Teaching lexical collocations to enhance speaking proficiency of college English majors in Taiwan
Abstract
The present study explores lexical collocations and their relation to speaking proficiency of Taiwanese EFL college students learning English for academic purposes (i.e., EAP). The data is obtained from 92 English majors at a national university of science and technology in southern Taiwan. The results show that (a) direct collocation instruction promotes the subjects’ performance on their speaking fluency tests, outscoring the other two instruction types; (b) the advanced level students seem to benefit most as they outperformed the other three groups after receiving each of the three instruction types (i.e., lexical collocations, single-item vocabulary, and no instruction); and (c) no significant difference can be found between the high-intermediate and intermediate groups with regard to their post-instruction performances. Therefore, the current study concludes that direct collocation instruction deserves immediate attention and calls for a series of systematic studies to be done on the possible connection between lexical collocations and English proficiency of EFL learners.
Publication history
Table of contents
In the field of applied linguistics and TESOL, it is now widely accepted that longer, multi-word, phrase-like lexical units constitute an essential portion of proficient language use (Schmitt, 2008; Wray, 2000, 2002). In recent years, the field has also witnessed tremendous efforts contributing to the understanding of lexical units. According to Ellis (2008), 529 papers (in the 1980s) and 709 papers (in the 1990s), investigating the phenomenon of phraseology, can be found in the ProQuest-CSA database. It is becoming more apparent that these lexical units are paramount not only to language acquisition but also pedagogical practices (Schmitt, 2004). Terms like lexical phrases (Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992), formulas (Ellis, 1994), multi-word items (Moon, 1997), lexical bundles (Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad, & Finegan, 1999), constructions (Ellis, 2003, 2006), lexical patterning (Schmitt, 2004), formulaic sequences (Schmitt & Carter, 2004), restricted collocations (O’Keeffe, McCarthy, & Carter, 2007), phraseological units (Meunier & Granger, 2008) have been previously used to describe the longer chunks of words. Among these labels, collocations, perhaps the most discussed lexical units, lie in the center of the past studies.
References
Ackermann, K. & Chen, Y-H.
(2013) Developing the academic collocation list (ACL) – A corpus-driven and expert-judged approach. Journal of English for Academic Purposes,
12
(4), 235–247. 
Aghbar, A. A.
(1990, October). Fixed expressions in written texts: Implications for assessing writing sophistication. Paper presented at a meeting of the English Association of Pennsylvania State System Universities. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 352 808)
Al-Zahrani, M. S.
(1998) Knowledge of English lexical collocations among male Saudi college students majoring in English at a Saudi university (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Autores, V.
(Ed) (2009) Oxford collocations dictionary. Oxford University Press.
Bachman, L. F.
(2004) Statistical analysis for language assessment. Cambridge University Press.
Bahns, J., & Eldaw, M.
(1993) Should we teach EFL students collocations? System,
21
(1), 101–114.
Benson, M.
(1985) A combinatory dictionary of English. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America,
7
, 189–200.
Benson, M., Benson, E., & Ilson, R.
(1997) The BBI dictionary of English word combinations. John Benjamins.
Bernardini, S.
(2004) Corpora in the classroom: An overview and some reflections on future developments. In J. Sinclair (Ed.). How to use corpora in language teaching (pp. 15–38). John Benjamins.
Biber, D.
(2006) University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. John Benjamins.
Biber, D., & Barbieri, F.
(2007) Lexical bundles in university spoken and written registers. English for Specific Purposes,
26
, 263–286.
Biber, D., & Conrad, S.
(1999) Lexical bundles in conversation and academic prose. In H. Hasselgard & S. Oksefjell (Eds.). Out of corpora: Studies in honor of Stig Johansson (pp. 181–190). Rodopi.
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E.
(1999) Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Pearson Education.
Boers, F., Eyckmans, J., Kappel, J., Stengers, H., & Demecheleer, M.
(2006) Formulaic sequences and perceived oral proficiency: Putting the lexical approach to the test. Language Teaching Research,
10
(3), 245–261.
Chen, P-C.
(2002) A corpus-based study of the collocational errors in the writings of the EFL learners in Taiwan (Unpublished master’s thesis). National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Coady, J., & Huckin, T.
(1997) (Eds.). Second language vocabulary acquisition. Cambridge University Press.
Coxhead, A.
(2008) Phraseology and English for academic purposes: Challenges and opportunities. In F. Meunier & S. Granger (Eds.). Phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching (pp. 149–162). John Benjamins.
Ellis, N.
(2003) Constructions, chunking, and connectionism: The emergence of second language structure. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.). Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 63–103). Blackwell.
(2006) Cognitive perspectives on SLA: The Associative Cognitive CREED. AILA Review,
19
, 100–121.
(2008) Phraseology: The periphery and the heart of language. In F. Meunier & S. Granger (Eds.). Phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching (pp. 1–14). John Benjamins.
Ellis, R.
(1994) The study of second language acquisition. Oxford University Press.
Farghal, M., & Obiedat, H.
(1995) Collocations: A neglected variable in EFL. IRAL,
33
(4), 315–333.
Firth, J. R.
(1957) Modes of meaning. In J. R. Firth, Papers in linguistics 1934 -1951 (pp. 190–215). Oxford University Press.
Folse, K.
(2004) Vocabulary myths. University of Michigan Press.
Furlong, N. E., Lovelace, E. A., & Lovelace, K. L.
(2000) Research methods and statistics: An integrated approach. Harcourt College Publishers.
Halliday, M. A. K.
(1966) Lexis as a linguistic level. In C. E. Bazell, J. C. Catford, M. A. K. Halliday, & R. H. Robins, (Eds). In memory of J. R. Firth (pp. 148–162). Longman.
Handl, S.
(2008) Essential collocations for learners of English: The role of collocational direction and weight. In F. Meunier & S. Granger (Eds.), Phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching (pp. 43–66). John Benjamins.
Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C.
(2003) Research methods and statistics in psychology. Sage.
Hsu, J-Y.
(2007) Lexical collocations and their impact on the online writing of Taiwanese college English majors and non-English majors. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching,
4
(2), 192–209.
Hsu, J-Y., & Hsu, L-C.
(2007) Teaching lexical collocations to enhance listening comprehension of English majors in a technological university of Taiwan. Soochow Journal of Foreign Languages & Cultures,
24
, 1–32.
Hunston, S.
(2002) Corpora in applied linguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Jeng, H-S.
(2006) A contrastive analysis of three types of English and Chinese collocations. The Proceedings of the 15th International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 103–118). Taipei: Crane Bookstore.
Jones, M., & Haywood, S.
(2004) Facilitating the acquisition of formulaic sequences: An exploratory study in an EAP context. In N. Schmitt, (Ed.). Formulaic sequences (pp. 269–300). John Benjamins.
Kennedy, G.
(1998) An introduction to corpus linguistics. New York: Pearson Longman.
(2008) Pharaselogy and language pedagogy: Semantic preference associated with English verbs in the British National Corpus. In F. Meunier & S. Granger (Eds.). Phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching. (pp. 21–42). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Keshavarz, M. H., & Salimi, H.
(2007) Collocational competence and cloze test performance: A study of Iranian EFL learners. International Journal of Applied Linguistics,
17
(1), 81–92.
Kimmes, A-M.
(2004) An investigation of the usage and collocability of English verbs of thinking based on the online edition of the New York Times (Unpublished master’s thesis). Southern Connecticut State University.
Kjellmer, G.
(1991) A mint of phrases. In K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (Eds.). English corpus linguistics (pp.111–127). Longman.
Kuiper, K.
(2004) Formulaic performance in conventionalised varieties of speech. In N. Schmitt (Ed.). Formulaic sequences (pp. 37–54). John Benjamins.
Lewis, M.
(1993) The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward. Language Teaching Publications.
(1997) Implementing the lexical approach: Putting theories into practice. Language Teaching Publications.
(2000) Teaching collocation: Further developments in the lexical approach. Language Teaching Publications.
Lien, H-Y.
(2003) The effects of collocation instruction on the reading comprehension of Taiwanese college students (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Lin, Y-P.
(2007) The effects of collocation instruction on the development of reading proficiency of vocational high school students in Taiwan (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan.
Liu, C-P.
(1999) An analysis of collocational errors in EFL writings. The Proceedings of the Eighth International Symposium on English Teaching (pp. 483–494). Crane Bookstore.
Lombard, R. J.
(1997) Non-native speaker collocations: A corpus-driven characterization from the writing of native speakers of Mandarin (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Texas at Arlington.
Luoma, S.
(2004) Assessing speaking. Cambridge University Press.
McIntosh, A.
(1961) Patterns and ranges. Language,
37
(3), 325–337.
Meunier, F., & Granger, S.
(Eds.) (2008) Phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching. John Benjamins.
Miller, J.
(2020) The bottom line: Are idioms used in English academic speech and writing? Journal of English for Academic Purposes,
43
.
Moon, R.
(1997) Vocabulary connections: Multi-word items in English. In N. Schmitt & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 40–63). Cambridge University Press.
Nation, I. S. P.
(2001) Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge University Press.
(2008) Teaching vocabulary: Strategies and techniques. Heinle Cengage Learning.
Nation, P., & Newton, J.
(1997) Teaching vocabulary. In J. Coady & T. Huckin (Eds.). Second language vocabulary acquisition (pp. 238–254). Cambridge University Press.
Nattinger, J.
(1988) Some current trends in vocabulary teaching. In M. McCarthy & R. Carter (Eds.), Vocabulary and language teaching (pp. 62–82). Longman.
Nattinger, J., & DeCarrico, J.
(1992) Lexical phrases and language teaching. Oxford University Press.
O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M., & Carter, R.
(2007) From corpus to classroom: Language use and language teaching. Cambridge University Press.
Palmer, H. E.
(1933) Second interim Report on English Collocations. Kaitakusha.
Pawley, A., & Syder, H.
(1983) Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Nativelike selection and nativelike fluency. In J. C. Richard & R. W. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191–225). Longman.
Richards, J. C., & Rogers, T. S.
(2001) Approaches and methods in language teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Robins, R. H.
(1967) A short history of linguistics. Longman.
Rundell, M.
(Ed.) (2006) Macmillan collocation dictionary. Macmillan.
Schmitt, N.
(2000) Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge University Press.
(2004) (Ed.). Formulaic sequences. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
(2008) Instructed second language vocabulary learning. Language Teaching Research,
12
(3), 329–363.
Schmitt, N., & Carter, R.
(2004) Formulaic sequences in action: An introduction. In N. Schmitt (Ed.). Formulaic sequences (pp. 1–22). John Benjamins.
Schmitt, N., & McCarthy, M.
(1997) (Eds.). Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy. Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, N., & Underwood, G.
(2004) Exploring the processing of formulaic sequences through a self-paced reading task. In N. Schmitt (Ed.). Formulaic sequences (pp. 173–190). John Benjamins.
Sinclair, J.
(1966) Beginning the study of lexis. In C. E. Bazell, J. C. Catford, M. A. K. Halliday & R. H. Robins, (Eds), In memory of J. R. Firth (pp. 410–430). Longman.
(1991) Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2003) Reading concordances. Pearson Education.
(2004) (Ed.). How to use corpora in language teaching. John Benjamins.
Sung, J.
(2003) English lexical collocations and their relation to spoken fluency of adult non-native speakers (Unpublished doctoral dissertation) Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Thornbury, S.
(2002) How to teach vocabulary. Pearson Education.
Towell, R., Hawkins, R., & Bazergui, N.
(1996) The development of fluency in advanced learners of French. Applied Linguistics,
17
, 84–119.
Tseng, F-P.
(2002) A study of the effects of collocation instruction on the collocational competence of junior high school students in Taiwan (Unpublished master’s thesis). National Taiwan Normal University.
Tseng, T-Y.
(2005) Test preparation guide for IELTS speaking and listening. Jinni Publishing.
Weiss, N. A.
(2005) Introductory statistics. Pearson Education.
Winer, B. J., Brown, D. R., & Michaels, K. M.
(1991) Statistical principles in experimental design (3rd ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Wray, A.
(2000) Formulaic sequences in second language teaching: Principle and practice. Applied Linguistics,
21
(4): 463–489.
(2002) Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge University Press.
Zhang, X.
(1993) English collocations and their effect on the writing of native and non-native college freshmen (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Zimmerman, C. B.
(2009) Word knowledge: A vocabulary teacher’s handbook. Oxford University Press.