Concordancers in the EFL Classroom: Cognitive Approaches and Collocation Difficulty

Sun, Yu‐Chih; Wang, Li Yuch

doi:10.1076/call.16.1.83.15528

Cited by 117 publications

(102 citation statements)

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“…This finding strongly underlines that Arab EFL learners experience great difficulty in producing accurate verb-adverb collocations, and to some extent, the findings are consistent with those of earlier works (e.g. Laufer 2011 andSun andWang 2003), which explored EFL learners' difficulties with the use of the various types of collocations. It remains therefore plausible that similar findings could be recorded had the same stimuli and dictionaries been used with subjects of different linguistic backgrounds.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…Researchers, to date, have mainly focused on verb-noun collocations using EFL learners of diverse linguistic backgrounds including Arabs (Alzi'abi 2012), Afrikaners (Nizonkiza, Van Dyk and Louw 2013), Chinese and Swedish (Wang and Shaw 2008), Dutch (Peters 2016), Germans (Nesselhauf 2005), Israelis (Laufer and Waldman 2011), Lithuanians (Juknevičienė 2008), Japanese and French (Kurosaki 2012), Malaysians (Ang, Rahim, Tan and Salehuddin 2011), Poles (Szudarski 2012), Russians (Siyanova and Schmitt 2008), Spanish (Zinkgräf 2008), Taiwanese (Kuo 2009), Turkish (Akpýnar and Bardakçý 2015) and Vietnamese (Nguyen and Webb 2016). Although contrasting findings may be found in the aforementioned works, there appears to be a consensus among researchers that the correct acquisition and use of collocations has proved to be highly challenging for most EFL learners regardless of their linguistic background (see Laufer 2011 andSun andWang 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

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Guessing Verb–Adverb Collocations: Arab EFL Learners' Use of Electronic Dictionaries

Alzi'abi

2017

LEXI

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Abstract:Collocational studies have recently attracted a great deal of interest. To date, hardly any study has tackled Arab EFL learners' competency in the use of verb-adverb collocations. This study explores the way advanced Arab EFL learners handle verb-adverb collocations using two learner's dictionaries. The subjects (N = 82) were required to look up 22 verbs, 12 frequent and 10 infrequent, and guess three adverb collocates of each verb. The results showed that even advanced EFL learners had considerable difficulty in providing extra adverb collocates of both frequent and infrequent verbs. Dictionary use was effective; the subjects performed significantly better especially with infrequent verbs. Many reasons were posited for this finding, foremost of which included the subjects' deficiency in collocational skills and the lack of sufficient clues in the definitions to facilitate dictionary users' correct use of collocations. Whereas knowledge of the meaning of the stimuli was found to be a significant contributing factor to the subjects' overall collocational competence, basic prior training in dictionary usage did not show any positive impact on their overall performance. Keywords: VERB-ADVERB COLLOCATIONS, ARAB EFL LEARNERS, FREQUENT VERBS, INFREQUENT VERBS, TRAINING IN DICTIONARY USE, COLLOCATIONS DICTIONARIES, DICTIONARY USE, LEARNER'S DICTIONARIESOpsomming: Die raai van werkwoord-bywoord-kollokasies: Arabiese EVTleerders se gebruik van elektroniese woordeboeke. Kollokasienavorsing het onlangs baie belangstelling ontlok. Tot op hede het byna geen studie Arabiese EVT-leerders se vaardighede in die gebruik van werkwoord-bywoord-kollokasies ondersoek nie. Hierdie studie ondersoek die manier waarop gevorderde Arabiese EVT-leerders met werkwoord-bywoord-kollokasies omgaan terwyl hulle twee aanleerderswoordeboeke gebruik. Die proefpersone (N = 82) is versoek om 22 werkwoorde, waarvan 12 gebruiklik en 10 ongebruiklik was, na te slaan en drie bywoordelike kollokasies vir elke werkwoord te raai. Die resultate het getoon dat selfs gevorderde EVT-leerders aansienlike probleme ondervind het om ekstra bywoordelike kollokasies vir sowel gebruiklike as ongebruiklik werkwoorde te verskaf. Woordeboekgebruik was effektief; die proefpersone het aansienlik beter gevaar by veral gebruiklike werkwoorde. Baie redes is voorgestel vir hierdie bevinding, waarvan die belangrikstes die proefpersone se gebrek aan kollokasionele vaardighede ingesluit het, asook die gebrek aan voldoende leidrade in die definisies om woordeboekgebruikers se * This is a sequel to Alzi'abi (2017). The two studies made use of the same material and subjects but each had its own aims, procedure and results.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Guessing Verb–Adverb Collocations: Arab EFL Learners' Use of Electronic Dictionaries

Alzi'abi

2017

LEXI

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“…Sun and Wang (2003) explored the effectiveness of learning collocations using online concordancers. They found that the use of online concordancers resulted in significant gains in collocation knowledge.…”

Section: Approaches To Teaching Collocationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving academic literacy by teaching collocations

Nizonkiza

2017

SPIL

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This study explores the effect of teaching collocations on building academic vocabulary and hence improving academic writing abilities. A pre-/post-test experimental design was used to analyse collocations produced in two tasks completed by the study's participants, English majors at a university in Burundi. They were presented with a completion task and an essaywriting task before and after being exposed to a collocation-based syllabus. The results show that participants performed significantly better on the post-test than on the pre-test in their production of collocations in both tasks. This suggests that an intervention contributes towards building students' productive use of collocations in both cued recall and essay writing, supporting earlier findings (cf. Barfield 2009, Seesink 2007. In light of these findings, pedagogical consequences and avenues for improving higher education students' use of collocations in writing are discussed.

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“…Sinclair (1991) is supportive of concordancing approach. Murdoch(1999), Zahar, Cobb and Spada(2001), and Taiwo (2004) found concordancing as a desirable approach for teaching collocations in that it fosters a student-centered instruction by supplying L2 learners with multiple exposures to new items and collocations. They, likewise, enhance learners' participation and enable them to self-discover language features and become aware of words and spoken language.…”

Section: Four Collocation Instructional Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparative Study on the Effect of Contrived vs. Authentic Texts on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Lexical Collocations Learning

Shabani

Heidar²

2016

JSE

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The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of two models of texts (contrived versus authentic texts) on Iranianintermediate EFL learners' lexical collocation learning.The participants were sixtystudents majoring in English. They were students in the second semester of academic year 2015 who were selected through a proficiency test titled Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT),administered at the commencement of the study, the result of which showed that the two groups were homogeneous in terms of their language proficiency.They were divided into two equal comparison groups: The Authentic Text group (AT)and Contrived Text group (CT), either of which included thirty ones. The quantitative data on the participants' knowledge on lexical collocations were collected using a pre-planned pretest on lexical collocation, comprising forty multiple-choice-items. The pretest on lexical collocation went through a pilot study. The same version of the test of lexical collocation, with the rearrangement of some items, was administered to the both comparison groups after the completion of the treatment period for the AT group and placebo for the CT group. The analysis of the quantitative data was done using Independent Samples T-test and paired-samples T-test. The results of the Paired-samples T-test and Independent Samples T-test indicated that the AT group was significantly different from the control group; in other words, the AT group outperformed the CT group. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research were included as well.

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Concordancers in the EFL Classroom: Cognitive Approaches and Collocation Difficulty

Cited by 117 publications

References 0 publications

Guessing Verb–Adverb Collocations: Arab EFL Learners' Use of Electronic Dictionaries

Guessing Verb–Adverb Collocations: Arab EFL Learners' Use of Electronic Dictionaries

Improving academic literacy by teaching collocations

A Comparative Study on the Effect of Contrived vs. Authentic Texts on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Lexical Collocations Learning

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