Examining second language receptive knowledge of collocation and factors that affect learning

Abstract

This study investigated Vietnamese EFL learners' knowledge of verb-noun and adjective-noun collocations at the first three 1,000 word frequency levels, and the extent to which five factors (node word frequency, collocation frequency, mutual information score, congruency, and part of speech) predicted receptive knowledge of collocation. Knowledge of single-word items at the same word frequency levels was also examined. The results indicated that the participants were not close to a level of mastery of collocational knowledge at any word frequency level; knew less than 50% of each type of collocation overall; and that their knowledge of collocation significantly decreased at each level. The analysis also revealed that there were significant large positive correlations between knowledge of collocations and single-word items, and that node word frequency was the strongest predictor of receptive knowledge of collocation.

Multi‐ or Single‐Word Units? The Role of Collocation Use in Comprehensible and Contextually Appropriate Second Language Speech

“…Finally, the current study has brought to light the possibility that collocation use may be one anchor of L2 oral proficiency development. It is noteworthy, however, that L2 learners’ collocation knowledge has been reported to be limited in many L2 classrooms (e.g., Nguyen & Webb, ). In this regard, teachers and learners could consider whether and how to enhance L2 learners’ collocation knowledge through intentional teaching in reference to lists of multi‐word expressions (identified by researchers’ intuition, Wray, , or/and corpus‐based data, Ellis et al., ), or perhaps by providing typographically enhanced input during incidental learning (e.g., reading; Szudarski & Carter, ).…”

Factors Impacting Recognition of False Collocations by Speakers of English as L1 and L2

“…The pilot study at the first stage included a collocation-recognition-targeted test, par tially modelled after Jafarpour et al (2013), McCarthy and O'Dell (2005), McKinlay and Hastings (2007), Nguyen and Webb (2016), and Smith (2005), and a posttest interview. The purpose of this stage was to identify the patterns and strategies participants used to select "oddsounding" word combina tions and build a hypothesis about potential factors that might have influ enced this recognition.…”

“…keywords: False collocation, second language acquisition (SLA), English as a second lan guage (ESL) Although in the past few decades, the focus of second language acquisition (SLA) research on the lexical proficiency in English as L2 has shifted from individual words as basic lexical units to formulaic word sequences-in par ticular, collocations and factors that influence their acquisition as explored in the studies by Gitsaki (1999), Nesselhauf (2005), Nguyen and Webb (2016), PellicerSánchez (2015), Wolter and Gyllstad (2013), and Ying and O'Neill (2009)-there is still no clear understanding of what factors contribute to or impede collocation acquisition and consequently might predict the condi tions of success in collocation learning and teaching. In part, this is due to the ambiguous nature and the absence of a universally agreed-upon definition or typology of collocations.…”

Guessing Verb–Adverb Collocations: Arab EFL Learners' Use of Electronic Dictionaries

“…Presently, there has been a surge of both interest in and availability of research covering all aspects of collocations. Researchers, to date, have mainly focused on verb-noun collocations using EFL learners of diverse linguistic backgrounds including Arabs (Alzi'abi 2012), Afrikaners (Nizonkiza, Van Dyk and Louw 2013), Chinese and Swedish (Wang and Shaw 2008), Dutch (Peters 2016), Germans (Nesselhauf 2005), Israelis (Laufer and Waldman 2011), Lithuanians (Juknevičienė 2008), Japanese and French (Kurosaki 2012), Malaysians (Ang, Rahim, Tan and Salehuddin 2011), Poles (Szudarski 2012), Russians (Siyanova and Schmitt 2008), Spanish (Zinkgräf 2008), Taiwanese (Kuo 2009), Turkish (Akpýnar and Bardakçý 2015) and Vietnamese (Nguyen and Webb 2016). Although contrasting findings may be found in the aforementioned works, there appears to be a consensus among researchers that the correct acquisition and use of collocations has proved to be highly challenging for most EFL learners regardless of their linguistic background (see Laufer 2011 andSun andWang 2003).…”