some common collocation mistakes among second year students

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATIONSCIENTIFIC RESEARCH TOPIC: SOME COMMON COLLOCATION MISTA

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

TOPIC: SOME COMMON COLLOCATION MISTAKES AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS

Student : Duong Thi Diu

Lai Thi Hien Supervisor: Ms Dang Thu Trang Group : QH08.E13

March 2010

In this research, we would like to thank our supervisor, Ms Dang Thu Trang for her enthusiastic help and guidance The present study would not have been possible without her assistance

In addition, we would like to send our special thanks to the lecturers who participated

in our interview Their contribution played an important role in our result

Finally, we are also thankful to our friends in group QH08.E13 who gave us so many useful suggestions in carrying out this research paper

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1.3.2 Collocation is language specific 92.1.3.3 Collocation is recurrent in context 92.1.4 The importance of collocation 10

4.1 Research question 1: What are some common collocation mistakes in writing

4.2 Research question 2: What are some solutions to avoid collocation mistakes

In writing skill, Vietnamese students often translate word-by-word from Vietnamese into English However, Vietnamese and English have different sets of vocabulary and rules of grammar; therefore, their translation is not always correct This is the reason for the collocation mistakes This research concentrate on finding out common

collocation mistakes in writing skill among second-year students in University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi Then, some solutions to avoid collocation mistakes suggested by writing skill lecturers, Group 2, English Pedagogy, University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam

National University, Hanoi were given Twenty-five writing portfolios from class QH.1.E13 were chosen as samples In each portfolio, the researchers analyzed the second draft of three first writing assignments Besides, the researchers interviewed three writing lecturers in Group 2 Once students realize and avoid collocation

mistakes, the researchers hope that their writing skill can be improved remarkably

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale for the study

Nowadays, as a result of economic cooperation among countries, human beings need to have a common language to communicate with each other English is chosen to be that common language In fact, it is now considered as the main language in many countries all over the world, especially in developed countries It is used in many fields such as economics, politics, education and culture It is English that becomes one of the most necessary requirements for job not only in the world but also in Vietnam As a result, English has become the compulsory subject in all schools and universities in Vietnam

Writing is one of the four compulsory skills in standardized tests such as IELTS, and TOEFL To develop writing skill, learners need to have profound knowledge of vocabulary, structure and grammar

In terms of vocabulary, collocation is an essential factor in writing because "It runs through the whole of the English language No piece of natural spoken or written in English is totally free of collocation For the students, choosing the right collocation will make his speech and writing sound more natural, more native-speaker-like… language that is collocationally rich is also more precise" (Runcie, M Oxford Collocation: p.7) However, learners usually find it difficult to realize and avoid some common collocation mistakes, even students specializing in English All of these

encourage researchers to conduct a study on: "Some common collocation mistakes among second-year students" The authors hope that this study will help English

learners in general and the second-year students in ULIS, VNU in particular to improve their use of collocation in writing

1.2 Aims and objectives of the study

This research aimed to introduce students and readers a thorough look on collation in writing skill Then the study was expected to show some common mistakes in collocation that second-year students often make Finally, some solutions were suggested to help English learners reduce their collocation mistakes when they have to deal with writing assignments In brief, these objectives can be summarized into two research questions:

1 What are some common collocation mistakes in writing among

second-year students?

2 What are some ways to avoid collocation mistakes according to

second-year teachers?

1.3 Scope of the study

As could be seen from the title of the study, this paper strongly emphasizes on common collocation mistakes among second-year students at ULIS, VNU, but not all the aspects

of collocation At the same time, the researchers also try to find solutions to avoid mistakes and improve writing skill

1.4 Methods of the study

1.4.1 Data collection method

The data collection methods involve portfolio analysis and structured interview These two methods were used during the process of data collection Specifically, about twenty-five portfolios of second-year students were collected to point out common collocation mistakes Then the researchers interviewed three second-year lecturers of

writing skill in University Of Languages and International Studies- Vietnam National University, Hanoi to find out specific solutions to the collocation problems.

1.4.2 Data analysis method

At the beginning, the collected portfolios are analyzed and all the collocation mistakes were classified into fourteen types The framework for analyzing was taken from Oxford Collocation dictionary for students of English by Moira Runcie (p.9)

For the qualitative data taken in the interviews, the researchers ask the lecturers for comments and suggestions about collocation Then, this data is compared with the results collected from portfolios

1.5 An overview of the rest of the research

The rest of the research includes five chapters as follows:

Chapter 2 (Literature Review) provides the background of the study, including definitions, classification, characteristics, the important of collocation and the key concept of mistake

Chapter 3 (Methodology) involves the sampling including lecturers and portfolios, as well as the procedure used during the research

Chapter 4 (Results and discussion) presents, analyzes and discusses the results that the researchers found out from the data collected

Chapter 5 (Conclusion) summarizes the main issues discussed in the research Following this chapter are the References and Appendices.

Summary

In this chapter, the researchers have presented the following points

1 The rationale for the study

2 Aims and objectives of the study

3 Scope of the study for the rest of the paper

4 Method of the study

5 An overview of the rest of the paper

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Collocation

2.1.1 Definition of collocation

Collocation is a familiar term with English learners In Oxford Collocation, collocation

is the way words combine in a language to produce natural sounding speech and writing Similarly, from Wikipedia, collocation is defined as a sequence of words or terms which co-occur more often than would be expected by chance Chitra Fernando [1996: 62] added some other features that collocation refers to the restrictions on how words can be used together, for example which prepositions are used with particular verbs or which verbs and nouns are used together Holding the same ideas, Fernado in

"Idioms and Idiomacity "(1996) regarded collocation as "The company words keep'' In Kjellmer's words [1994: XIV], collocation is '' such recurring sequences of items as are grammatically well formed'' In addition, Kathleen R Mc Keown and Dragomir R Radev in their paper on ''Collocation'' define collocation as word pairs and phrases that are commonly used in language with no general syntactic or semantic rules applied

Besides, collocation is also defined through its functions According to Mitchell [1971: 65], collocation is to be studies within grammatical matrices which in turn depend on their recognition on the observation of collocation similarities

In conclusion, collocation can be defined in different ways by linguists All definitions above consider collocation as collections of words being used together Generally speaking, the definition in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary that collocation is ''

A combination of words in a language that happens very often and more frequently than would happen by chance'' is the most comprehensive.

1 Adjective + Noun (bright/ harsh/ intense/ strong light)

2 Quantifier + Noun (a beam/ ray of light)

3 Verb + Noun (cast/ emit/ give/ provide light)

4 Noun + Verb (light gleams/ glows/ shines)

5 Noun + Noun (a light source)

6 Preposition + Noun (by the light of the moon)

7 Noun + Preposition (the light from the window)

8 Adverb + Verb (choose carefully)

9 Verb + Verb (be free to choose)

10 Verb + Preposition (choose between two things)

11 Verb + Adjective (make/ keep/ declare sth safe)

12 Adverb + Adjective (perfectly/ not entirely/ environmentally safe)

13 Adjective + Preposition (safe from attack)

14 Adjective + Verb + Adjective + Noun + Preposition + Noun (seriously affect

the political situation)

2.1.2.2 In terms of the strength of collocation

According to “Oxford Collocation Dictionary for students of English learner” (2002), there are four main types of collocation basing on its strength: unique collocations, strong collocations, medium-strength collocations and weak collocations.

2.1.2.2.2 Strong collocations

Besides some unique collocations, a large number of collocations are strong or very strong ones in which any knowledge of words can be incomplete without some ideas of their strong collocates In ''English Collocation in Use- Advance'' (2008), a strong collocation is one in which the words are very closely associated with each other For example, the adjective ''mitigating'' almost always collocates with ''circumstance'' or ''factor''; it rarely collocates with any other words

medium-strength collocations such as “make a mistake”, “recover from a major operation” and so on.

2.1.2.2.4 Weak collocations

According to M Michael in ''English Collocation in Use- Advance'' (2008), Weak collocation is made up of words that collocate with a wide range of other words

In fact, most students can create combinations of words which are on the verge of the

area we define as “collocation” For example, with colors, people can apply them in

English in a similar way to their own language such as a red shirt, white wine, a blue film, black hair and so on In general, these combinations are entirely predictable to most students and they do not pay more attention to them However, in order to have a perfect writing or essay, it is important to understand and concern about all aspects of weak collocations

Between two ways mentioned, the way in Oxford Collocation Dictionary for students

of English learner” (2002) is more convenient to classify common collocation mistakes In fact, this way is also mentioned in detail in ''English Collocation in Use- Advance'' (2008)

2.1.3 Characteristics of collocation

According to the article “Collocation” from website http://depts.washington.edu/cidrweb/ITAPAWfluency4.html#COLLOCATION, there are three characteristics of collocation

2.1.3.1 Collocation is arbitrary

Collocation is often regarded as arbitrary Smadia (1989) says “Many wording choices

in English sentences cannot be accounted for on semantic of synthetic grounds; they can only be expressed in terms of relations between words that usually occur together” (p163) In fact, there is no rule or particular reasons for words when they are combined with each other

For example: "fast food", not "quick food"

"quick meal", not " fast meal"

As a result, people make the correct collocation based on lifetime’s experience of hearing and reading the words in set combination

2.1.3.2 Collocation is language specific

Each language has own way and convention to combine words Therefore collocation

is difficult to translate across language For example: “eat dinner” in Vietnamese must

be “have dinner” in English

In another words, collocation's ability to combine with another is restricted by linguistic conventions

2.1.3.3 Collocation is recurrent in context

2.1.4 The importance of collocation

As a matter of fact, human’s brains have a tendency to store language in chunks rather than individual words Besides, it is more efficient and easy for people to remember and use phrases as chunks It is a good way to save a lot of time and effort when people are trying to express our thoughts and emotions Secondly, collocation also makes our speech and writing become more natural and attractive because at a time, it is not easy for people to think of the meanings and uses of a difficult word In these cases, collocations get their best effectiveness Thanks to them, writers do not have to consider about the uses of confusing words In contrast, they are easy to write what they think and what they want The last reason that proves the importance of collocation is that learning collocation lead to an increase in written Learners can use more phrases in a right way and improve their knowledge of vocabulary and collocation All of these reasons above make collocations become more important and necessary for English learners

2.2 Mistake

2.2.1 Definition of mistakes

According to “Oxford Student’s Dictionary of English”, “Mistake is something that you think or do that is wrong” In “What’s the difference between ‘to make an error” and “to make a mistake” from http://www.english-test.net/forum/ftopic18958.html, Mister Micawber wrote “Mistake implies misconception, misunderstanding, a wrong but not always blameworthy judgments, or inadvertence; it expresses less severe

http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/mistake.html, mistake is something that does not work out in search for a solution Often used interchangeably with error.

Although mistake can be defined in some different ways, all of them tell about something the writer think or do incorrectly May be the most obvious definition is in Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary:'' Mistake is an action, decision or judgment which produce an unwanted or unintentional result '' Therefore, it is considered as the basic definition for the whole research

2.2.2 The difference between mistake and error

According to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, error is something people did that was wrong In general, mistake and collocation share the same meanings However, also according to Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, error is slightly more formal than mistake Besides, people use mistakes when the mistake does not often happen; error is used for mistake happen frequently According to Mr Webster in the article “What’s the difference between ‘to make an error” and “to make a mistake””:

“Error etymologically implies deviation; it suggests culpability but not necessarily carelessness or intention, for it implies a guide to be followed such as a record or manuscript, or a rule or set of rules, or a principle, law, accepted code, or the like.

Mistake implies misconception, misunderstanding, a wrong but not always blameworthy judgments, or inadvertence; it expresses less severe criticism than error''.

Therefore, when people do something wrongly unusually, people call it mistake

Meanwhile, learners do not combine words incorrectly as often as grammar, vocabulary or structure That is the reason why the name of this research is “common collocation mistakes ” and it only focuses on collocation mistakes In fact, there have

been some studies related to collocation in ULIS, VNU, namely “Collocation of hard

and happy in English” and “The collocation of some groups of synonyms and some problems faced by Vietnamese learners” However, they focused on others areas such

as synonyms, collocation of ‘hard” and “happy” in English

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Sampling

As the subject of the research was to find collocation mistakes among second-year students, twenty-five writing portfolios from classes QH.1.E13 were chosen as samples In each portfolio, the researchers analyzed the second draft of three first writing assignments For such a limited scope, this number was considered suitable

In addition, the research was carried out with the participation of three second-year teachers of writing from Universities of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi They were chosen for some following reasons The first one was that they all taught second-year students; therefore, they knew exactly their weak and strong points about collocation Besides, lecturers were of advanced levels,

so their acquired knowledge of English was deep enough to give useful solutions to students to avoid collocation mistakes The researchers did not have questionnaire to investigate the students' solutions because the English level of second-year students is not high enough to do this

In short, with the experience of the lecturers, the researchers would receive the most specific advices to make the study become more clear and accurate.

3.2 Data collection instruments

In order to answer all the above research questions, some portfolios were collected with the help of the teacher who was in charge of E13’s writing skill This was an effective way in identifying common mistakes or problems of students

In addition, a structured interview was also prepared for the data collection for This interview consisted of five questions delivering to CFL teachers from Division 2 in order to get the most reliable and useful data The questions were asked in Vietnamese

so that the answers would be more understandable Two teachers were asked directly and the third teacher answered via email Then, all of them were translated into English fully and clearly

3.3 Data collection procedure

The procedure of data collection could be divided into two main steps

3.3.1 Portfolios collection

In order to have twenty-five writing portfolios of class QH08.E13, the researchers asked the teacher who was in charge of E13’s writing skill to borrow from this class All of these portfolios were coded randomly to make them anonymous After that, they were classified and analyzed in order to find out common mistakes which were considered as collocation mistakes

3.3.2 Interviewing

After interview questions were designed and piloted, the researchers contacted with second-year lecturers of writing so that they could arrange suitable time to meet each other Then, in the interview, the researchers began with a brief self-introduction and explanation of the format of the interview During the interview, it was necessary for the researchers to take notes some key points that the lecturers referred to At the same time, if necessary, the researchers would record the interview to get information as much as possible Finally, all the contents of the interview would be collected and transcribed fully