MA thesis in English language: An investigation into common errors related to collocations with “make” and “do” by EFL students at Van Lam high school in Hung Yen province

The thesis consists of five main parts: The first chapter gives reasons for choosing the thesis, scope and aims of the study as well as the research method and the structure of the study, this chapter both reviews some previous studies related to the research area of the thesis and provides theoretical background to the concerning matters, in the third chapter, the methodology of the thesis including research-governing principles and research methods are introduced,...

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VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Nguyễn Thu Trang

AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON ERRORS RELATED TO COLLOCATIONS WITH “MAKE” AND “DO” BY EFL STUDENTS AT VAN LAM HIGH SCHOOL IN

HUNG YEN PROVINCE

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Nguyễn Thu Trang

AN INVESTIGATION INTO COMMON ERRORS RELATED TO COLLOCATIONS WITH “MAKE” AND “DO” BY EFL

STUDENTS AT VAN LAM HIGH SCHOOL IN

HUNG YEN PROVINCE

Field: English Language

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế

HANOI, 2018

Date:………

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my sincere gratitude and deep appreciation to Assoc Prof Dr Phan Văn Quế, my supervisor, for his helpful and warm encouragement as well as his insightful comments on my work from the beginning to the end of my study In addition, many thanks go to the teachers at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, GASS, for their interesting lessons from which I have benefited a lot for the accomplishment of the thesis

The completion of this thesis would not have been possible without the cooperation from the respondents (38 EFL students at Văn Lâm high school) who have been willing to take part in the study I am very grateful to all of them for providing detailed information for the analysis of this study

I also offer my special thanks to my colleagues and friends whose support and encouragement help me to have this thesis accomplished

Last but not least, I am greatly indebted to my family for their patience, endless love, and devotion Whatever choices I have made, they have always stood by me and believed in me I am immensely thankful for all the assistance they have given me

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS ………

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………

1.1 Rationale………

1.2 Aims of the Study………

1.3 Research Questions………

1.4 Scope of the Study………

1.5 Significance of the Study………

1.6 Research Methods………

1.7 Structure of the Study………

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW………

2.1 Previous studies………

2.2 Errors………

2.2.1 Definition of Error………

2.2.2 Error Analysis………

2.2.3 Problems of error classification………

2.2.4 Error correction………

2.2.5 Errors and collocations………

2.3 Collocations………

2.3.1 Defining Collocations………

2.3.2 Types of collocations………

2.3.3 Characteristics of colloctions………

2.3.4 Collocations, free compounds, and idioms………

2.3.5 Collocations with the verbs MAKE and DO………

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2.4 Summary………

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY………

3.1 Research Setting………

3.2 Data collection………

3.2.1 Data collection instruments………

3.2.2 Data Collection Procedures………

3.2.3 Data Analysis………

3.3 Summary………

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS………

4.1 Common errors ralated to “MAKE” and “DO” collocations commited by EFL students at Van Lam high school………

4.1.1 Word choice errors………

4.1.2 Redundant article and Missing article errors………

4.1.3 Contextual errors………

4.2 Possible causes of “make” and “do” collocation errors………

4.2.1 Shortage of collocational knowledge ………

4.2.2 Habit of learning individual word………

4.2.3 Misunderstanding the meanings of “make” and “do”…………

4.3 Summary………

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION………

5.1 Recapitulation………

5.2 Concluding Remarks………

5.3 Implications………

5.4 Limitations and Suggestions for Further Studies………

REFERENCES………

APPENDIX 1: Test 1……….………

APPENDIX 2: Test 2……….………

APPENDIX 3: Test 3………

APPENDIX 4: Questionaire……… …………

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ABSTRACT

This study is carried out to investigate the errors related to collocations with “make” and “do” by EFL students at Van Lam high school in Hung Yen province There are 38 students from class 11A9 take part in this study A questionnaire and tests are chosen as the data collection instruments According

to the results of the research, when the students use the verbs “make” and “do”

in their combinations with other words, they commonly commit errors of word choice, redundant article or missing article, word form, and misunderstading the two verbs In addition, the research has found out some possible causes of the common errors involving shortage of collocational knowledge, habit of learning individual words, and misunderstanding the meanings of “make” and “do” After analyzing and synthesizing the statistics, the researcher discussed and recommended some implications along with suggestions for further research Last but not least, it is much hoped that the results of the study could be useful for the development of teaching and learning English at Van Lam high school in Hung Yen province

LIST OF TABLES

Page Table 1: Data on the results of exercise 1 - Word choice error 43 Table 2: Data on the results of exercise 2 - Word choice error 44 Table 3: Data on the results of exercise 3 - Word choice error 45 Table 4: Data on the results of exercise 4 - Word choice error

Table 5: Data on the results of exercise 5 - Redundant article

and Missing article errors

Table 6: Data on the results of exercise 6- Redundant article

and Missing article errors

Table 7: Data on the results of exercise 7- Redundant article

and Missing article errors

Table 8: Data on the results of exercise 8 - Contextual error

Table 9: Data on the results of exercise 9 - Contextual error

Table 10: Lack of collocational knowledge - Contextual error

Table 11: Habit of learning individual words

Table 12: Frequency of “make” and “do” used with collocations

Table 13: Difficulty of learning “make” and “do” collocations

Table 14: Factors making “make” and “do” collocations confusing

Table 15: Causes of errors ralated to “make” and “do” collocations

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE THESIS

CALD: Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

EFL: English as a Foreign Language

ESL: English as a Second Language

ETL: English Teaching and Learning

L1: The First Language

L2: The Second Language

OCD: Oxford Collocations Dictionary

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In the process of international integration and development today, improving students’ English communication skills, which are one of the most important competences for 21st century global citizens, has been given prominence in Vietnamese National Educational Curriculum Thanks to the innovation in English textbooks and National exam policy, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) methods have been widely applied in Vietnamese high schools all over the country in recent years In order to meet the requirement of the curriculum standards and achieve native-like competence in English, learners must concentrate on enhancing vocabulary, especially collocations

A collocation is simply any combination of words that are commonly combined to create a phrase in the English language In fact, such phrases are so common in the language that using a synonym for one of the words in the phrase

can lead to it sounding unnatural to a native speaker For example, make an

error and fatal error are two commonly used word combinations that qualify as

collocations The verb make and the adjective fatal recurrently co-occur with the noun error In addition, it has been believed that knowing a word includes

knowing its collocations (Lewis, 2000; Nation, 1990/ 2001) Many scholars have maintained that collocational knowledge is one important factor that contributes to the differences between native speakers and foreign language learners (Aston, 1995; Fillmore, 1979; Pawley & Syder, 1983) Particularly, failure to use collocations accurately for EFL learners is a major indicator of foreignness (McArthur, 1992; McCarthy, 1990; Nattinger, 1980) The strongest position held so far is that collocational competence is an indispensable component in the process of second/ foreign language acquisition (Lewis, 1997/ 2000; Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Richards & Rogers, 2001) Accordingly, learners’ collocational knowledge is the essense of language knowledge

Despite the benefits and usefulness of collocations for learners, learning how to produce them is actually quite challenging Many students, especially those who live in rural areas, do not get the high results in the National exams and can use poor English after school They often make collocational errors when they use spoken and written English As a teacher of English at Van Lam High school in Hung yen province, the researcher feels rather concerned about students’ ability to use collocations in English However, the knowledge of collocations is a vast area in linguistics so this study only focuses on the common errors related to collocations with the verbs “make” and “do” made by EFL students at Van Lam high school I choose to do the research for two reasons Firstly, many English learners feel confused and make mistakes when they use the two verbs collocating with other words although “make” and “do” are among the most common verbs in English Secondly, the various ways of

interpreting “make” and “do” collocations from English to Vietnamese may

create difficulties for language students as the meanings of these collocational phrases depend on the elements after the two verbs

1.2 Aims of the Study

The study aims at:

- Helping EFL students gain an insight into MAKE and DO collocations

- Examining the influenced factors to possible errors made by the students

- Improving my own teaching of English at Van Lam high school

1.3 Research Questions

To fully achieve the above aims, the study answers the following questions:

- What are the common errors related to MAKE and DO collocations

committed by EFL students at Van Lam high school?

- What are the causes of students’ errors related to MAKE and DO collocations?

1.4 Scope of the Study

This study is confined to the investigation into a very small aspect of vocabulary issue - the common errors related to collocations with the two verbs

“make” and “do” in English The two verbs “make” and “do” are frequently used, yet they are among the most confusing words for English learners In other words, it is easy to misunderstand and misuse the two verbs Furthermore, they can be in many different collocations with different meanings Both “make” and “do” can collocate with a noun, a preposition, an adjective or an adverb, etc Within the framework of an M.A thesis, the author has no ambition to cover all the kinds of collocation with the two verbs, only errors related to the uses of

MAKE and DO collocations in the form of “verb + noun” pattern were taken

into consideration

1.5 Significance of the Study

It is much to the author’s expectation that the research results will help students gain a more insightful look into English MAKE and DO collocations And, on account of this, well-formed utterances containing MAKE and DO collocations might be produced And, this constitutes the practical value of the research

1.6 Research Methods

This study is qualitatively and quantitatively conducted with the descriptive, analytical, synthetical, and inductive methods A survey is conducted to study the common errors related to “make” and “do” collocations

The study is caried out with the hope to help learners avoid making mistakes when doing exercises and using the verbs “make - do” and their

combinations with other words In addition, it is to investigate the usage of collocations with “make - do” so that the EFL students at Van Lam high school can get better knowledge of collocations with “make - do”

1.7 Structure of the Study

The thesis consists of five main parts:

Chapter 1 - Introduction: The first chapter gives reasons for choosing the

thesis, scope and aims of the study as well as the research method and the structure of the study

Chapter 2 - Literature Review: This chapter both reviews some previous

studies related to the research area of the thesis and provides theoretical background to the concerning matters

Chapter 3 - Methodology: In the third chapter, the methodology of the

thesis including research-governing principles and research methods are introduced

Chapter 4 - Findings and Discussion: This part analyzes data collected

from

the students’ tests Additionally, some significant findings of the study are written up and discussed

Chapter 5 - Conclusion: The last chapter concludes the main issues which

dealt with in the previous parts Accordingly, some concluding remarks a redrawn out

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Previous studies

There are a large number of research studies, focusing on collocations with “MAKE” and “DO” that were conducted by both foreign and Vietnamese researchers From the experiences and what the researcher has searched, few important studies particularly concentrate on errors related to collocations committed by EFL students Following are some related articles and studies:

Firstly, Martynska (2004) presented the level of collocational competence

among intermediate learners of the English language in the paper entitled “Do

English language learners know collocations?” The researcher conducted the

study of English collocation competencies among intermediate high school Polish students To collect data, the researcher used different types of tests, for example, matching, a completion, circling the correct option, and identifying and correcting errors in underlined parts of sentences The findings showed that the students performed poorly on all tasks One important result was that their collocation competence did not depend on the length of time of learning English because the student studying English for a short time performed better on the English tests than those who studied English for longer time Moreover, in comparison between two types of task, it was found that some students got higher scores on the multiple-choice tasks but lower scores on the completion tasks This confirmed that the production of collocation among the students was much lower than their receptive skills Therefore, more attention to collocations when teaching English should be paid in the teaching and learning process

Secondly, the research “The acquisition of basic collocations by Japanese

learners of English” by Koyo Taeko (2005) identifies basic collocations for

Japanese learners of English and examines the mechanism of collocational knowledge of Japanese learners of English The findings were based on two types of analyses; a corpus-based analysis to identify basic collocations and

an empirical analysis to examine how Japanese learners develop knowledge

of collocation The researcher came to such a conclusion that there was a significant positive relationship between learners’ general knowledge of vocabulary and their knowledge of collocations The knowledge of the learners’

on receptive collocation tasks was better than their productive ones, and the learner had difficulty with some collocation categories, such as adjective-noun collocations in comparison with others

Thirdly in “The acquisition of collocation by Turkish EFL learners”,

Elyildirm (1998) examined the comprehension and production of the target collocations of the first language (L1) Turkish learners of English By using three collocation tests: correct or incorrect test, translation test and a gap-filling test including two collocation categories, i.e verb-noun collocations and adjective-noun collocations The researcher found that the negative influence

of L1 on the production of collocations was quite clear In fact, participants tended to generalize unfamiliar combinations in reference to the familiar ones that learners frequently encountered in the textbook Learners also have a tendency to incorrectly overgeneralize their L1 collocational knowledge with unknown collocations, which resulted in L1negative transfer The researcher also confirmed that acquiring collocations that have L1 equivalent was easier than that of acquiring collocations that have no L1 equivalents Additionally, comparing two types of test it was observed that the participants performed better on the adjective-noun collocation test than verb-noun-collocation test, which they found to be more difficult The researcher recommended the teaching of common collocations and suggested learners to spend much time reading and listening to improve their knowledge of collocations instead of avoiding them

In Vietnam, Phạm Thị Ngà (2012) had a similar study for her unpublished M.A thesis The study was directedly relevant to teaching and learning collocations at university The survey was conducted at Thai Nguyen University

of Economics and Business Administration The thesis studied students’ errors

in using collocations with the verbs “do” and “make” and showed the difficulties

in recognizing suitable words which can collocate with each verbs Additionally

it gave some suggestions to improve quality of teaching and learning English at university in Vietnam

Finally, in Hung Yen province and Van Lam district where the researcher has been working for more than 18 years, it has not been conducted any studies

or articles related to the subject of improving English vocabulary, especially knowledge of collocations, for high school students Therefore, this thesis hopefully will make a small contribution to teaching and learning collocations at

a high school, so that students can get better results in their exams and enhance their ability in communication

a) "An error is a deviation from the language system

b) An error is a deviation from the existing linguistic standard

c) An error is a violation of the way a person within a speech community speaks and acts

d) An error is what a communication partner does not understand

e) An error is what a native speaker does not understand

f) An error is something contrary to rules in textbooks and to grammars

g) An error is what a teacher refers to as an error

h) An error is what a native speaker in a particular situation would not say or

do

i) An error is something contrary to the norm in the head of the teacher

j) Errors are relative What is considered to be an error in a learning group in a particular teaching phase, is tolerated in another learning group in another

phase." (Kleppin, 1998, p19)

The term "error" is used to refer to a systematic deviation from a selected norm or set of norms According to Lennon (1991) an error is "a linguistic form

or combination of forms which in the same context and under similar conditions

of production would, in all likelihood, not be produced by the speakers 'native speaker's counterparts" On one hand, it was considered to be a sign of

inadequacy of the teaching techniques, something negative which must be avoided, and on the other hand it was seen as a natural result of the fact that since by nature we can't avoid making errors, we should accept the reality and try to deal with them

The error-as-progress conception is based on the Chomsky's idea that a child generates language through innate universal structures So, using this symbolic code, one can have access to different pieces of knowledge not as something mechanically learned but as mentally constructed through try and error The idea is now that the second language learners form hypotheses about the rules to be formed in the target language and then test them out against input data and modify them accordingly

There is an approach which concerns error as being the result of cognitive interaction This means that the error implicitly carries a social norm

social-as well social-as cognitive process The error also carries a social and cultural component which makes it different in different societies

2.2.2 Error Analysis

The growing interest of investigating errors types led apparently to the rise of error analysis Error analysis can be defined as an examination of those errors committed by learners in both spoken and written medium (Mohideen, 1996) It is worth noting that error analysis gives a picture of the type of difficulty learners are experiencing (Norrish, 1994, p80) Richards (1971) justifies the importance of error analysis as it functions as input to theoretical discussion In the phase of evaluation, error analysis offers appropriate feedback

to the design of remedial curricula Similarly, Mohideen (1996) indicates that error analysis is useful in ESL/EFL because it reveals the problematic areas to language teachers, syllabus designers and textbook writers In this regard, due to the fact that foreign language learners lack the automation of collocations which may result in errors that hinder their learning English, the analysis of collocation errors is strongly believed to be adopted in this study as an effective way to help English language students overcome difficulties Various approaches to error analysis are formed basically for investigating errors In 1974, Corder (pp 158-171) identified a representative model for error analysis His model can be summarized as followed The initial step requires the selection of a corpus of language followed by an identification of errors The errors are then classified The next step, after giving a grammatical analysis of each error, it is demanded

to give an explanation of different types of errors Gass and Selinker (1994, p 67) add additional two steps: analyzing sources of error, and offering remedy for errors In another attempt for analyzing errors, Norrish (1994, p 81) states that there are fundamentally two main approaches to error analysis The first one is

to set up categories of errors, based on a set of preconceptions about the learners' most common problems This approach has an advantage of being easier and quicker to carry out because errors are indicated on a list of categories However, the drawback of this approach is that the issue is prejudged, since errors can be sorted out only in terms of predetermined error types The second approach is to group the errors as they are collected in particular areas Such

approach has the advantage of allowing the errors themselves to determine the categories chosen By a process of sorting and re-sorting errors, the categories will eventually define themselves From the standpoint of the researcher, it can

be stated that Corder's approach (1974, pp 158- 171) to error analysis matches with the second approach offered by Norrish (1983, p 80) because both approaches basically tend to identify errors types and classify them from the corpus itself

2.2.3 Problems of error classification

Rein (1983:99) defines the error analysis as follows: “Error analysis is concerned with the registration (= error statistics) and the genetic analysis (= error analysis) of systematic errors occurring at different stages of language learning with the practical intention to develop objective standards of judgment (= error evaluation) or didactic measures in order to reduce or eliminate such errors (error = therapy)."

Errors are classified according to the linguistic plains where they occur According to the different linguistic plains there can be distinguished phonetic / phonological, lexical / semantic, morphological / syntactic and pragmatic errors Although errors can not always be clearly assigned to one or the other level, the classification of the errors can be well handled according to the different linguistic levels The other criterion in the classification of the errors is the cause

of the error While determining the reasons that could cause the error, there can

be distinguished the intra- and the inter-linguistic causes, depending on whether the error was caused due to the influence of the mother tongue or due to the target languages Interference errors are caused by the influence of the mother tongue Overgeneralizations occur because of the influence of the target language Errors are caused also by compensation strategies because learners tend to describe unknown words Very often the learners have different hypotheses about the nature of the foreign language and therefore they commit really creative errors

Sometime grammatically and lexically correct sentences can be considered as errors if they are socio-culturally inappropriate

Likewise, a correct statement can be considered as an error when the type

of text used, is not appropriate

The lessons and the teacher can also be the cause of the error, if the explanations cause errors A typical example of teaching generates errors is the application of the self-correction of the past tenses in German The errors signal the lack of the knowledge on the use of the tenses Another different distribution

of the errors in performance errors and competence errors arises from the level

of the knowledge of the language learner

Competence errors are understood as errors that the learner usually commits because he lacks on knowledge of the respective grammatical rules Performance errors are caused by fatigue or lack of concentration, possibly stage fright These are errors, that the learner can identify and correct itself

2.2.4 Error correction

Behind every error correction is the desire that learners make fewer mistakes To correct written errors is relatively easy because while the teacher is correcting, he has time to think about how and what he should correct During the oral correction, the procedure is much more complicated Factors that dictate the error correction:

- Type of the error depending on the linguistic level,

- Phase of the lesson - in the communicative phase of the lesson the correction is done in a different way as in the practice phase,

- Beginners are corrected in a different way as advanced learners are,

- During the phase of communication, it makes more sense, to correct by the end

of the sentence than to interrupt the flow of the speech of the learner,

- Human factors: there are learners who have a correction demand and others who suffer from the correction There are teachers who use different correction methods and teachers who always use the same method of correction Another aspect of the error correction is the question whether the teacher should prefer

explicit or implicit correction methods Explicit correction means that the teacher draws the attention of the learner to the error through open discussions Implicit error correction means that the teacher only repeats correctly the wrong

expression of the learner

2.2.5 Errors and collocations

As the researcher's concern is investigating collocation errors, it is essential not to neglect what linguists contribute to the area of errors Errors have become a field of interest not only for teachers but for linguists and psychologists as well (Gass and Selinker, 1994, pp 66-67) Dulay and Burt (1974, pp 95) state that errors have played an important role in the study of language acquisition in general and in examining second and foreign language acquisition in particular In the applied linguistics community, it was Corder (1967, pp 19-27) who first advocated the importance of errors in language learning process From the errors that learners make, one can determine their level of mastery of the language system (Corder, 1967, p 25) He observed that the learners' errors are indicative both of the state of the learners' knowledge and the ways in which a second language is learned It can be said that linguists pay considerable attention to language errors in a broad sense Thus, the researcher can narrow down this general view of exploring errors into investigating collocation errors in particular

2.3 Collocations

2.3.1 Defining Collocations

Forming a precise definition of collocation is not easy, though there

is a vast literature on this subject because there are both conflicting definitions and conflicting terminologies: “Regrettably, collocation is a term which is used and understood in many different ways” (Bahns, 1993, p57)

There have been a lot of ideas when considering the term “collocation”

Different linguists have their own ways to define what a collocation is A

collocation is mainly considered as a lexical relationship between words It is assumed that words receive their meanings from words they occur with One of

the works should be noticed is Second Interim Report on English Collocation

by H.E.Palmer (1933) who is considered the first linguist to use the term Collocation in the present-day sense According to Palmer (1933), collocation is defined as word combinations containing one or more words having meanings only in that collocation According to Halliday (1966, p 152), collocation is one of the main components and central part in his lexico-grammatical system

He defines collocation as syntagmatic relation of words which is linear occurrence together with some measure of significant proximity It is a sequence

co-of words or terms that co-occur more co-often than would be expected by chance

In phraseology, collocation is a sub-type of phraseme An example of a

phraseological collocation, given by Michael Halliday, is the expression “strong

tea” Although the expression “powerful tea” could be roughly conveyed the

same meaning, it is considered incorrect by English speakers Or the

corresponding expression for computer, “powerful computers” is widely used rather than “strong computers”

In his study, Greenbaum approaches collocation as an integration between lexis and grammar which are different in lexical and syntactic patterning but interrelated “Collocation meaning is changed according to different syntactic patterning” (Greenbaum, 1960, p 12) The term “collocation” introduced by Firth (1957) is often defined as a characteristic word combination whose lexical constituents developed an idiomatic relation based on their frequent co-occurrence According to Cruse (1984) a collocation, along with a lexeme and

an idiom, is a kind of lexical item and is “sequences of lexical which habitually co-occur, but which are nonetheless fully transparent in the sense that each lexical constituent is also a semantic constituent” (Cruse, 1986, p 40) Although there are a variety of views on the concept of collocation, variously defining it

as a lexical, grammatical or research phenomenon, all contain a focus on the occurrence of words

co-According to Micheal Mc Carthy and Felicity O’Dell (2005), “a collocation is a pair or group of words that are often used together These combinations sound natural to native speakers, but students of English have to make a special effort to learn them because they are often difficult to guess Some combinations just sound 'wrong to native speakers of English For

example, the adjective fast collocates with cars, but not with a glance” (p 4)

Cambridge Advanced Learners’ Dictionary (CALD, 2005) defines collocation as “a word or phrase which is frequently used with another word or phrase, in a way that sounds correct to people who have spoken the language all their lives, but might not be expected from the meaning In the phrase 'a hard frost', 'hard' is a collocation of 'frost' and 'strong' would not sound natural ‟or„ the combination of words formed when two or more words are frequently used

together in a way that sounds correct but difficult to guess.”

Here are some different definitions given by Oxford Collocations

Dictionary (2009) (OCD):

-The habitual juxtaposition of a particular word with another word or words with frequency greater than chance

- A pair or group of words that are juxtaposed in such a way - the action

of placing things side by side or in position”

- A grouping of words in a sentence

- Juxtaposition: the act of positioning close together (or side by side); "it

is the result of the juxtaposition of contrasting colors"

- (Collocate) have a strong tendency to occur side by side; "The words 'new' and 'world' collocate"

- (Collocate) group or chunk together in a certain order or place side by side

- Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation defines a sequence

of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance

- Collocation is a procedure used in remote sensing to match measurements from two or more different instruments

- The grouping or juxtaposition of things especially words or sounds

- The tendency for words to occur regularly with others: sit/chair, house/garage

- The phenomenon of words/lexical items tending to co-occur in close proximity to one another in spoken/written discourse (i.e habitual or greater than chance co-selection of words)

- The likelihood that a particular word will occur in the neighborhood of another word

- The action of setting in place,especially arranging in relation to others

- Group of words associated together as an expression in the lexicon Our class has decided "in this particular case" is a collocation in McGowan's idiolect

- A collocation consists of two or more words that are commonly

associated in a particular language, such as “read about” or “white

lies” A word may take on a specific meaning when collocated with

certain other words

Refers to how words occur together regularly and in a restricted way

-e.g blond hair, lean meat, etc

Although there are different ways to define what collocation is, these definitions share a common view that a collocation is a word or phrase used frequently in a combination but it is not easy for learners to guess

2.3.2 Types of collocations

First of all, it is necessary to distinguish between grammatical and lexical collocation This partr is going to deal with both types of collocations, initially with grammatical ones, later with lexical ones ones The question of strong and weak collocations will also be discussed

Grammatical Collocations

“Grammatical collocations consist of a noun, or an adjective or a verb, plus a particle (a preposition, an adverb or a grammatical structure such as an infinitive a gerund or clause)” (Bahns, 1993, p 57) The followings are the

examples: at night, extend to, good at, fall for, to be afraid that These

examples are grammatical collocations which are lexicalized as single units whose meanings are formulaic and whose co-occurence are highly likely They are sometimes idiomatic, because their meanings do not reflect

the meanings of the elements, such as run out of (to reach an end of stock, supplies) or put up with ( tolerate) However, there are similar grammatical

combinations which do not have such a “strong sense of belonging together”

According to Kennedy (1990, p 224), these prepositional phrases “ from the

outside, inside the cupboard” are considered as free combinations

According to Benson and Ilson (1986) in their introduction to their The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English grammatical collocations fall into the following combinations: noun + preposition, noun + to-infinitive, noun + that-clause, preposition + noun, adjective + preposition, predicate adjective + to-infinitive, adjective + that-clause, and the English 19 verb patterns

 noun + preposition combinations

Not all noun + preposition combinations can be considered as collocations due the highly predictable meaning of some prepositions,

such as of and by So, noun + of / by combinations are considered free

combinations The following phrases are examples of noun + preposition

collocations: blockade against, apathy towards

 noun + to + infinitive

There are five syntactic patterns in which noun + to + infitive construction

is most frequently encountered:

a It was a pleasure ( a problem, a struggle) to do it

b They had the foresight (instructions, an obligation, a permission) to do

it

c They felt a compulsion (an impulse, a need) to do it

d They made an attempt (an effort, a promise, a vow) to do it

e He was a fool (a genius, an idiot) to do it

 noun + that-clause

The noun + that-clause combinations that are considered collocational

are those using subject pronouns For example:

We reached an agreement that she would represent us in court

He took an oath that he would do his duty

However, when the ‘that-clause’ can be replaced by ‘which-clause’ as that

in relative clauses, such a noun + that-clause construction is not

considered as collocational For example: We reached into an agreement

that/ which would go into effect in a month

 preposition + noun combinations

Any combinations of preposition and noun can fall into this category, however the choice of preposition with certain noun is not at random For example:

by accident, in advance, in agony, etc

Some adjectives are followed by a prepositional phrase The adjective+ preposition combination that is considered collocational is the one that occurs in the predicate (verbless clause) However past participial adjective followed by preposition by is not considered collocational because this construction is regular and predictable For example:

They are angry at the children, They are hungry for news,

- The ship was abandoned (by its crew) is not considered

collocational

These adjectives occur in two basic constructions with infinitives

a adjectives with dummy subject “It” such as It was necessary to work;

also possible It was necessary for him to work (the insertion of

prepositional phrase)

b adjectives with real and animate subject, such as She is ready to go; or

with inanimate subject, such as : It (the bomb) is designed to explode at

certain temperatures; or with either animate or inanimate subject: She was bound to find out or It (the accident) was bound to happen

 adjective + that clause

Some adjectives can be followed by that- clause For example:

She was afraid that she would fail her examination

Several adjectives followed by present subjunctive in formal English

are collocational, such as: It was imperative that we be there

 Collocational verb patterns

English verb patterns have 19 types, each is designated here by capital letters A to S

a Shift of an indirect object to a position before the direct object of transitive verbs is allowed For example:

He sent the book to his brother - He sent his brother the book and He sent the book to him - He sent him the book

If both objects are pronouns the common pattern is: He sent it to him

b Shift of an indirect object to a position before the direct object by deleting to is not allowed For example:

They described the book to her ; but not * They described her the book

Other common verbs that fit this category are: mention, return,

scream, etc

c Transitive verb with preposition for allows the deletion of for and the

shift of the indirect object to a position before the direct object For

We adhered to the plan

However, the following similar constructions are not collocations, but

free combinations of verb + preposition denoting ‘location’ or ‘means’ or

‘instrument’

We walked in the park They came by train

e Verbs are followed by to + infinitive For example:

They began to speak; She continued to write

However, verbs + to infinitive meaning “purpose” are not included as collocational combination For example: He was running (in order) to catch

the bus

She stopped (in order) to chat

f Verbs are followed by infinitive without to

These verbs, except dare, help, and need, are called modals The verbal phrases had better and would rather also fit this pattern For example:

They must work

We had better go now

g Verbs are followed by second verb in – ing For examples:

They kept talking

We enjoyed watching television

Some verbs in this category may have synonymous construction : He

began reading or He began to read are similar in meaning And some other

verbs of this category may have different construction and meaning, for

example: He remembered telling him the story and He remembered to tell him

the story are different in meaning

h Transitive verbs are followed by an object and to + infinitive For example:

They asked the students to participate in discussion

They permitted the children to watch television

Many of the verbs in this pattern can be followed by infinitive to be For example, She asked me to be punctual Furthermore, most of the verbs in this

construction can be passivized

i Transitive verbs are followed by a direct object and an infinitive without

to Most I-pattern verbs cannot be passivized For example:

We let them use the car

We saw them leave the house

j Verbs are followed by an object and a verb in –ing For example:

I caught him smoking in his bedroom

We found the children sleeping on the floor

Some verbs in this category (especially verbs of perception, like see, hear,

feel)may have similar constructions with that of construction in I-pattern

We saw him smoke the cigarette beside We saw him smoking J-pattern verbs

usually can be passivized

k Verbs can be followed by a noun or pronoun and gerund For example:

This fact justifies Bill’s coming late They love his clowning

I cannot imagine their stealing apples

Please excuse my waking you so early

However possessive constructions are often considered awkward, more common expressions for the same meaning will use the following alternative:

I cannot imagine them stealing apples This fact justifies Bill for coming late

Please excuse me for waking you so early

l Verbs are followed by a noun clause beginning with conjunction

that For example:

They admitted that they were wrong

We hoped that the weather would be nice

Some verbs always take an object noun or pronoun before the that-clause, such as For example:

She assured me that she would arrive on time

They convinced us that we should invest our money

Some verbs in this category allow the insertion of the fact For example:

He acknowledged (admitted/confirmed/ etc) the fact that he was guilty

m Transitive verb can be followed by a direct object, an infinitive to be and adjective / past participle/ noun/pronoun For example:

We considered her to be very capable / well-trained / a competent engineer

n Transitive verbs are followed by a direct object and adjective/ past participle or noun/pronoun For example:

She dyed her hair red

He found them interesting

Some verbs in this category may also be used with M-verb pattern, For example:

We considered her very capable

o Transitive verbs are followed by two objects For example:

The teacher asked the students questions

The police fined them fifty pounds

p Intransitive /reflexive / transitive verbs must be followed by an adverbial (an adverb/a prepositional phrase/a noun phrase/a clause) For example:

He carried himself with dignity; but not * He carried himself

The meeting will last two hours; but not *The meeting will last

Other verbs in this category are: come, sneak, weigh, etc However some

of these verbs may have senses that do not require an adverbial, for example:

They are coming, in addition to They are coming home

q Verb can be followed by an interrogative word, such as how, what,

when, etc For example:

He always wants what I want She knows when to keep quiet

However, some verbs in this construction need an object, such as

They told us what to do

She asked me why she had come

r Dummy ‘it’ is followed by transitive verbs (often expressing emotions) and by to + infinitive or by that + clause or by either For example:

It puzzled me that he never answered the telephones

It surprised me to learn of her decision

s A small number of intransitive verbs are followed by a predicate noun / predicate adjective Including the verb make, used intransitively, belongs to this group For example:

She will make a good teacher She was enthusiatic

However larger group of intransitive verbs can be followed only by a predicate adjective, for example:

The flowers smell fragrant or The food tastes awful

Lexical Collocations

In contrast to grammatical collocations, lexical collocations do not contain grammatical elements Benson and Ilson (1986) list various

combinations of lexical collocations: verb + noun (start a family; keep a

secret); adjective + noun (good work, strong tea); adverb + adjective (heavily influenced, amazingly gorgeous); verb + adverb (walk slowly, laugh

nervously).

In lexical collocations, there are fixed and loose combinations Especially in verb + noun combinations, the combinations are fixed in which

the choice of words that collocate each other is definite, such as: commit a

murder, or break the law and these combinations: do a murder, or damage the law are unlikely This fixed structure are idiomatic, however their meanings

are still predictable from the elements of the combination In comparison, in loose collocations the collocates are freely combined,

such as: analyze/ study/ witness a murder and practice/ study law The

meanings of these loose collocations can still be derived from their individual words In contrast, there are fixed combinations consisting of several

lexical items which are relatively frozen expressions and whose meanings

are sometimes hardly derivable from their component words, such as to

scream blue murder (‘to complain very loudly’) or get away with murder

(‘someone who can do whatever they like) (Nattinger, 1987, p 949); and lay

down the law (“give other people order in a bossy way”) or take the law into someone own hand (‘deliberately break the law’) (p 817) These fixed

structures and meanings collocations are called idioms

The co-occurence of two or more words in a lexical collocation has two important features Firstly, there may be a constant collocational relationship between the two words that collocate although several words go in between

them For example, collocation “collect stamp” can be separated as :They

collect stamps; They collect foreign stamps; They collect many things, but chiefly stamps, (Greenbaum, 1970; Carter and McCarthy, 1988)

Secondly, lexical collocation does not seem to depend on grammatical

types So, collocation “strong argument” can be expressed, for example: He

argued strongly; or The strength of his argument: or His argument was

strengthened (as exemplified by Halliday, 1966)

The following are types of lexical collocations as categorized in Benson, et al The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English (1986, pp xxiv – xxviii):

 verb (usually transitive) + noun/ pronoun (or prepositional phrase)

Most of 2.4.1 collocations are called CA collocations because they consist

of a verb denoting creation or activation and a noun/ a pronoun For example:

(denoting creation) come to an agreement, compose a music, etc

(denoting activation) set an alarm, launch a missile, etc

However, not all verbs denoting creation and activation can be considered

collacable to any nouns Combinations of verbs, such as build, cause, cook,

make, prepare, etc + nouns are limitless, their meanings are predictable

Therefore these combinations are not considered collocations For

example: build a house (a bridge, roads), cause damage (death, deafness)

Similarly, there are some nouns with polysemous meanings, such as line

needs different verbs

to collocate: form a line (meaning to line up) and drop smb a line (meaning write smb a letter)

This lexical combination is called EN (eradication and nullification) collocations For example:

reject an appeal, revoke a license, annul a marriage, withdraw an offer

Some verbs denoting similar meaning and that can be used with large number nouns are considered as free combination For example the verb

destroy can combine with almost any nouns denoting physical objects: village, school, document, etc

The verb names an action characteristic of the person/things designated by

the noun For example:

alarms go off; bees buzz; bomb explode

Predictable combinations, such as boxers box, dancers dance are

considered free combinations

 noun + noun

This type of collocations indicates the unit that is associated with a noun + larger unit to which a single member belongs For example:

a herd of buffalo, a bouquet of flowers, etc

+ the specific, concrete, small unit of something larger,

more general For example:

a bit of advice, an article of clothing, etc

 adverb + adjective

The meaning of most adverbs in this combination is “very” For example:

deeply absorbed, closely acquinted, hopelessly addicted,etc

 verb + adverb

For example:

appreciate sincerely, argue heatedly, etc

Strong and weak collocations

Strong and weak collocations mean to which extent it is possible to predict which word will occur They are treated in different ways, some linguists claim that fixed phrases are extended collocations whereas other suggest that when something is 100% predictable it should not be considered as a collocation (“Advanced Collocations” 1)

Lewis (2000, p 63) further states that it is important to distinguish among unique, strong, and weak collocations and it is teachers who should understand

collocational strength He provides an example that an adjective blue is not very

interesting either for teachers or students, therefore it is a weak collocation;

however, if teachers teach a blue film, it is a strong collocation since it is not

possible to predict the meaning (Lewis, 2000, p 64)

Bolinger (qtd in Hatch and Brown, 1995, p 200) explains why the

collocation high probability is strong He gives an explanation that it is possible

to say high probability of rain, but if we say high chance or high possibility, it

does not sound correct to native speakers

According to Lewis (2000, p 65), there are four criteria for what should be taught: frequency of occurrence in speaking and writing, suitability for EFL and ESL use, level of the students, and type of course Type of course should be considered since there are items which are specific for business English but they are not suitable for a general English course (Lewis, 2000, p 66)

2.3.3 Characteristics of colloctions

Collocations can be described in a number of ways The ways of thinking about them can be in terms of “degree of fixedness” or “degree of predictability”

Degree of fixedness

Degree of fixedness is the degree to which you can vary the basic pattern and still have a collocation We can only define the fixedness or unfixedness of collocations in terms of a continuum Some are more fixed than others but we can't make a neat dividing line between "fixed" and "unfixed"

- A very fixed collocation is one in which the pattern has very few expected variations So, for example, the phrase "kick the bucket" is

an idiom, a relatively fixed collocation meaning "to die" While we could substitute nouns and verbs in this sentence and get other

meaningful sentences (e.g "kick the door", "lift the bucket"), the

word combinations in these other sentences are no longer cohesive patterns in the way that "kick the bucket" is Like "kick the bucket", most collocations which are very fixed form a particular expected meaning rather than a structure

- A less fixed collocation is often a more structural -common pattern that helps structure a sentence but don't carry as much specific meaning

by itself For example, this is a commonly used structural pattern into which you can insert a variety of words and still have commonly used patterns:

 Let's move on to the next point

 Let's go back to the last chapter

 Let's move away from this paragraph

 Let's look at tomorrow's homework

 Let's go on to the main point

Another example is “take a photo”, where no word other than take collocates with photo to give the same meaning Some collocations are

more open, where several different words may be used to give a similar

meaning, for example, “keep to/stick to the rules.”

On the other hand, there are some less fixed collocations which are not as clearly structural Words that are commonly used with other words are examples of less fixed collocations which are not as structural in nature So for example, we use "bus" and "car" with only certain sets of other words:

We say "get on a bus"/ "climb on a bus" but usually not "enter a bus" or

"get in a bus" However, we say "get in a car"

We say "take the bus"/ "ride the bus"/ "go there on the bus " but usually not "We can drive there on the bus" However we say "We can drive there in her

car."

Degree of predictability

According to J R Firth (1957), collocation can be classified as strong or weak due to the degree of predictability in their association If we look deeper into collocations, we find that not only do the words "go together" but there is a degree of predictability in their association Generally, in any collocation, one

word will "call up" another word in the mind of a native speaker In other

words, if one word appears, we can predict the other word, with varying degrees of success This predictability is not perfectly understandable, but

it is always much higher than with non-collocates The predictability may be strong: for example "auspicious" collocates with very few words, as in:

auspicious occasion, auspicious moment, and auspicious event Or the

predictability may be weak: for example, "circuit" collocates with a lot of words,

as in: racing circuit, lecture circuit, talk-show circuit, short circuit, closed

circuit

2.3.4 Collocations, free compounds, and idioms

In order to determine learners’ difficulties with collocations, it is necessary to delimitate collocations from other types of word combination

In his book, a practical guide to lexicography, Sterkenburg assumed that if the user wants to look up a multiple-word item and his general-purpose dictionary does not provide sufficient information, he has to decide whether the lexical unit

in question is to be classified as a collocation, an idiom or a phrasal verb in order to choose the right reference work Therefore, delimitating collocation from other types of word combinations would be useful for learners of foreign language In this paper, the “collocation” is used to denote a type of word combinations This part mainly focused on three kinds of word combinations: collocations, free word combination and idiom

Idioms are: “multi-word items that are not the sum of their parts: they have holistic meanings which cannot be retrieved from the individual meanings

of the component words (Moon, 1997, p 46), for example, spill the beans

However “idioms are by no means as fixed as conventional accounts suggest”

Collocation as mentioned above, however, corresponds to a conventional combinations of words, which are not necessary contiguous and whose meaning

is roughly speaking compositional Conventional combinations mean that native speakers recognize such combinations as the “correct” way of expressing

a particular concept For instance, substituting one term of a collocation with

a synonym or a near-synonym is usually felt by native speakers as being “not

quite right”, although perfectly understandable For example, firing and burning are synonymous but firing ambition is different from burning ambition

Free word combination can be defined as sequences of words that occur most frequently where the meaning of the whole is the sum of the meanings

of its constituent words and any word of them can be substituted by a large

class of words (e.g., the noun murder can be used with many verbs: to analyze,

boast of, condemn, describe, film, forget, remember etc.) (Aisenstadt, 1979)

In addition, criteria to distinguish collocation from other types of combinations were discussed here In fact, word combination is not clearly delimitable Different researchers have used different criteria but only the most widely accepted defining criterion for collocation mentioned here is namely arbitrary restriction on substitutability In other words, a distinction is made in which a possible restriction on the substitutability of elements is due to their semantic properties and a combination in which the restriction is to some

degree arbitrary For example, we have a combination between the verb read and a book (read a book) However, the substitution of read by drink (drink a book) in that combination is impossible or unusual because drink requires a

noun with the semantic property of “liquid” and read requires a noun with the semantic property of “containing written language” In another combination, for

example, make a decision, in contrast, decision can be substituted by a number

of nouns such as, make a plan, make a point , make a profit, make a promise, make a remark, make a sound, make a speech This restriction doesn‟t seem

to be a result of the semantic properties of the two elements concerned, but a somewhat arbitrary convention on language However, it is often difficult to draw a distinction between semantic restriction and arbitrary restriction In his research, Nadja stated that the distinction between these two types is even impossible to make with words which only combine with very few other words The researcher gave illustration of the combination “to dial a number” The

meaning of the verb dial is difficult to determine whether its meaning is so specific that it can combine with a number or whether there has an arbitrary restriction that dial cannot combine with radio station (not dial a radio station)

Nadja created a notion called “restricted sense”, therefore, a sense of a verb is considered restricted if it applies one of the two following criteria as follow,

 The sense of the verb is so specific that it allows combination with only

a small set of nouns

The verb cannot be used in this sense with all nouns that are syntactically and semantically possible

The primary sense of the verbs DO and MAKE would be considered unrestricted according to this definition because they can combine with a variety

of nouns (do a favor, do harm, do business, do housework, and make a cake,

make food, make a fortune, make friends, make a fuss, make a journey ) and

there are no arbitrary constrains on its combinability

On the basic of this notion of restricted sense, three major classes of word combinations can be distinguished as following:

2.3.5 Collocations with the verbs MAKE and DO

DO and MAKE are considered "light verbs" that lend relatively little semantic content For people who are learning English, or even who speak it moderately well, these two verbs present difficulties when it comes to many collocations This part attempts to clear up some of the most common doubts and errors As discussed above, collocations with Do and Make can be grouped

into lexical collocations with the form as in: verb + noun, for example, do harm,

make money Some meanings of these verbs are given by Cambridge Advanced

Learners’ Dictionary as follows:

Usage of Do provided by Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

(CALD)

- To act or take action:

"Was it wrong of me to go to the police?" "Oh no, I'm sure you did right/did the right thing."

- To arrange something:

You've done those flowers beautifully

- To be acceptable, suitable or enough (for):

Will this room do or would you prefer one with a shower?

This kind of behaviour just won't do

- To provide or sell something, or to cause someone to have something:

There's a special offer on and they're doing three for the price of two

Do you do travel insurance as well as flights?

The pub only does food at lunchtimes, not in the evenings

- To cheat someone:

Fifty bucks for that old bike! You've been done!

He did me for a thousand quid for that car

- To clean or tidy, or make something look attractive:

I want to do (= clean) the living room this afternoon

I cooked the dinner so you can do (= wash) the dishes

You do your hair/make-up/nails

- To cook or prepare food:

Who's doing the food for your party?

- To deal with; to be responsible for:

Lucia is going to do the publicity for the school play

If they ask any awkward questions, just let me do the talking

If you say that you have done with something or someone, or have done performing a particular action, you mean that you have finished what you were doing with something or someone, or what you were saying to someone, or that you have finished the action:

Have you done with those scissors yet?

Where the hell are you going? I haven't done with you yet

- To be unable to bear something, or to have no patience with it:

I can't be doing with all this shouting and screaming

Do as you would be done by

- To happen:

This town is so boring in the evening There's never anything doing

- To make, produce or create something:

I can't come out tonight I've got to do my history essay

Can you do me 20 photocopies of this report/do 20 photocopies of this report for me?

- To develop or continue with the stated amount of success; to manage: