A corpus based analysis of collocational patterns in vietnamese efl students compositions phân tích việc sử dụng cụm kết hợp từ tiếng anh dựa trên khối ngữ liệu bài viết của sinh viên tiếng anh

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HONG HA A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF COLLOCATIONAL PATTERNS IN VIETNAMESE EFL STUDENTS' COMPOSITIONS MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Hue University of Foreign Languages HUE, 2020 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY NGUYEN THI HONG HA A CORPUS-BASED ANALYSIS OF COLLOCATIONAL PATTERNS IN VIETNAMESE EFL STUDENTS' COMPOSITIONS MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: NGUYEN THI THANH BINH, PhD HUE, 2020 BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ NGUYỄN THỊ HỒNG HÀ PHÂN TÍCH VIỆC SỬ DỤNG CỤM KẾT HỢP TỪ TIẾNG ANH DỰA TRÊN KHỐI NGỮ LIỆU BÀI VIẾT CỦA SINH VIÊN TIẾNG ANH LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS NGUYỄN THỊ THANH BÌNH HUẾ, 2020 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself Signed: Nguyen Thi Hong Ha Date: 07/11/2020 i ABSTRACT This corpus-based study focuses on the use of lexical collocations in EFL written compositions While several studies claim that non-native students have great difficulties in producing natural collocations, these studies fail to measure the extent to which a collocation is considered natural and the correlation between the number of appropriate collocations and the essay score This study, therefore, aims to fill those gaps by applying the scale of frequency range and the MI score to evaluate the appropriateness of collocation and the correlation between the quantity of the idiomatic collocations in an essay and its score For this study, 1349 lexical collocations were extracted manually from 200 essays in a mid-term exam at a university in Vietnam The result revealed that adjective+noun and verb+noun collocations appeared most frequently in students‟ essays, whereas the combinations of adverb+adjective and verb+adverb were used quite infrequently More importantly, based on the times of occurrence (frequency) and association strength (MI score) available on COCA–the main instrument of the study, it was discovered that 61% of the collocations in non-native speakers‟ compositions were appropriate, that is, frequent and strongly associated English word combinations Additionally, there was a medium correlation between the number of appropriate collocations and the essay score This study contributes to an understanding of collocation usage by Vietnamese EFL learners and proposes implications for the teachers and students of English as a second/foreign language Key words: lexical collocations, frequency, association strength, MI score, learner corpus, COCA, correlation ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, I am deeply grateful to the sponsors of Lotus Unlimited Project, Erasmus Mundus scholarship, 2014 who offered me a scholarship to study at Uppsala University, Sweden, where I would never forget my most meaningful and beautiful student life Especially, it was the place where I had a great opportunity to learn about the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), an indispensable instrument for this study I would like to thank my supervisor Mrs Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh, Ph.D., who devoted her time and effort to correct every single mistake in my thesis Not only did she encourage me to develop my idea from random thoughts to a complete research plan, but she also gave me a rich source of necessary documents for references Her gentleness, enthusiasm, and scholarly advice helped me overcome the obstacles of researching without any pressure I am immensely grateful to my beloved friend, Bui Thi Ngoc Anh, my expert in information technology, who was always ready by my side whenever I need help for the procedure of data collection My deepest gratitude also goes to my best senior colleague, Nguyen Le Ngan Chinh, Ph.D candidate, my counselor in the area of corpus linguistics I would like to express my appreciation to my beloved soulmates (Ho Thuy Tien, Tran Thi Minh Chau), as well as a lovely senior (Nguyen Thi Van An) who were always offered me spiritual assistance Thanks Mr Le Quang Dung for his careful and perfect copyediting Finally, I am so blessed to have my parents, my older brother, my sisterin-law, and my adorable sweetheart niece, Pi Nguyen in my life They have always been loving me unconditionally Hue, 07th November, 2020 Nguyen Thi Hong Ha iii TABLES OF CONTENTS Statement of original authorship i Abstract ii Acknowledgement iii Tables of contents iv List of tables vii List of figures ix List of pictures x List of abbreviations xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Aims of the research 1.3 Research questions 1.4 Research significance 1.5 Scope of the research 1.6 Thesis structure CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical background of collocational studies 2.1.1 Collocations 2.1.2 Features of Collocations 2.1.3 Challenges to Differentiate Collocations Versus Idioms and Free Combinations 2.1.4 Classification of Collocations 2.1.4.1 Lexical Collocations vs Grammatical Collocations 2.1.4.2 Open Collocations vs Restricted Collocations 11 2.1.4.3 Weak Collocations vs Strong Collocations 11 2.1.4.4 Technical Collocations vs Academic Collocations 12 2.1.5 Common causes of collocational errors 12 2.1.6 Related studies on collocational usage by foreign language learners 16 2.1.6.1 The proportion of lexical and grammatical collocational patterns found in EFL learners‟ writings 16 2.1.6.2 EFL learners‟ difficulties to produce natural collocations 17 2.1.6.3 The correlation between collocational knowledge and foreign language competence 18 iv 2.2 Corpus-based studies on collocations 20 2.2.1 Corpus 20 2.2.2 Corpus-based studies 21 2.2.3 Corpus-based studies on collocational errors 21 2.2.4 Approaches to research of collocational errors 23 2.2.4.1 Corpus-based studies on lexical collocation errors 23 2.2.4.2 Corpus-based studies on grammatical collocational errors 24 2.2.4.3 Corpus-based studies on both grammatical and lexical collocation errors 26 2.2.4.4 Corpus-based studies on a specific collocational patterns 27 2.2.5 Criteria for the identification of collocational errors in corpus-based studies 29 2.2.6 Collocational errors from the perspective of World Englishes 32 2.2.7 Gaps in previous corpus-based studies on collocational errors 33 2.2.8 Chapter Summary 34 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 35 3.1 Subject 35 3.2 Research instrument 35 3.3 Building a non-native corpus 37 3.3.1 Corpus Description 37 3.3.2 Source of Corpus 37 3.3.3 Type of Corpus 37 3.3.4 Size of Corpus 37 3.4 Procedure of data collection 38 3.4.1 Research procedure 38 3.4.2 Data analysis process 39 3.4.2.1 Phase 1: Data generation and the formation of a non-native corpus 39 3.4.2.2 Phase 2: The proportion of different collocational patterns 42 3.4.2.3 Phase 3: The measurement of lexical collocation appropriateness 42 3.4.2.4 Phase 4: The correlation between the essay scores and the number of strong lexical collocations produced in essays 48 CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 50 4.1 Distribution of lexical collocation subtypes in the essays of EFL writers 50 4.2 The appropriateness of the lexical collocations found in the essays of EFL writers 52 4.2.1 Adverb+Adjective Collocational Pattern 53 v 4.2.2 Adjective+Noun Collocational Pattern 55 4.2.3 Adverb+Verb Collocational Pattern 58 4.2.4 Verb+Adverb/Adjective Collocational Pattern 60 4.2.5 Verb+Noun Collocational Pattern 64 4.2.6 Noun+Noun Collocational Pattern 69 4.2.7 Noun+of+Noun Collocational Pattern 71 4.2.8 The proportion of each level of appropriatenes 73 4.3 The correlation between the essay scores and the number of appropriate lexical collocations produced in students‟essays 75 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION 79 5.1 Summary of the findings 79 5.2 Implications 82 5.2.1 For students 82 Some steps are suggested for the procedure of checking the idiomaticity of a collocation in COCA 83 5.2.2 For teachers 88 5.3 Limitations 89 5.4 Recommendations for further research 89 5.5 Concluding thoughts 90 REFERENCES 91 APPENDICES vi LIST OF TABLES Table 2.1: Grammatical Collocation 10 Table 2.2: Lexical Collocation 10 Table 2.3 Classification of sources of collocational errors summarized from Richards (1974) and Tarone (1981), (as cited in Ang et al., 2011) 13 Table 2.4: Causes of collocational errors (Liu, 1999) 14 Table 2.5: Types of collocation errors (Wang & Shaw, 2008) 15 Table 2.6: Types of mistakes in collocation (Nesselhauf, 2003) 15 Table 2.7: Thresholds used for the association measures 31 Table 3.1: Research procedure 38 Table 3.2: Seven collocational patterns 40 Table 3.3: Previous corpus-based studies using COCA as a reference corpus 45 Table 3.4: The thresholds of frequency and MI score to evaluate the collocation appropriateness 46 Table 4.1: The number of lexical collocational patterns 50 Table 4.2: Examples of the adverb+adjective collocations in Exception and Exception 54 Table 4.3: The number of general adjective, ed-participial modifier, and ingparticipial modifier before a noun 57 Table 4.4: Examples of the adverb+verb collocations at band 2, band 3, and band 59 Table 4.5: Examples of the verb+ adverb collocations at band 0, and band 61 Table 4.6: Examples of the verb+ adverb collocations at band 2, band and band 62 Table 4.7: Examples of the verb+ adverb collocations in Exception and Exception 62 Table 4.8: Examples of collocations with wrong choice of verb 65 Table 4.9: Examples of collocations with wrong choice of noun 66 Table 4.10: Examples of determiner problem in collocation 67 Table 4.11: Examples of synonym problem in collocation 67 Table 4.12: Examples of negative transfer of L1 in collocation 68 Table 4.13: Examples of appropriate verb+noun collocations at band 2, band 3, and band 68 Table 4.14: Types of errors in the learner corpus 70 Table 4.15: Examples of appropriate noun+noun collocations 71 vii APPENDICES A ― A LIST OF COLLOCATIONAL PATTERNS WITH ITS EQUIVALENT FREQUENCY AND MI SCORE OF CLASS ESSAY Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class 1 2 2 4 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6 7 COLLOCATION hot issue throw garbage developing industry local community negative factor negative impact universal destination modern life positive effect local community negative effects development of tourism pollution of environment growth of tourism increase gradually harmful impact cultural diversity indigenous people key role local dwellers local service lucrative income natural environment recreational activity sustainable development travelling site infrastructure development loss of ecology increasingly broaden control reasonably myriad people career opportunities create opportunities COLLOCATIONAL PATTERN AN VN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN N of N N of N N of N VA AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN NN N of N AV VA NN NN VN AN NN VN N of N AV VA x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x AA FREQ MI-Score MARK BAND 176 18 2172 54 1726 23 1081 1332 2172 1540 76 51 29 21 23 1138 1410 2413 233 1173 89 2721 215 0 0 410 335 2,85 4,05 3,01 5,48 3,86 8,08 5,9 4,15 6,77 5,48 7,98 3,92 3,32 3,16 3,27 4,63 8,98 5,7 6,87 1,3 2,53 3,13 6,72 7,3 9,94 5,69 0 0 6,23 5,69 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 EXCEPTION2 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION1 BAND3 EXCEPTION1 BAND4 EXCEPTION1 BAND2 BAND3 BAND3 BAND4 BAND2 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION1 BAND4 BAND3 BAND3 BAND1 EXCEPTION2 EXCEPTION1 BAND3 BAND4 BAND4 BAND0 BAND3 BAND0 BAND0 BAND0 BAND0 BAND3 BAND3 ESSAY Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class 8 8 8 10 10 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 COLLOCATION communal places economic benefits environmental pollution positive transition travel group lose identity release rubbish develop dramatically breath-taking scences cultural traditions heated debate local cuisine obvious conclusion positive influence foreign customers growing industry environment pollution tourism development sense of participation academic skills historic attractions indispensible satisfaction inevitable degradation local residents massive tourism negative impact negative influence serious pollution tourism industry tourist attractions widen business boost finance develop tourism handmade products join hands COLLOCATIONAL PATTERN AN AN AN AN NN VN VN VA AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN NN NN N of N AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN NN NN VN VN VN AN VN AN NN VN N of N AV VA x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x AA FREQ MI-Score MARK BAND 1026 239 15 50 0 30 565 83 186 545 45 113 88 48 672 13 1508 1726 253 13 505 410 0 13 358 6,22 7,27 2,34 1,08 0 0 3,58 9,37 6,2 6,44 6,35 2,78 3,13 1,23 5,72 1,17 7,04 6,64 5,08 7,07 2,68 8,08 5,74 2,46 8,66 13 0 3,76 5,71 4,82 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 8 8 8 8 8 8 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 BAND0 BAND3 BAND4 BAND1 BAND1 BAND1 BAND0 BAND0 BAND0 EXCEPTION1 BAND4 BAND3 BAND3 BAND3 BAND1 BAND2 BAND1 BAND3 BAND1 BAND4 EXCEPTION1 BAND0 EXCEPTION1 BAND4 BAND1 BAND4 BAND3 BAND1 BAND4 BAND4 BAND0 BAND0 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION1 BAND2 ESSAY Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class 12 12 13 13 13 13 13 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 14 15 15 15 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 16 17 17 17 17 COLLOCATION release smoke extremely serious environmental pollution tourism system create effects protect environment incredibly huge large quantities local pollution local specialties lucrative income magnificient landscapes remarkable contribution strict control vital industries breath-taking view water supplies pace of tourism develop properly growing industry local community negative effects local economy positive phenomenon significant development strange disease tourism industry cure the disease litter trash strike a balance expansion of tourism indispensable need positive influence bring influences effect negatively COLLOCATIONAL PATTERN VN AA AN NN VN VN AA AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN AN NN N of N VA AN AN AN AN AN AN AN NN VN VN VN N of N AN AN VN VA AN NN VN N of N AV VA AA x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x FREQ MI-Score MARK BAND 218 239 160 652 29 1346 31 34 11 107 1169 52 113 2172 1540 1161 212 35 505 432 709 13 545 5,1 7,27 2,17 4,92 3,5 8,19 2,96 6,22 3,13 4,53 4,92 4,22 8,53 7,18 3,15 3,13 5,48 7,98 5,46 2,1 3,34 2,82 8,66 6,53 6,68 4,11 6,35 0,27 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 9 9 9 9 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 BAND1 BAND3 BAND4 BAND1 EXCEPTION2 BAND2 EXCEPTION1 BAND4 BAND1 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION1 BAND0 EXCEPTION1 BAND2 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION1 BAND4 BAND0 EXCEPTION1 BAND2 BAND3 BAND4 BAND3 BAND1 BAND2 BAND1 BAND4 BAND3 BAND0 BAND3 EXCEPTION1 BAND1 BAND3 BAND0 BAND1 ESSAY Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class 17 17 18 18 18 18 18 19 20 21 22 23 23 23 23 23 23 24 24 25 25 26 27 27 27 27 28 28 29 30 30 31 31 31 31 COLLOCATION development of economy influence negatively local community negative effects tourism influences destroy environments increase pollution bring benefit destroy landscape positive values highly debatable bad attitude controversial issue foreign people modern life strange language strange people exchange cultures improve condition positive influence quickly develop develop tourism daily schedule local traditions service industry damage environment unemployment problem advocate the view throw garbage high price exchange cultures important factor local citizens big pleasure broaden their knowledge COLLOCATIONAL PATTERN N of N VA AN AN NN VN VN VN VN AN AA AN AN AN AN AN AN VN VN AN AV VN AN AN NN VN NN VN VN AN VN AN AN AN VN AN NN VN N of N AV VA AA x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x FREQ MI-Score MARK BAND 61 2172 1540 0 44 161 68 453 360 93 1081 51 214 184 545 70 230 120 485 183 121 27 18 1462 2163 285 50 7,07 5,48 7,98 0 3,31 1,6 4,49 9,34 5,33 6,39 -1,11 4,15 2,93 1,1 1,95 4,16 6,35 3,11 3,76 6,18 5,11 4,3 3,53 3,87 1,74 4,05 4,87 1,95 6,84 4,41 5,61 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 9,5 5 5,5 6 6 6 6 6 6 6,5 6,5 6,5 6,5 6,5 6,5 6,5 7 7 7 BAND1 BAND4 BAND3 BAND4 BAND0 BAND0 EXCEPTION1 BAND1 BAND1 BAND2 BAND4 BAND3 BAND3 EXCEPTION2 BAND2 BAND1 EXCEPTION2 BAND1 BAND2 BAND3 BAND2 EXCEPTION1 BAND3 BAND3 BAND2 BAND2 BAND2 BAND1 EXCEPTION1 BAND2 BAND1 BAND3 BAND2 BAND1 EXCEPTION1 ESSAY Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class Class 31 32 32 33 33 33 34 35 35 35 35 36 36 36 36 36 36 37 38 38 39 39 39 39 39 COLLOCATION grow expectantly good attitude feel uncomfortable endangered species increase pollution support the view protect environment negative impact vital role tourism development advocate the belief huge impact traditional taste traditional values expand network organize a party protect environment develop society traditional culture wide knowledge heated debate illegal work modern buildings negative consequences promote the economy COLLOCATIONAL PATTERN VA AN VA AN VN VN VN AN AN NN VN AN AN AN VN VN VN VN AN AN AN AN AN AN VN AN NN VN N of N AV VA AA x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 91 15 x 36 8 FREQ MI-Score MARK BAND 231 1324 3898 44 489 652 1726 883 88 783 836 115 20 652 290 23 565 17 91 1316 39 2,38 7,33 12,48 3,31 1,88 4,92 8,08 7,93 5,72 6,2 0,84 7,07 4,26 1,15 4,92 4,95 1,42 9,37 4,77 8,93 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7,5 7,5 7,5 7,5 7,5 7,5 7,5 BAND0 EXCEPTION2 BAND4 BAND4 EXCEPTION1 EXCEPTION2 BAND2 BAND4 BAND4 BAND3 BAND1 BAND3 BAND1 BAND4 BAND2 BAND1 BAND2 BAND1 BAND2 BAND1 BAND4 BAND1 BAND2 BAND4 BAND1 163 B ― A LIST OF MARKS GIVEN FOR ESSAYS IN CLASS AND THE EQUIVALENT NUMBER OF APPROPRIATE COLLOCATIONS FOUND IN EACH ESSAY ESSAY MARK 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 39 8 8 8 9,5 8 8,5 8,5 8,5 8,5 9,5 9,5 5 5,5 6 6 6,5 6,5 6,5 7 7 7 7,5 THE NUMBER OF APPROPRIATE COLLOCATIONS 2 2 2 0 2 0 1 2 C ― SAMPLE ESSAYS