichotomy of loanwords and foreign words is not significant from the perspective of English vocabulary teaching. English words that are as familiar as loanwords can also be utilized as a mediator for teaching new vocabulary by applying the collocation method as a new strategy. It is therefore necessary to develop and provide loanword-based or familiar word-based collocation lists for kindergarten and elementary school children.

The Comparison of Lexical Collocations in English Textbooks Used in Indonesia

Teaching collocations becomes very important for ESL/EFL students to achieve language fluency since the students spend a great amount of time interacting with their textbooks. This study aims to investigate the comparison of lexical collocations used in two textbooks used regularly in senior high school level in Semarang namely Aim High Student’s Book 1 and Bahasa Inggris Kelas X. This study applied descriptive qualitative method. The documentary method was used in collecting the data. The data were analyzed based on collocation theories proposed by Benson, et al. (1997) and Lea (2002). The result showed that there were three similarities found regarding the lexical collocation occurrence in all parts of the textbooks, the highest frequency of the lexical collocations occurrence in the exercise part of the textbooks, and the highest frequency of the types of lexical collocations in the textbooks. Meanwhile, there are three differences found regarding the number of lexical collocation frequency in each textbook, the order in using lexical collocations from the highest to the lowest frequency, and the way the authors of the textbooks in introducing and teaching lexical collocations to the students. Furthermore, it was also found that Bahasa Inggris Kelas X produced some inaccurate lexical collocations.

The Application of Conceptual Metaphor to English Vocabulary Teaching

This paper considers cognitive linguistics as the guide to explore the feasibility of vocabulary teaching based on conceptual metaphor. Following the classification of conceptual metaphor, the paper probes into concrete effects of vocabulary teaching under the guidance of ontological metaphor, structural metaphor and orientational metaphor. Through detailed analysis, conceptual metaphor illuminates polysemy teaching, lexical collocation teaching and idiom teaching. Hence, it contributes to tackling the existed problems in the course of vocabulary teaching and cultivating students’ competence of cognitive acquisition.

ONCOLL: A quasi-experimental study on the effect of a web-based platform on teaching collocations

Learning collocations poses difficulties for foreign language learners despite their importance for fluency in the target language. Collocation learning and teaching should therefore be an integral part of foreign language instruction. With a focus on the receptive knowledge of collocations, this 5-week-long pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the use of an ONline COLLocation learning platform (ONCOLL) designed specifically for the explicit teaching of English adjective-noun collocations over traditional activities. Sixty-two first-year students from an English Language Teaching Department at a university were the participants of the study. Each week, the participants were provided with 10 sample sentences including the target adjective-noun collocations which were followed by two sets of exercises. While the control group (n=29) completed all the procedures with paper-and-pen materials and under the guidance of their teacher, the participants in the experimental group (n=33) used ONCOLL on individual computers and without the teacher’s involvement. For data collection, an achievement test including 50 items was used as the pre- and post-test to determine whether differences between the two groups were statistically significant. Based on the results, the experimental group participants scored significantly higher than the participants of the control group, indicating the effectiveness of ONCOLL in learning collocations in a foreign language. This discrepancy could be attributed to some of ONCOLL’s features such as 1) providing room for individualized learning, 2) requiring the analysis of all example sentences by the learners, and 3) requiring the learners to take the tests in the system repeatedly until they get a full score without any feedback.