HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --------------------- NGUYEN THI VAN UYEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERCEPTIONS AND THE USE OF VERB-NOUN COLLOCATIONS IN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS OF THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, University of Foreign Languages, Hue University THUA THIEN HUE, 2021 HUE UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES --------------------- NGUYEN THI VAN UYEN AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PERCEPTIONS AND THE USE OF VERB-NOUN COLLOCATIONS IN ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS OF THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES, HUE UNIVERSITY MA THESIS IN THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING CODE: 8140111 SUPERVISOR: DR. PHAM THI NGUYEN AI THUA THIEN HUE, 2021 ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ --------------- NGUYỄN THỊ VÂN UYÊN NGHIÊN CỨU NHẬN THỨC VÀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG KẾT HỢP ĐỘNG - DANH TỪ TRONG BÀI VĂN TRANH LUẬN CỦA SINH VIÊN NĂM BA CHUYÊN NGỮ TẠI ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ, ĐẠI HỌC HUẾ LUẬN VĂN THẠC SĨ LÝ LUẬN VÀ PHƯƠNG PHÁP DẠY HỌC BỘ MÔN TIẾNG ANH MÃ SỐ: 8140111 NGƯỜI HƯỚNG DẪN KHOA HỌC: TS. PHẠM THỊ NGUYÊN ÁI THỪA THIÊN HUẾ, 2021 STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted for a degree in any university. I certify that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, my thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself.
Signed: Nguyen Thi Van Uyen Date: 04/11/2021 i ABSTRACT This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of third-year English-majored students at Hue University of Foreign Languages and their use of Verb-Noun collocations. This research also contributed to categorizing common types of collocation mistakes in their argumentative essays. To achieve those aforementioned purposes, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were adopted. The data sources included questionnaires, argumentative essays and semi-structured interviews.
The data from the questionnaire were analyzed statistically, while the data from the argumentative essays and interviews were interpreted and integrated accordingly to give insights into the research issues. The results showed that all of the student participants had positive perceptions of the use of Verb-Noun collocations even though they had different levels of difficulty. Furthermore, the study discovered that the participants did not produce a very large number of Verb-Noun collocations in their argumentative essays and most of the verbs often produced were verbs with high frequencies. The findings also revealed that the percentage of incorrect Verb- Noun collocations produced was slightly high.
In this study the most frequent type of mistakes was found to be “wrong choice of verb” and fairly frequent was the production of completely wrong combination and prepositional mistakes, followed by determiner mistakes. On the basis of the results of the current study, several pedagogical implications can be proposed for students, teachers and curriculum designers. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Pham Thi Nguyen Ai.
Without her assistance and dedicated involvement in every step throughout the process, this paper would have never been accomplished. Secondly, I would like to thank Ms. Dang Thi Cam Tu, lecturer of English Department, Hue University of Foreign Languages for creating favorable conditions to help me collect necessary data for the research. Thirdly, I am greatly indebted to 100 third-year English-majored students of Hue University of Foreign Languages, who willingly completed the questionnaires and took part in the interviews.
These are two of the main sources of data for my study. Finally, I must express my very profound gratitude to my parents, my husband and my friends for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. iii List of Tables Table 2.
Howarth’s (1998) continuum model. Benson’s (1986) classification of lexical collocations. Types of Verb-Noun collocation mistakes. Overall tokens of Verb-Noun collocations.
The frequency distribution of Verb-Noun collocations. The frequency distribution of verbs in Verb-Noun collocations. Overall tokens of Verb-Noun collocation mistakes. Frequency distribution of Verb-Noun collocations mistakes produced in argumentative essays .61 iv List of Figures Figure 4.
English-majored students’ knowledge about collocations. English-majored students’ perceptions of the importance of collocations in argumentative essay writing. English-majored students’ perceptions of the levels of influences that Verb-Noun collocations have on students’ argumentative essays. English-majored students’ perceptions of the frequency distribution of verb- noun collocations used in the students’ argumentative essays.
English-majored students’ perceptions of the reasons for the use of Verb- Noun collocations in students’ argumentative essays. English-majored students’ perceptions of the levels of difficulty in the use of Verb-Noun collocations in argumentative essays. The frequency distribution of verbs in Verb-Noun collocations. English students’ perceptions of the frequency distribution of types of Verb-Noun collocation mistakes produced in argumentative essays .60 v List of Abbreviations % : Percent C1 : Level C1 (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) EFL : English as a Foreign Language ESL : English as a Second Language GPA : Grade Point Average L2 : Second Language MT : Mother tongue VSTEP : Vietnamese Standardized Test of English Proficiency vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Statement of original authorship.
iii List of Tables. iv List of Figures .v List of Abbreviations. vi Table of contents. Significance of the study.
Organization of the study. Definitions of key terms. Classifications of collocations. Lewis ’s (2000) classification of collocations.
Sinclair’s (1991) classification of collocations. Benson’s (1986) classification of collocations. Sources of collocation mistakes. Classification of Verb-Noun collocation mistakes.
Research using elicitation techniques. Research using data production. Summary of the chapter. Semi-structured interviews.
Data collection procedures. Procedure of collecting questionnaire data .2 Procedure of collecting students’ argumentative essays. Procedure of collecting interview data. Data analysis procedure.
Procedure of analyzing the questionnaire data. Procedure of analyzing the students’ argumentative essays. Procedure of analyzing the interview data. Findings and Discussion.
Third-year English-majored students’ perceptions of the use of Verb-Noun collocations in argumentative essays. Third-year English-majored students’ knowledge about collocations. The importance of collocations in argumentative essays. Levels of influences that Verb-Noun collocations have on students’ argumentative essays.
Frequency of Verb-Noun collocation distribution in students’ argumentative essays. Reasons for the use of Verb-Noun collocations in the English-majored students’ argumentative essays. Level of difficulty in the use of Verb-Noun collocations when writing argumentative essays. Types of mistakes by third-year English-majored students when producing Verb-Noun collocations in argumentative essays.
The frequency distribution of Verb-Noun collocations. The frequency distribution of verbs in Verb-Noun collocations. Overall tokens of Verb-Noun collocation mistakes. Types of Verb-Noun collocation mistakes produced in argumentative essays by third-year English-majored students.
Summary of the chapter. Conclusion, Implications, Limitations and Suggestions for Further Research. Pedagogical implications for students. Pedagogical implications for teachers.
Pedagogical implications for curriculum designers. Suggestions for further research. Introduction This chapter presents the underlying rationale, which provides the background of the study and describes the context that raises the research issue. Additionally, this chapter focuses on the research aims and research questions.
The significance as well as the organization of the study are also presented in this chapter. Rationale There is a general consensus among the researchers (Al-Khasaweh, 2010; Ka- kan-dee and Kaur, 2015; Liu & Stapleton, 2014; Rahmatunisa, 2014) that lexical resources are the primary barrier against a good argumentative essay. Collocations have been proven to be an important part of second language (L2) vocabulary development. Along with the knowledge of single words, they have been currently considered a necessary component of L2 lexical competence.
This is because knowledge of collocations helps improve the quality and fluency of both spoken and written language (Nation, 2001). However, the accurate and fluent use of collocations in both spoken and written forms to fulfil communicative needs has been one of the most challenging tasks for language learners. Laufer & Waldman (2011) pointed out that The use of collations is problematic for L2 learners, regardless of the number of years of instruction they have received in L2, their native language, or type of tasks they are asked to perform. Productive knowledge of collocations seems to lag behind the knowledge of individual words rather than to develop alongside it.
651) 1 In addition, many studies in the world have shown that even learners with an advanced level of language proficiency still find using language in chunks idiomatically difficult and commit several different mistakes (Bahns & Eldaw, 1993; Mongkolchai, 2008; Nesselhauf, 2003). Although the importance of collocations in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) development and the learning problem associated with them were recognized long ago and have been widely investigated by many researchers and educators ever since (Brown, 1974; Granger, 1998; Lewis, 2000; Schmitt, 2004; Wray 2002), there have been few studies focusing on students’ perceptions and the violation of collocations in Vietnam (Nguyen, 2010; Tran & Nguyen, 2013), especially at university level so far. Most of these studies carried out analysis based on the data obtained from collocation tests. In addition, there are not many studies in the Vietnamese context focusing on only Verb-Noun collocation mistakes although they have been the most frequent collocations and a major source of difficulties encountered by ESL learners (Dokchandra, 2019; Dukali, 2018; Nesselhauf, 2005; Vi &Tran, 2021; Wang, 2019; Yan, 2010).
For the above reasons, this study was conducted in the context of Hue University of Foreign Languages to provide a better understanding of EFL students' perceptions and their use of Verb-Noun collocations and common types of mistakes often found in their argumentative essays. In addition, the results of the study can contribute to enrich the literature in the field of EFL teaching. Research aims This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of third-year English-majored students at Hue University of Foreign Languages and their use of Verb-Noun collocations. This research could also categorize common types of collocation mistakes in their argumentative essays.
Research questions In relation to the research aims, this thesis focused on the following questions: - What are third-year English-majored students’ perceptions of the use of Verb- Noun collocations in argumentative essays? - What types of errors do third-year English-majored students make when producing Verb-Noun collocations in their argumentative essays? 1. Significance of the study Through investigating third-year English-majored students’ perceptions of the use of Verb-Noun collocations and pointing out their common types of mistakes when producing Verb-Noun collocations in writing argumentative essays, the findings of this study can help improve the teaching and learning of collocations in English classes in Vietnam. To be more specific, the research results can help Vietnamese EFL students to enrich their vocabulary in terms of Verb-Noun collocations and know how to use them correctly, and persuade the teachers to pay further attention to using collocations inside the classrooms and select appropriate methods to teach them to students, especially in writing classes. In addition, the findings can benefit the teachers and trainers as to choose new strategies to be used in teachers' training 3 courses and workshops as well as help syllabus designers to take collocations into consideration when dealing with the curriculum.
Last but not least, researchers might be motivated to do further studies dealing with collocation topics. Organization of the study This research paper consists of five chapters: (1) Introduction, (2) Literature Review, (3) Research Methodology, (4) Findings and Discussions, (5) Conclusion, implications, limitations and suggestions for further research. Chapter 1 presents the rationale for conducting the study. The research aims, research questions as well as the significance of the study are presented in this chapter.
Chapter 2 is to review the literature related to the important elements of the study.