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

This graduation thesis aims to illustrate theroles, importance, and types of English collocations and to investigate the use ofcollocations in the business context, then giving the metho

One of the most problematic areas for foreign language learning is collocation It isoften seen as arbitrary and overwhelming, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle tothe attainment of native - like fluency This graduation thesis aims to illustrate theroles, importance, and types of English collocations and to investigate the use ofcollocations in the business context, then giving the methods of learning Englishcollocations In this regard, the usage of English collocations of third –year students

of English faculty at Thuongmai University is going to be examined The writerdiscusses 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 Englishcollocations In addition, different solutions to students at both basic andintermediate levels are provided at the end of this graduation thesis

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First of all, I would to thank my supervisor over the course of this – Ms NguyenThi Thanh Huyen, for all her insightful comments, suggestions and keeping mefocused in writing this dissertation, and also my friend – Dinh Thi Giang for all heradvice and support during the coursework Lastly, I‘d also like to thank my parents,without whom none of this would have been possible

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF FIGURES v

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 1

1.3 Research subjects 2

1.4 Scope of the study 2

1.5 Research methodology 3

1.6 Organization of the study 4

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 Definitions of collocation 6

2.2 The importance of English collocation 8

2.2.1 For English learners 8

2.2.2 For third – year students of English Faculty at Thuong Mai university .9 2.3 Types of English collocations 12

2.3.1 Grammatical collocations 12

2.3.2 Lexical collocations 13

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 15

3.1 Current situation 15

3.2 Difficulties 16

3.2.1 De-lexicalized Verbs 16

3.2.2 Randomness 17

3.2.3 Meaning and Noticing 17

3.2.4 Difficulties in studying and teaching at Thuongmai university 18

3.3 Reasons why third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University cannot deal with English collocations 18

3.3.1 Objective reasons 18

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3.3.2 Subjective reasons 19

3.4 The process of surveying 20

3.4.1 The design of questionnaires 20

3.4.2 Data analysis 21

3.5 Discussion of the findings 29

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 30

4.1 How should students deal with English collocations? 30

4.2 Solution to problems facing third - year students when learning English collocations 31

4.2.1 Spending more time on self - teaching 31

4.2.2 Taking the IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL tests 32

4.2.3 Taking an English course 32

4.2.4 Practicing everyday 33

4.3 Recommendations for improving learning environment at Thuongmai University 33

CONCLUSION 35 APPENDIX

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LIST OF FIGURES

3 Chart 3.1 The amount of time students have been

6 Chart 3.4 The methods that students use to learn

12 Table 3.2 Students’ opinions about the best methods

for learning English collocations

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale

In the field of applied linguistics, a great deal of research efforts has beendedicated to the way to teach and learn English skills, while the methods of learningEnglish 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 thatnowadays English collocations become more and more important for students tolearn and remember vocabulary It's extremely necessary to know what words pairwith each other and know how to use collocations

In the past, some people used to try to find out the rules of forming Englishcollocations as well as the importance of English collocations They did someresearch 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 innot only English communication but also in all English skills (especially in readingand listening skills) Besides, third– year students of English Faculty at ThuongmaiUniversity are chosen as respondents because they are people who should knowmore about academic vocabulary and business terms which can absolutely helpthem 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, whichwould properly improve their English skills

1.2 Aims of the study

English collocations are not new terms for English learners However, noteveryone 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 gainthe high band when they take the IELTS exam or TOEIC In addition, almost third –year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University are recognized that theyhave not gained enough knowledge about English collocations Therefore, thisstudy has been conducted and followed these ideas:

- Explore the ways that third – year students of English Faculty use to dealwith collocations and their weaknesses in learning English collocations From that, Ican help them to understand the importance of collocations in the process oflearning

- Suggest some suitable methods for English learners and third – year students

of English Faculty about learning English collocations and enhance theirvocabulary

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 do 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 thereare a lot of things to explore and discover Moreover, English collocations are verycommon and important for business students This is not too difficult to approach.However, this is an interesting and potential topic

1.4 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 forthis scope of study follows these ideas:

Firstly, they are students from English faculty and now they have spent threeyears learning at university, most of them use English at intermediate level andEnglish 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 andeasily Especially, in business, there are a lot of economic terms they have tounderstand and translate exactly, English collocations are the basic background forthem to translate closely with original documents

Secondly, after consulting and discovering, researcher sees that thesestudents have enough characteristics of English learners and they are suitable to thistopic as well Their main characteristics are:

- They have to learn a lot of subjects related to English at university

- In the third year of university, students have to understand more aboutspecialized English and academic terms

- English is very important for them in their career

1.5 Research methodology

This study is conducted by quantitative research methods

(emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, ornumerical 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 acrossgroups 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 thepopulation The research study can usually be replicated or repeated, given its highreliability The next reason is that Researcher has a clearly defined researchquestion to which objective answers are sought In addition, project can be used togeneralize concepts more widely, predict future results, or investigate causalrelationships

In detail, the main method of this survey is survey questionnaire Aquestionnaire 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 bedelivered 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 researchasks more closed ended questions with restricted options to answer.There are two types of questionnaire:

- Questionnaires that evaluate variables that is separate, including questionsregarding an individual’s behavior, facts and preferences

- Questionnaires that measure factors incorporated into a scale like those aboutindividual identities and different attributes, index and traits

In general, questionnaire is only possible way to survey, even though thismethod has some disadvantages At the time of surveying, most of third – yearstudents of English faculty are in the middle of revision for final test Therefore,researcher cannot use some methods like observation and interview Only by onlinequestionnaire 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 intofour chapters:

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the study This chapter will put emphasis

on the background of study and give some basic information such as rationale andthe aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study and researchmethodology

Chapter 2 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 2 focuses on theimportance of English collocations and some main types of English collocations

Chapter 3 provides a brief description on the plan of surveying Readers canknow more about the current situation of third – year students of English Facultyand some difficulties that researcher have to face when conducting Throughout thedata analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of them will be showed with thereasons

Chapter 4 gives some solutions to this phenomenon and some evaluation forthis study

The last one of this study is APPENDIX which contains the full description

of all questions, methodologies of the survey

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW2.1 Definitions of collocation

In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a sequence of words or terms that occur more often than would be expected by chance In phraseology, collocation is

co-a sub-type of phrco-aseme An exco-ample of co-a phrco-aseologicco-al collocco-ation, co-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-infor 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 do not sound naturally inEnglish Apart from the prevalent grammatical/lexical distinction, the authors alsomention ‘word’ collocation, none of whose elements can be replaced even with itssynonym, e.g small fortune but not *little fortune and ‘category’ collocation whoseelements 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 upthe 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 arecomposed of

By their very nature, collocations do not follow grammar rules that you canmemorize Collocations are abstract, they normally have no explanation, and the list

is endless This can be confusing and frustrating for students For example, youwould 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 aregrammatically correct, but the former “sounds” correct to native English speakerswhile the latter does not

It is important to learn collocations, because they are important for thenaturalization of one’s speech Besides, they broaden one’s scope forexpression “Collocation” refers to how words go together or form fixedrelationships Collocations are also very common in business settings when certainnouns 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 towords that almost always go together It's possible that people might understand you

if you don't use a strong collocation However, if you do not use a strongcollocation it will sound funny to native speakers

- Example: Make and Do

“make” and “do” provide perfect examples of why collocation is so important.Generally, 'make' refers to things that are made that weren't there before 'Do' refers

to actions that we take or do such as chores

- Collocations with “Make”

make a cup of coffee / tea

make noise

make the bed

- Collocations with “Do”

do the laundry

do the errands

do business with someone

Make and Do are perfect examples of verbs that go together with specific nouns A verb + noun combination that always go together are considered collocations

2.2 The importance of English collocation

2.2.1 For English learners

Native speakers of a language have at their disposal thousands of words.Using their knowledge of grammar, they are, in theory, capable of using the words

to produce and understand an unlimited number of sentences that they have neversaid or heard before In practice, however, they do not produce every sentence fromscratch They tend to use a great number of ready-made chunks of words and putthem together in various ways according to their communicative needs Wordsbecome tied, so to speak, to each other due to repeated use in the same chunks bymembers of the language community Sometimes, though, a single use of a group ofwords together may be enough to link the words in one chunk in the memory ofspeakers of a language because of the dramatic effect of such a use or the prestige

of the user

When words are thus combined in a chunk, they have the power to predicteach other's occurrence On the other hand, due to the fact that English words arenot linked in ready-made chunks in the non-native speakers' memory; inappropriateword combinations are often produced by most non-native speakers

It is important to study English collocations because it will help Englishlearners understand how to use vocabulary words in a sentence correctly.Many people learning English studied numerous hours to learn thousands ofvocabulary words They understand the meaning of the word by learning it from adictionary, but in the end, they still have a problem using the word in a sentence.Learning English collocations is the best way for English learners remembervocabulary and make sentences Collocations are important because they make yourlanguage sound natural If you master collocations, your English will be moreidiomatic, that is, more similar to the way it is spoken by native speakers

Collocations enhance improvement of learners' oral communication, listeningcomprehension, and reading speed, and that teaching collocations enables learners

to be aware of language chunks used by native speakers in speech and writing.For example:

I try to make my bed every morning (NOT do my bed)

Parents usually tell stories to their children (NOT say stories)

Sean likes to surf the web before going to bed (NOT navigate the web)

Or we say: Strong coffee/tea, NOT powerful coffee/tea

2.2.2 For third – year students of English Faculty at Thuong Mai university

In general, students of English Faculty at Thuongmai university shouldknow and understand exactly how to use English collocations in business becauseEnglish collocations will have initial impact on their work in the future

In business, we have to write an email, a letter or a contract… for ourpartners Sometimes, we have to write advertisements, Writing Invitation Cards,Company Profiles, Writing Business Letters, Meetings,… Therefore, if you do notknow about business collocations or how to use it, you would have a lot of troubles

The following is an example of collocations used in advertisement:

The new whitening revolution

Pure Vitamin C + Melanin-Block

In just one step!

Dark spots and skin pigmentation, a growing concern by many Asian

women, are mainly caused by constant exposure to harsh UV rays resulting in

overactive melanin production in the epidermis

With this in mind, L’Oréal Skincare Laboratories has successfullyformulated the latest breakthrough in whitening skincare treatment White PerfectDouble Action Concentrated Whitening Essence effectively targets pigmentationboth the skin surface and in the epidermis

THE UNIQUE DOUBLE CHAMBERS

MELANN+BLOCK+LACTIS ACID+DERMOLISS CHAMBER

Melanin-Block acts directly on melanogenesis and effectively reduces

melanin production by -53%

Efficient exfoliating agents: Lactic acid and Dermoliss gently exfoliate

away melanin-filled dark dead cells to recover skin tone evenness, radiance andgreater transparency

(Adapted from Maybin, Mercer & Hewings, 2007: p 70)

As we can see from the example, the collocations found in this advertisementare as follows:

Mainly caused by, effectively reduces, and gently exfoliate.

According to McCarthy & O’Dell (2005), the words such as mainly,effectively, gently are called Intensifying Adverbs Intensifying adverbs refer to thecombination between an adverb and an adjective that can lead to the more attractiveand powerful language In this regard, it indicates the role of collocations to createpersuasive language in advertising English

Here is another example of collocations used in invitation cards:

Mr and Mrs John C Smith

request the pleasure of the company

of Mr James K Brown & Guest

at a small holiday party and dance

Monday, the twenty-third of Decemberfrom seven o’clock in the evening until eleven o’clock

5555 Wilshire Road

Semi-Formal Holiday attire R.S.V.P 5555

Wilshire Road Los Angeles, CA 90039

(Source: www.couplescompany.com)

Based on this invitation, the collocations specifically used for writing an

invitation can be as follows: - Mr and Mrs John C Smith request the pleasure of

the company of Mr JamesK Brown & Guest at a small holiday party and dance

To accept a written invitation, you may use the collocations as follows: Mr

A and … accept with pleasure the invitation of

Or: … has much pleasure in accepting

 To conclude, the collocations used for writing, accepting, anddeclining an invitation can be particularly used according to the purpose of writing.These collocations are essential for business writing when you have to deal withbusinesspeople around the globe

We can see that English collocations in business are always related to thework and important documents If the translators make mistakes with translation, itwould be difficult for them to deal with the job

For third – year students of English faculty, when they have spent three years

at university, they should know a lot of academic words and terms It is moreimportant for them to learn and remember English collocations, especially inbusiness area

2.3 Types of English collocations

The main characteristics of collocation in contrast to idiom are theirmeanings reflect the meaning of their constituent parts One of the characteristics ofthe way words collocate is that a word in frequent use may often combine with onewhich is much less widely used When words are used together regularly, rules areformed about their use not for grammatical reasons, but because of the association.They are always in that order and to put them the other way around seems wrong.Many words combinations made Benson and Benson classify the collocations intotwo types They are grammatical collocation and lexical collocation

2.3.1 Grammatical collocations

According to Benson, Benson, and Ilson (1997), grammatical collocation is aphrase consisting of a dominant word (noun, adjective, and verb) and a preposition

or grammatical structure such as an infinitive or clause This type also can be called

as fixed combination words This opinion is supported by Mahmoud (2004) Hesaid that grammatical collocation is a combination where a preposition is used with

a noun, a verb or an adjective For examples, by accident, admiration for, the houseneeds painting; she (the girl) is ready to go, etc.”

G6 predicate adj + to infinitive

G7 adjective + that clause

G8 consists of 19 English verbs

Blockade against, apathy toward

It was a pleasure to do it

He took an oath that he would do his duty

by accident, in advance

be angry at, be fond of

It was necessary to work

It was nice that he can was able to come home for the holidays

send ( the dative movement transformation verb)

Table 2.1 Grammatical collocations (Cited in Koya, 2005, p.69)

2.3.2 Lexical collocations

Lexical is a words‟ definition that we can find in the dictionary that mostlyused by a single word A word is the smallest unit of a language that can exist on itsown in either written or spoken language (Larson, 1990)

2.3.2.1 Some Characteristics of Lexical Collocation by Hill (2000)

Some characteristics of Lexical collocations are fixed, identifiable, idiomatic phrases and construction There are some characteristics of lexicalcollocations Hill (2000) shows the characteristics of lexical collocation as follow

non-a The lexicon is not arbitrary The lexicon is not randomly produced Inother words, lexicon must obey the language rules

b The pattern of collocations is predictable To a certain extent vocabularychoice is predictable For example when a writer thinking about friend, he may have

a large number of word combinations for friend, such as best, loyal, old, personal,school, etc Yet the pattern of verb-noun lexical collocation is often unpredictable

c The size of the phrasal mental lexicon is large We need to limit thepredictability by definition of collocation Those collocations must constitute majorproportion of the whole naturally-occurring text, spoken or written

1 Verb (Creation + Activation) +

Noun/Pronoun (or Preposition

Extermination the pest disease,

a square refusal of the ideas, etc

battle, a rough estimates, etc

circulates, etc

flowers, an act of violence, etc

addicted, etc

thoroughly, anchor firmly, etc

Table 2.2 Types of lexical collocations

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS

3.1 Current situation

In general, almost students of Thuongmai University started learning Englishwhen they were Grade Three students in primary school Some started learningwhen they were very small Therefore, their English level is various Based on this background knowledge, this study puts more emphasis on third– year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University Most of them haveused English at intermediate level and they have approached a lot of methods tolearn English in all skills

Generally speaking, when asked whether they liked English, most of thestudents who were interviewed by the project team answered “yes”, because theythink it is interesting for them and they think English is very important nowadays.But they also dislike English because English is difficult to master Sometimes theycannot communicate with native speakers and handle with some English skills likewriting, speaking or listening Even though they learn English everyday at school,they still have trouble when communicating or doing test The main reason of thisphenomenon is that they do not have an environment to improve and practiceEnglish Moreover, the methods that they use to learn English are not effective

About English collocations, most of students who are seriously learningEnglish think it is extremely important to learn They think that the most integralpart for English learners to speak like native speakers is understanding how to useEnglish collocations For some students, they can use English collocations, butsomehow, they do not understand and know exactly about them

When asking them about their subjects at university, the project teamrecognizes that most of the time they spend at school, they use English and learnEnglish as well However, sometimes they have a lot of troubles when usingEnglish For example, in the class of business correspondence, it’s very hard forthem to deal with academic words or phrases When they try to translate a businessemail in English into Vietnamese, they cannot find the suitable words to translate

In addition, they lack skills and vocabulary to express their feelings when

communicating, which make them feel unconfident when talking with nativespeakers

For the most part, third –year students of English faculty at ThuongmaiUniversity can use English in communication and study, but they are not excellent.When in other faculties, a lot of students have IELTs or TOEIC, only few students

of English faculty have these certificates Most of them have the same thought thatthey are majoring in English so it’s no need to take the IELTS or TOEIC tests

3.2 Difficulties

When learning English collocations, students have to deal with a lot ofdifficulties Collocations are an especially tricky aspect of learning English becausethere is no apparent reason or rule behind them Instead, collocations need to beencountered in natural language and learners must familiarize themselves with thedifferent collocations over time in order to adopt them into their own language.Here are some difficulties when learning English collocations:

3.2.1 De-lexicalized Verbs

The first difficulty is related to de – lexicalized verbs De -lexicalized verbsare also known as empty verbs There are verbs which are used frequently inEnglish and with many nouns, thus, they seem to have lost their meaning in the

phrase Common de- lexicalized verbs are get, go, take, make, do, have If we consider the phrase have a coffee, it has the same meaning as drink a coffee, though this is not what we would say and the use of have does not necessarily equate

to drink

It is true that a lot of mistakes in collocations are made with de-lexicalizedverbs They are easily to be misunderstood Even though the grammar can becorrect, they are still wrong Or sometimes, students can make wrong collocationsExamples:

Students usually find it difficult to use collocations with “make” and “do”.Sometimes, they use “make business” instead of “do business”; “make a report”