methods of learning english collocations in order to enhance english vocabulary for third year students of english faculty at thuong mai un

ABSTRACT One of the most problematic areas for foreign language learning is collocation It is often seen as arbitrary and overwhelming, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to the attainment of native - like fluency This graduation thesis aims to illustrate the roles, importance, and types of English collocations and to investigate the use of collocations in the business context, then giving the methods of learning English collocations In this regard, the usage of English collocations of third –year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University is going to be examined The writer discusses how English Collocations can be dealt with in the school and at home This study will give the useful theory and information which is related to English collocations In addition, different solutions to students at both basic and intermediate levels are provided at the end of this graduation thesis 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would to thank my supervisor over the course of this – Ms Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, for all her insightful comments, suggestions and keeping me focused in writing this dissertation, and also my friend – Dinh Thi Giang for all her advice and support during the coursework Lastly, I‘d also like to thank my parents, without whom none of this would have been possible 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES No Table/chart Name Page Table 2.1 Grammatical collocations 13 Table 2.2 Types of lexical collocations 14 Chart 3.1 The amount of time students have been 21 learning English Chart 3.2 The amount of time a student spend per day 22 on learning English Chart 3.3 The weaknesses in learning English 23 Chart 3.4 The methods that students use to learn 24 English collocations Chart 3.5 Point ladder of students’ ability to use 25 English collocations Chart 3.6 Point ladder of students’ ability to remember 25 English collocations Chart 3.7 Students’ opinions about difficult factors in 26 reading skills 10 Chart 3.8 Students’ opinions about difficult factors in 27 listening skills 11 Table 3.1 Students’ opinions about the importance of 27 English collocations 12 Table 3.2 Students’ opinions about the best methods for learning English collocations 4 28 CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale In the field of applied linguistics, a great deal of research efforts has been dedicated to the way to teach and learn English skills, while the methods of learning English collocations have not aroused the same degree of interest In recent years, we can see that a lot of students have paid more attention to English collocations, especially for students learning IELTS or TOEFL The main reason is that nowadays English collocations become more and more important for students to learn and remember vocabulary It's extremely necessary to know what words pair with each other and know how to use collocations In the past, some people used to try to find out the rules of forming English collocations as well as the importance of English collocations They did some research on lexical collocations, grammar, types, the origin of collocation… However, not many people have research on the methods of learning collocations It is a truth that understanding clearly about collocations is very important in not only English communication but also in all English skills (especially in reading and listening skills) Besides, third– year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University are chosen as respondents because they are people who should know more about academic vocabulary and business terms which can absolutely help them build a strong foundation to work effectively in their future career Therefore, this thesis topic: “methods of learning English collocations in order to enhance English vocabulary for third - year students of English Faculty at Thuong Mai University” is performed with the strong expectation to find out the best methods for them to form English collocations and learn them easily, which 1.2 would properly improve their English skills Aims of the study English collocations are not new terms for English learners However, not everyone can understand exactly about it When trying to learn English vocabulary, researcher realized that remembering English collocations can help English learners to remember new words longer and applied them into speaking fluently Knowing how to use and form collocations is the key to learn vocabulary and help them gain the high band when they take the IELTS exam or TOEIC In addition, almost third – 5 year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University are recognized that they have not gained enough knowledge about English collocations Therefore, this study has been conducted and followed these ideas: - Explore the ways that third – year students of English Faculty use to deal with collocations and their weaknesses in learning English collocations From that, I can - help them to understand the importance of collocations in the process of learning Suggest some suitable methods for English learners and third – year students of English Faculty about learning English collocations and enhance their vocabulary 1.3 Research subjects - The research questions of the study: • What are the methods that students use to learn English collocations? • What are the weaknesses that students have in learning English collocations? • How can students to enhance English collocations and vocabulary - Research subjects: The methods of learning English collocations in order to enhance English vocabulary Reasons: In the past, too few people researched this subject, therefore there are a lot of things to explore and discover Moreover, English collocations are very common and important for business students This is not too difficult to approach 1.4 However, this is an interesting and potential topic Scope of the study This study focuses on the methods of learning English collocations for third – year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University The main rationale for this scope of study follows these ideas: Firstly, they are students from English faculty and now they have spent three years learning at university, most of them use English at intermediate level and English is the foundation for them to find a job in the future In other words, English will be the most important thing for these students when they choose jobs Knowing about English collocations can help them to use English fluently and easily Especially, in business, there are a lot of economic terms they have to understand and translate exactly, English collocations are the basic background for them to translate closely with original documents 6 Secondly, after consulting and discovering, researcher sees that these students have enough characteristics of English learners and they are suitable to this topic as well Their main characteristics are: 1.5 They have to learn a lot of subjects related to English at university In the third year of university, students have to understand more about specialized English and academic terms English is very important for them in their career Research methodology This study is conducted by quantitative research methods (emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain the phenomenon.) Researcher chooses this type of methods because of its characteristics Firstly, the data is usually gathered using structured research instruments Moreover, the results are based on larger sample sizes that are representative of the population The research study can usually be replicated or repeated, given its high reliability The next reason is that Researcher has a clearly defined research question to which objective answers are sought In addition, project can be used to generalize concepts more widely, predict future results, or investigate causal relationships In detail, the main method of this survey is survey questionnaire A questionnaire is a set of questions typically used for research purposes which can be both qualitative as well as quantitative in nature A questionnaire may or may not be delivered in the form of a survey, but a survey always consists of questionnaire A questionnaire used in qualitative research asks open ended questions via email, telephone or face-to-face meetings A questionnaire used in quantitative research asks more closed ended questions with restricted options to answer - There are two types of questionnaire: Questionnaires that evaluate variables that is separate, including questions - regarding an individual’s behavior, facts and preferences Questionnaires that measure factors incorporated into a scale like those about individual identities and different attributes, index and traits 7 In general, questionnaire is only possible way to survey, even though this method has some disadvantages At the time of surveying, most of third – year students of English faculty are in the middle of revision for final test Therefore, researcher cannot use some methods like observation and interview Only by online questionnaire can help researcher collect information for this study 1.6 Organization of the study The study is going to answer the question: How can students improve English, especially English collocations? And it also helps them to understand the importance of English collocations The organization of this thesis is divided into four chapters: Chapter provides an overview of the study This chapter will put emphasis on the background of study and give some basic information such as rationale and the aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study and research methodology Chapter introduces literature review related to this study In this chapter, readers can understand exactly about the theory of this thesis topic From definition to the history of English collocations The last section in chapter focuses on the importance of English collocations and some main types of English collocations Chapter provides a brief description on the plan of surveying Readers can know more about the current situation of third – year students of English Faculty and some difficulties that researcher have to face when conducting Throughout the data analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of them will be showed with the reasons Chapter gives some solutions to this phenomenon and some evaluation for this study The last one of this study is APPENDIX which contains the full description of all questions, methodologies of the survey 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Definitions of collocation In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a sequence of words or terms that co- occur more often than would be expected by chance In phraseology, collocation is a sub-type of phraseme An example of a phraseological collocation, as propounded by Michael Halliday, is the expression strong tea While the same meaning could be conveyed by the roughly equivalent powerful tea, this expression is considered excessive and awkward by English speakers Conversely, the corresponding expression in technology, powerful computer is preferred over strong computer Phraseological collocations should not be confused with idioms, where an idiom's meaning is derived from its convention as a stand-in for something else while collocation is a mere popular composition According to Oxford Collocations Dictionary [2002], collocation is a means of combining words in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing Incorrect combinations such as heavy wind or strong rain not sound naturally in 9 English Apart from the prevalent grammatical/lexical distinction, the authors also mention ‘word’ collocation, none of whose elements can be replaced even with its synonym, e.g small fortune but not *little fortune and ‘category’ collocation whose elements can collocate with any items of a precisely determined group of words This group can be quite large and its elements- predictable because they make up the same category, e.g measurements of time for a noun walk: five minutes’ walk/three-minute walk Nowadays, in order to make it easy to understand, some dictionaries define that collocations are groups of two or more words that are commonly-used together These groups of words are largely idiomatic The “right” and “wrong” words to use in a given collocation have evolved through custom and usage as the English language itself has evolved Because of this, people should think of collocations as whole units of language, rather the individual words that they are composed of By their very nature, collocations not follow grammar rules that you can memorize Collocations are abstract, they normally have no explanation, and the list is endless This can be confusing and frustrating for students For example, you would order “fast food” for lunch and develop a “quick fix” to a problem However, you wouldn’t order “quick food” or come up with a “fast fix.” Both pairs are grammatically correct, but the former “sounds” correct to native English speakers while the latter does not It is important to learn collocations, because they are important for the naturalization of one’s speech Besides, they broaden one’s scope for expression “Collocation” refers to how words go together or form fixed relationships Collocations are also very common in business settings when certain nouns are routinely combined with certain verbs or adjectives For example, draw up a contract, set a price, conduct negotiations, etc Collocations may be strong or weak Strong collocations are where the link between the two words is quite fixed and restricted Strong collocations refer to words that almost always go together It's possible that people might understand you 10 10 Chart 3.4 The methods that students use to learn English collocations Looking at the chart, it is clear that most students who know many English collocations (question 4) use books, dictionary to study, and some learn from their teachers (from University, English centers… ) Learning online makes up for 38.9%, which makes it the third levels throughout four methods Only 27% of them learn English collocations from daily life These figures show a truth that English collocations are not easy to learn from daily life In order to approach them, students have to read more books and look up them in many kinds of dictionary In addition, teachers are the people who can help students to remember English collocations longer For the purpose of collecting information about respondents’ opinions in their ability to use and remember English collocations, questions and are designed to check students’ abilities to remember and use English collocations These questions have the point ladder from 1(not well) to 5(very well) 36/50 answers were received for each question And here are the results: 27 27 Chart 3.5 Point ladder of students’ ability to use English collocations Chart 3.6 Point ladder of students’ ability to remember English collocations The collected data shows that if the students know many English collocations, they can use them regularly remember them as well However, there are still few students cannot remember and use English collocations, they think that collocations are difficult and hard to remember Just only 16.7% of respondents are confident with their English collocations memories 3.4.2.3 Students’ opinions about difficulties and their suggestions In questions 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, the questions will focus on students’ opinions about the difficulties in learning English It is true that remembering new words and phrases is a key for every question in reading and listening skills However, 94% of respondents have the same thought that it is a difficult task When asking them about the ways to remember new words, they gave a lot of methods However, they still have a lot of troubles when trying to put new words into practice 28 28 English collocations are very important in reading skills If you know more English collocations, you can understand the passages and the questions and then gain higher grade in reading skills On the other hand, a lot of students find it difficult to deal with logic questions or the speed of reading, the reason is that they not know how to translate exactly Question is designed to find out the factors which have negative influence on reading skills Chart 3.7 Students’ opinions about difficult factors in reading skills Most of third – year students of English faculty answered that logic questions are always hard to approach In reading, sometimes they not understand the questions, which lead to wrong answers Here are some examples of logic questions: 29 - The passage’s primary purpose is to which of the following? - According to the passage, which of the following is true…? - It is implied in the passage that…? - Which of the following, if true, would cast the most doubt…? 29 Similar to reading skills, listening skills also request English learners to know more vocabulary and collocations The factors that have negative impact on listening skills are showed on this bar chart: Chart 3.8 Students’ opinions about difficult factors in listening skills 75% students think that speed is a big problem for them to deal with Vocabulary and phrases have the same percentage during the survey (35.4%), which means that students can understand the communication when they listen, however, they cannot catch the detail and understand fully For the final part, students’ opinions about the importance of English collocations are discovered with three levels Giving three levels like that, reliable information about respondents’ opinions can be gained And from that, it will be easy to recommend some solution to different kinds of attitude about English collocations Not important Important Very important 18% (9) 46% (23) 36% (18) Table 3.1 Students’ opinions about the importance of English collocations 30 30 Through the tables, it is immediately obvious that only a small number of students feel that English collocations are not important (18%) The table strongly indicates that third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University know the importance of English collocations They know that English collocations play an integral role in their subjects at school and their career in the future In final question, students were asked to tick the methods that they find them suitable to learn English collocations They can choose more than one method With this question, the recommendation and the solutions to this problem can be found out The results are registered in the table below: Participating in an English course 17 (34%) Learning from internet 14 (28%) Reading more books about English collocation 23 (46%) Using dictionary 18 (36%) Learning with a group of friends 15 (30%) Trying to write them down and learn by heart 14 (28%) Others (2%) Table 3.2 Students’ opinions about the best methods for learning English collocations English collocations are not easy to learn, there are a lot of ways to study and use English collocations in the right way According to the research, most of students think that reading books and using dictionary are the best methods to learn collocations Trying to translate English and learn vocabulary are the good ones, too Nevertheless, in order to approach English collocations, students have to understand their ability, knowledge and their skills 3.5 Discussion of the findings 31 31 Due to the fact that the survey is limited to only a small group of third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University, the result could not reflect all the realistic situation of studying English collocations at the university However, there are a lot of findings that can be utilized to find the appropriate solutions, recommendations and suggestions to improve the reality, which could be dawn out as follow: Most of third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University have been studying English for more than years, which means they must use English at intermediate level Nevertheless, it is such a disappointed truth that two – third respondents have spent under hours per day on learning English The majority of them have troubles when handling listening, speaking and writing skills because they cannot create a good environment to practice English Another reason is that they are not willing to use English on a regular basis, which comes from the lack of vocabulary and collocations For students who know many English collocations, they can remember and use collocations quite well Most of them use books, dictionary for learning collocations Listening and reading skills are two skills that related closely with collocations Students have a lot of problems when dealing with these skills From the collected data, researcher had enough information to give the suggestions for them to improve their English level In conclusion, the challenges of the respondents when studying English collocations found out in the survey questionnaires could help discover the best solutions to the problems as well as give recommendations and suggestions to write a good construction contract The following chapter “Recommendations and suggestions” will give all the expected information CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 32 32 According to the received results from the survey, some methods to learn English collocations for third- year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University are going to be given Basing on this purpose, this chapter will be divided into sectors The first part will show the ways for all students to deal with English collocations The second one puts more emphasis on solutions to problems facing third – year students when learning English collocations 4.1 How should students deal with English collocations? Firstly, students should treat English as a language in itself, and not as a translation of their own language They should avoid translating word by word If they translate some expressions to study them, so with the expression in a clear context that they will remember Secondly, when students learn new expressions, always write them down as part of a sentence where is makes sense For example, when we see this sentence “ I got home quite late”, where “ got” means “ arrived” Other ways for students to deal with English collocations are reading and listening as much as they can Exposure to the language in all its forms will inevitably help them pick different collocations without even realizing In addition, students should learn language as chunks This means that they should focus on language as a sum of set phrases, rather than a sum of single words This view is based on Lewis’ Lexical Approach Using dictionary and books is also a best way to learn English collocations There are a lot of English collocations and students cannot remember all Here are some good dictionaries and books for students to learn and look up collocations: - 33 Book: English collocation in use Dictionary: Macmillan Collocations Dictionary for Learners of English Dictionary: Oxford Collocation Dictionary Book: Shortcut to English collocations Online dictionary: Ozdic.com 33 Finally, there is an interesting fact that when students learn a new grammar point, they should not focus on the rules They should understand the rules, but they must focus on the sound of that grammatical structure Trying to repeat it and use it until it sounds natural and automatic A clear example of this is how we use conditional sentences And the last thing is trying to learn from the mistake 4.2 Solution to problems facing third - year students when learning English collocations 4.2.1 Spending more time on self - teaching Students who can use English at intermediate level know exactly how to learn English by themselves At this level, they don’t need a good teacher or an English course to improve their English skills They can learn by themselves with the knowledge from internet or books It is very necessary to spend at least – hours on learning English per day They should keep studying like a habit in order to master English In addition, English collocations appear every where around people Students can learn from music, movies, books… Self-education develops discipline - the discipline to continuously learn When students practice self-education, reading becomes a habit Attending practical trainings/events becomes a habit Because they understand that there are many things they need to learn, and they always seek for more learning When learning becomes a discipline, their growth is bigger Learning English collocations by themselves is not a simple task for students However, if they try hard and have self – education, they can remember collocations easily Whenever students see a collocation, they should write them down, they can learn by heart and then apply it Or they can make a sentence in order to remember it That’s why everybody should keep a notebook with them for these cases In general, students using English collocations at intermediate level should spend more time on self – teaching and they have to non – stop learning English 34 34 4.2.2 Taking the IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL tests Taking an English test is a good way for students to try hard and learn English seriously IELTS and TOFEL request students to have a lot of academic words and phrase, especially collocations In speaking and writing skills, if candidates can use many English collocations, they can get the high points For students of English faculty, it is great if they can take IELTS or TOEFL tests Both of the tests are the measurement of the proficiency of English Language for the non - natives English speakers IELTS stands for - International English Language Testing System It measures all of the four skills such as - Listening, speaking, reading and writing TOEFL stands for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, and too measures all of the four core skills of language proficiency such as - Listening, speaking, reading and writing Students using English at intermediate level should spend time on preparing for an English certificate By doing that, they can try to reach their target From that they would learn English seriously and know more about English collocations Moreover, an English certificate is also important for them when graduating and then finding a job 4.2.3 Taking an English course For students who use English collocations at basic level, it is very necessary for them to look up for a good teacher who can help them to improve English collocations They can take part in a communication class Teachers in these classes know a lot of collocations in speaking and communicating Otherwise, students in some classes for IELTS or TOEFL are also learned about English collocations and improve English skills Most of students in this group are unconfident about their English That’s why they not want to communicate with native speakers When making presentation, they cannot get a perfect performance After surveying, researcher 35 35 recognizes that taking an English course will give them a good environment to practice English, which absolutely make them feel more confident 4.2.4 Practicing everyday Students should keep practicing exercises everyday, they should spend – hours on learning English per day There are a lot of exercises which relate to English collocations for students to study On the internet, students can look up on some websites providing good exercises with answer key Here are some recommendations: - Englishpractice.com Ieltsbuddy.com Englishpractice.com Tolearnenglish.com Otherwise, students can find books for learning English collocations - English collocations in use Natural English collocations Collocations extra book In addition, listening and reading are two necessary skills that they need to practice everyday They can listen English from some resources like: BBC, VOX, TED TALK, VOA, etc… from the news or conversations, trying to pick up some potential collocations and review them everyday 4.3 Recommendations for improving learning environment at Thuongmai University Developing a total learning environment for students in a particular course or program is probably the most creative part of teaching While there is a tendency to focus on either physical institutional learning environments (such as classrooms, lecture theatres and labs), or on the technologies used to to create online personal learning environments, learning environments are broader than just these physical components They will also include: • 36 The characteristics of the learners 36 • The goals for teaching and learning • The activities that will best support learning • The assessment strategies that will best measure and drive learning • The culture that infuses the learning environment After surveying, 80% students said that equipments in classroom are quite good, but they need to be guaranteed regularly, some classrooms need to be equipped with air – conditioners About teaching methods, teachers of English faculty should have a modern method to approach the lesson and help students to improve their English skills Moreover, teachers should cultivate a relationship with students The relationship between teachers and students directly restricts the students’ emotion and affects their learning behavior The teacher should walk down the tall podium to students and make friends with the students And the teacher should give a hand to students in their learning process by using their own knowledge and experience In order to build a good relationship between teachers and students, we should pay attention to the following points: The teacher should stand in the perspective of students when he thinks a problem and design the teaching activities There should be some activities and assessment strategies in the classroom This will arouse students’ interest in learning English Last but not least, English collocations can be remembered by learning from videos, games, activities… therefore teachers should be flexible in choosing the teaching ways CONCLUSION 37 37 As mentioned in the introductory part, English learners at Thuongmai University have to encounter the use of collocations as they are widely employed for both communicative and business purposes All the situations and examples illustrated in this article demonstrate a remarkable breadth of knowledge Collocations can also be understood and regarded as a persuasive linguistic device when specifically used in English for business communication Therefore, learning English collocations should be in a right way and with suitable methods For third – year students of English faculty, they should learn how to deal with English collocations, especially Business English collocations As a successful language learner, using a wide range of collocations can indicate the language aptitude of that learner In terms of language instruction, teaching collocations is essential and indispensable to foster the language proficiency of learners In other words, this kind of enhanced ability is necessary for their English studies Additionally, research studies on collocations should be carried out further and to a greater extent 38 38 APPENDIX The survey questionnaire for third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University This survey is designed for all the third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University The main purpose of this survey questionnaire is to ascertain your attitudes as well as your opinion toward the topic “methods of learning English collocations” in the interest of collecting quantitative data and information Your answer will be utilized only for the researching purpose Please tick the most suitable answer for each question How long have you been learning English? a Under year b – years c – years d > years How much time you spend per day on learning English? a < hours b 3- hours c > hours What are your weaknesses in English? ( you can choose more than one) a Listening b Reading c Writing d Speaking e Vocabulary f Phrases g Grammar Do you know many English collocations? a YES b NO ( If the answer is NO, next to question 8) What are the methods that you use to learn English collocations? ( you can choose more than one) a Learning from teachers (from university, English center,…) b Learning online c Learning from books and dictionary d Learning from daily life e Others How well can you use English collocations? Giving point from 1(not well) to 5(very well) How well can you remember English collocation? Giving point from 1(not well) to 5(very well) Do you think it is difficult to remember new words and phrases? a YES b NO What are the most difficult factors you have to face in reading skills? (you can choose more than one) a Vocabulary b Phrases c Speed d Logic questions e Others 10 What are the difficult factors you have to face in listening skills? ( you can choose more than one) a Vocabulary b Phrases c Speed d Others 11 Do you think learning English collocations is important? a Not important b Important c Very important 12 Choosing the methods you think that it would be the most effective way to learn English collocations ( you can choose more than one) a Participating in an English course b Learning from internet c Reading more books about English collocation d Using dictionary e Learning with a group of friends f Trying to write them down and learn by heart g Others References Bartsch, S (2004) Structural and functional properties of collocations in English: A corpus study of lexical and pragmatic constraints on lexical co-occurrence Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag Tubingen Hoey, M 2000 A World Beyond Collocation: New Prespectives on Vocabulary Teaching with Teaching Collocation (Eds.) M Lewis, Hove LTP Lewis, M 2000 Teaching Collocation: Further Development in the Lexical Approach, Hove: Language Teaching Publications Sinclair, J M et al (1991) Collocations and semantic profile Koya, T (2005) Collocations research based on corpora collected from English textbooks for Japanese upper secondary schools Association of Applied linguistic Maybin, Mercer & Hewings, 2007, Using English Benson, M (1990) ‘Collocations and General purpose Dictionaries.’ 10 International Journal of Lexicography Website: www.couplescompany.com Online dictionary: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ Online collocation dictionary: http://www.ozdic.com/ ... foundation to work effectively in their future career Therefore, this thesis topic: methods of learning English collocations in order to enhance English vocabulary for third - year students of. .. strongly indicates that third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University know the importance of English collocations They know that English collocations play an integral role in their... this is an interesting and potential topic Scope of the study This study focuses on the methods of learning English collocations for third – year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University