ABSTRACT One of the most problematic areas for foreign language learning is collocation. It is often seen as arbitrary and overwhelming, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to the attainment of native - like fluency. This graduation thesis aims to illustrate the roles, importance, and types of English collocations and to investigate the use of collocations in the business context, then giving the methods of learning English collocations. In this regard, the usage of English collocations of third –year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University is going to be examined.
The writer discusses how English Collocations can be dealt with in the school and at home. This study will give the useful theory and information which is related to English collocations. In addition, different solutions to students at both basic and intermediate levels are provided at the end of this graduation thesis. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would to thank my supervisor over the course of this – Ms.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen, for all her insightful comments, suggestions and keeping me focused in writing this dissertation, and also my friend – Dinh Thi Giang for all her advice and support during the coursework. Lastly, I‘d also like to thank my parents, without whom none of this would have been possible. ii iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT.ii TABLE OF CONTENTS.iii LIST OF FIGURES.v CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY. Aims of the study.
Scope of the study. Organization of the study.4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW. Definitions of collocation. The importance of English collocation.
For English learners. For third – year students of English Faculty at Thuong Mai university. Types of English collocations.13 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS. De-lexicalized Verbs.
Meaning and Noticing. Difficulties in studying and teaching at Thuongmai university. Reasons why third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University cannot deal with English collocations. The process of surveying.
The design of questionnaires. Discussion of the findings.29 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. How should students deal with English collocations?. Solution to problems facing third - year students when learning English collocations.
Spending more time on self - teaching. Taking the IELTS, TOEIC, TOEFL tests. Taking an English course. Recommendations for improving learning environment at Thuongmai University.
35 APPENDIX vi LIST OF FIGURES No Table/chart Name Page 1 Table 2.1 Grammatical collocations 13 2 Table 2.2 Types of lexical collocations 14 3 Chart 3.1 The amount of time students have been 21 learning English 4 Chart 3.2 The amount of time a student spend per day 22 on learning English 5 Chart 3.3 The weaknesses in learning English 23 6 Chart 3.4 The methods that students use to learn 24 English collocations 7 Chart 3.5 Point ladder of students’ ability to use 25 vii English collocations 8 Chart 3.6 Point ladder of students’ ability to remember 25 English collocations 9 Chart 3.7 Students’ opinions about difficult factors in 26 reading skills 10 Chart 3.8 Students’ opinions about difficult factors in 27 listening skills 11 Table 3.1 Students’ opinions about the importance of 27 English collocations 12 Table 3.2 Students’ opinions about the best methods 28 for learning English collocations viii CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1. Rationale In the field of applied linguistics, a great deal of research efforts has been dedicated to the way to teach and learn English skills, while the methods of learning English collocations have not aroused the same degree of interest. In recent years, we can see that a lot of students have paid more attention to English collocations, especially for students learning IELTS or TOEFL. The main reason is that nowadays English collocations become more and more important for students to learn and remember vocabulary.
It's extremely necessary to know what words pair with each other and know how to use collocations. In the past, some people used to try to find out the rules of forming English collocations as well as the importance of English collocations. They did some research on lexical collocations, grammar, types, the origin of collocation… However, not many people have research on the methods of learning collocations. It is a truth that understanding clearly about collocations is very important in not only English communication but also in all English skills (especially in reading and listening skills).
Besides, third– year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University are chosen as respondents because they are people who should know 1 more about academic vocabulary and business terms which can absolutely help them build a strong foundation to work effectively in their future career. Therefore, this thesis topic: “methods of learning English collocations in order to enhance English vocabulary for third - year students of English Faculty at Thuong Mai University” is performed with the strong expectation to find out the best methods for them to form English collocations and learn them easily, which would properly improve their English skills. Aims of the study English collocations are not new terms for English learners. However, not everyone can understand exactly about it.
When trying to learn English vocabulary, researcher realized that remembering English collocations can help English learners to remember new words longer and applied them into speaking fluently. Knowing how to use and form collocations is the key to learn vocabulary and help them gain the high band when they take the IELTS exam or TOEIC. In addition, almost third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University are recognized that they have not gained enough knowledge about English collocations. Therefore, this study has been conducted and followed these ideas: 2 - Explore the ways that third – year students of English Faculty use to deal with collocations and their weaknesses in learning English collocations.
From that, I can help them to understand the importance of collocations in the process of learning - Suggest some suitable methods for English learners and third – year students of English Faculty about learning English collocations and enhance their vocabulary. Research subjects - The research questions of the study: What are the methods that students use to learn English collocations? What are the weaknesses that students have in learning English collocations? How can students do to enhance English collocations and vocabulary - Research subjects: The methods of learning English collocations in order to enhance English vocabulary. Reasons: In the past, too few people researched this subject, therefore there are a lot of things to explore and discover. Moreover, English collocations are very common and important for business students.
This is not too difficult to approach. However, this is an interesting and potential topic. Scope of the study 3 This study focuses on the methods of learning English collocations for third – year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University. The main rationale for this scope of study follows these ideas: Firstly, they are students from English faculty and now they have spent three years learning at university, most of them use English at intermediate level and English is the foundation for them to find a job in the future.
In other words, English will be the most important thing for these students when they choose jobs. Knowing about English collocations can help them to use English fluently and easily. Especially, in business, there are a lot of economic terms they have to understand and translate exactly, English collocations are the basic background for them to translate closely with original documents. Secondly, after consulting and discovering, researcher sees that these students have enough characteristics of English learners and they are suitable to this topic as well.
Their main characteristics are: - They have to learn a lot of subjects related to English at university. - In the third year of university, students have to understand more about specialized English and academic terms. - English is very important for them in their career. Research methodology This study is conducted by quantitative research methods (emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques.
Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain the phenomenon.) Researcher chooses this type of methods because of its characteristics. Firstly, the data is usually gathered using structured research instruments. Moreover, the results are based on larger sample sizes that are representative of the population. The research study can usually be replicated or repeated, given its high reliability.
The next reason is that. Researcher has a clearly defined research question to which objective answers are sought. In addition, project can be used to generalize concepts more widely, predict future results, or investigate causal relationships. In detail, the main method of this survey is survey questionnaire.
A questionnaire is a set of questions typically used for research purposes which can be both qualitative as well as quantitative in nature. A questionnaire may or may not be delivered in the form of a survey, but a survey always consists of questionnaire. 5 A questionnaire used in qualitative research asks open ended questions via email, telephone or face-to-face meetings. A questionnaire used in quantitative research asks more closed ended questions with restricted options to answer.
There are two types of questionnaire: - Questionnaires that evaluate variables that is separate, including questions regarding an individual’s behavior, facts and preferences. - Questionnaires that measure factors incorporated into a scale like those about individual identities and different attributes, index and traits. In general, questionnaire is only possible way to survey, even though this method has some disadvantages. At the time of surveying, most of third – year students of English faculty are in the middle of revision for final test.
Therefore, researcher cannot use some methods like observation and interview. Only by online questionnaire can help researcher collect information for this study. Organization of the study The study is going to answer the question: How can students improve English, especially English collocations? And it also helps them to understand the importance of English collocations. The organization of this thesis is divided into four chapters: 6 Chapter 1 provides an overview of the study.
This chapter will put emphasis on the background of study and give some basic information such as rationale and the aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study and research methodology. Chapter 2 introduces literature review related to this study. In this chapter, readers can understand exactly about the theory of this thesis topic. From definition to the history of English collocations.
The last section in chapter 2 focuses on the importance of English collocations and some main types of English collocations. Chapter 3 provides a brief description on the plan of surveying. Readers can know more about the current situation of third – year students of English Faculty and some difficulties that researcher have to face when conducting. Throughout the data analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of them will be showed with the reasons.
Chapter 4 gives some solutions to this phenomenon and some evaluation for this study. The last one of this study is APPENDIX which contains the full description of all questions, methodologies of the survey. 7 8 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 2. Definitions of collocation In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a sequence of words or terms that co- occur more often than would be expected by chance.
In phraseology, collocation is a sub-type of phraseme. An example of a phraseological collocation, as propounded by Michael Halliday, is the expression strong tea. While the same meaning could be conveyed by the roughly equivalent powerful tea, this expression is considered excessive and awkward by English speakers. Conversely, the corresponding expression in technology, powerful computer is preferred over strong computer.
Phraseological collocations should not be confused with idioms, where an idiom's meaning is derived from its convention as a stand-in for something else while collocation is a mere popular composition. According to Oxford Collocations Dictionary [2002], collocation is a means of combining words in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing.