CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

***

CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using
English Collocations
B.A Thesis

Instructor: Le Xuan Mai, M.Ed

Student: Nguyen Anh Thuy
Student ID: 7062925
Class: NN0652A1
Course: 32


Can Tho, April, 2010


CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

***

CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using
English Collocations
B.A Thesis

Instructor: Le Xuan Mai, M.Ed

Student: Nguyen Anh Thuy
Student ID: 7062925
Class: NN0652A1
Course: 32


Can Tho, April, 2010


CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

During conducting this thesis, I have received much help and contribution from many
people to whom I would like to express my deep gratitude.
First and foremost, I would like to show my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Ms. Le
Xuan Mai for providing me enthusiastic support, meticulous guidance and precious
advice during the time that I was doing this thesis. I could not forget her enthusiasm to
help me correct every part of the thesis and her care about my teaching practicum at
high school.
Second, my regards are respectively sent to all teachers of the English Department for
their encouragement, guidance, especially Mr. Nguyen Thu Huong, who suggested me
a useful topic of this thesis. Also, my sincere gratitude is sent to Mrs. Nguyen Thi
Phuong Hong, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Duc, Mr Huynh Trung Tin, and Mr. Hong Lu Chi
Toan. During the time I did my research, they supported me useful materials and
advice. And I would like to acknowledge Mrs. Ngo Thi Trang Thao who gave me
useful instructions on how to analyze the data using SPSS program.
Third, I would like to thank 76 English majored students from course 33. I sincerely

appreciate the helpful comments from my friends. Special thanks are for my
roommates for their supports and encouragement during the time of my study.
Last but not least, I want to warmly thank my parents for their patience while I was
away from home. Without their loving support, my thesis would not have been
completed.

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ABSTRACT
This study examines the ability in using English Collocations of third year English
majored students at CanTho University (CTU) when studying English as a foreign
language. Investigating whether or not the misuse of English Collocations does exist,
discovering and categorizing the common Collocational mistakes, and finding out
factors influencing the use of English Collocations in the case of CTU English
majored 3rd year students are the main objective of the study. A Collocation test
comprising 28 items which was duplicated based on the test of Angkana Mongkolchai
at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok in Thailand, and a twenty-item
questionnaire were used as research tools. The work presents some factors that have
strong influences on the learners’ ability in using English Collocations. The problems
related to teaching methods, learning strategies and the lack of awareness of the
importance of Collocations were theoretically analyzed to lay a foundation on which
data collection and analysis were based and focused. The results of this study
revealed that the students’ knowledge of English Collocations is rather limited.

Collocational mistakes found were presented and classified into seven patterns of
Collocations as follow. The pattern verb and adverb was at the highest level
(52.63%), followed by the pattern verb and noun (52.30%), the pattern adjective and
noun (51.64%), especially the pattern adjective and preposition, and the pattern
phrasal verbs were at the same level (50.33%); next, the pattern noun and noun
(48.68%), and the pattern adverb and adjective were at lowest level (44.08%). Also,
from the analysis of data, teaching is the main factor that affects student’s ability in
using English Collocations. Together with the findings this study may be of help for
teachers and learners to choose good ways to teach and learn Collocations
effectively.

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TÓM LƯỢC
Bài nghiên cứu này nhằm khảo sát khả năng sử dụng Collocations (sự sắp xếp từ theo
thứ tự) của sinh viên chuyên ngành tiếng anh năm ba, trường đại học Cần Thơ. Mục
đích nghiên cứu chính của đề tài này là nghiên cứu xem liệu có tồn tại việc sử dụng
sai Collcations, tìm ra và phân loại những lỗi Collocations phổ biến, cũng như chỉ ra
những nhân tố ảnh hưởng đến khả năng sử dụng Collocations của sinh viên. Bài kiểm
tra gồm 28 câu được phỏng theo nghiên cứu của Angkana Mongkolchai ở trường Đại
học Srinakharinwirot, Bangkok Thái Lan, và bảng câu hỏi 20 câu về Collocations
được sử dụng như công cụ nghiên cứu. Nghiên cứu trình bày một số nhân tố ảnh
hưởng đến khả năng sử dụng Collocations. Những vấn đề liên quan đến phương pháp

giảng dạy, học tập và sự thiếu nhận thức về tầm quan trọng của Collocations đã được
phân tích trên cơ sở lý thuyết để làm nền tảng cho việc thu thập và phân tích số liệu.
Kết quả nghiên cứu cho thấy rằng kiến thức về Collocations của sinh viên còn khá
hạn chế. Những lỗi thường gặp về Collocations được phân theo 7 kiểu Collocations.
Kiểu động từ - trạng từ đạt mức cao nhất (52.63%), kiểu động từ - danh từ (52.30%),
kiểu tính từ - danh từ (51.64%), đặc biệt kiểu tính từ - giới từ và kiểu cụm động từ có
cùng mức độ (50.33%); tiếp đến, kiểu danh từ - danh từ (48.68%), và kiểu trạng từ tính từ ở mức thấp nhất (44.08%). Cũng từ kết quả phân tích số liệu ta nhận thấy rằng
việc giảng dạy là một nhân tố chính ảnh hưởng đến khả năng sử dụng Collocations
của sinh viên. Kết quả nghiên cứu tìm được sẽ giúp ích cho người dạy cũng như
người học trong viêc lựa chọn phương cách dạy và học Collocations sao cho hiệu
quả.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... i
Abstract (English version) ............................................................................................. ii
Abstract (Vietnamese version) ...................................................................................... iii
Table of contents ........................................................................................................... iv
List of tables .................................................................................................................. vi
List of figures ................................................................................................................ vi
Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................. 1
1.1. Rationale ............................................................................................................ 1

1.2. Research aims .................................................................................................... 1
1.3. Research questions ............................................................................................ 1
1.4. Organization ...................................................................................................... 2
Chapter 2: Literature Review ..................................................................................... 3
A. Related Literature…………………………………………………………………...3
2.1. Definitions of Collocations ............................................................................... 3
2.2. Classification of Collocations ........................................................................... 5
2.3. Teaching of Collocations .................................................................................. 7
2.3.1. How to teach Collocations ......................................................................... 7
2.3.2. Encouraging Students to be aware of Collocations ................................... 8
2.3.3. Learners’ Problems about Collocations ..................................................... 8
2.3.4. Factors influencing performance in Collocations ...................................... 9
B. RelatedStudies ........................................................................................................ 10
Chapter 3: Research Methodology ........................................................................... 12
3.1. Research design ............................................................................................... 12
3.2. Participants ..................................................................................................... 12
3.3. Research instruments ...................................................................................... 12
3.3.1. Test ........................................................................................................ 13
3.3.2. Questionnaire .......................................................................................... 13
3.4. Procedures ....................................................................................................... 14
3.4.1. Collecting Collocation tests .................................................................... 15
3.4.2. Collecting questionnaires ........................................................................ 15
Chapter 4: Results ...................................................................................................... 16
4.1. Collocation Test Analysis ............................................................................... 16
4.2. Questionnaire Analysis ................................................................................... 21

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Chapter 5: Discussions and conclusions, limitations, pedagogical implications
and suggestions for further research ...................................................................... 26
5.1. Pedagogical implications ................................................................................. 26
5.2. Limitations ....................................................................................................... 26
5.3 Suggestions for further research ....................................................................... 27
5.4 Discussions and Conclusions ............................................................................ 27
References .................................................................................................................... 29
Appendices ................................................................................................................... 30
Appendix 1 ........................................................................................................ 31
Appendix 2 ........................................................................................................ 33

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LIST OF TABLES
Table
Page
Table 3.3.1: Clusters of the questionnaire ................................................................. 14
Table 4.1.1: The minimum, maximum, mean and standard deviation of the test

scores ............................................................................................................................ 16
Table 4.1.2: Clusters of the Collocation test................................................................ 17
Table 4.1.4: Frequency of Test Scores ........................................................................ 18
Table 4.1.5: Classification of Average Score .............................................................. 19
Table 4.1.6: Classification of the informants’ Collocation ability .............................. 20
Table 4.2.1: Reliability Coefficient of the questionnaire ............................................ 21
Table 4.2.2: Descriptive statistics of the Collocation questionnaire ........................... 21
Table 4.2.4: The mean scores of each cluster .............................................................. 22

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure
Figure 4.1.3: The mean scores and the standard deviation of using English
Collocations among third students at CTU .................................................................. 17
Figure 4.2.3: The total mean of the Collocation questionnaires ................................ 22
Figure 4.2.5: The mean scores and the standard deviations of each cluster ............... 23

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, I would like to state the rationale, the research aims, research questions, and the
hypotheses of this research. The organization of the thesis is also included afterwards.


1.1. Rationale
Mastering English Collocations helps English Foreign Language (EFL) learners
communicate efficiently and naturally in the target language. For example, if we want
to invite someone to look at something, it’s natural to say “Take a look at this,” or
“Have a look at this”, rather than say “Get a look at this.” Unfortunately, Collocations
have not been paid an appropriate attention to in English as Foreign Language (EFL)
classrooms. Learners seem to be uncomfortable when they use Collocations; they tend
to avoid using them by switching to use a single verb. It seems to be a tendency that
the EFL users tend to say “I haven’t decided yet” rather than say “I haven’t made up
my mind yet”. This study will investigate how effectively English students at Can Tho
University (CTU) can use Collocations.
1.2. Research aims
Firstly, in this research, I want to investigate whether or not the misuse of English
Collocations does exist in the case of CTU English majored third year students. The
second purpose of the study is to discover and categorize the common Collocational
mistakes the CTU English majored 3rd year students have made. Finally, carrying out
this research, I also want to find out factors influencing the use of English
Collocations of CTU English majored 3rd year students.
1.3. Research questions:
In this study, the researcher attempts to answer the questions:
(1) What are common mistakes that CTU third year English majors make when using
English Collocations?
(2) What are common factors influencing the students’ ability on using Collocations?

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1.4. Organization
This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter I is the introduction to the research. The
rationale, the research aims, the research questions, the hypotheses, as well as the
organization of the thesis are introduced in this section. A report of other researchers’
ideas and statements relating to the thesis will be showed in Chapter II, Literature
Review. Chapter III, Research Methodology, presents the research design,
participants, research instruments, and procedures of the study. The next part is
Chapter IV, which is about the results or findings of the research. In this chapter, data
collected from the instruments (a Collocation test, and a questionnaire for students)
will be analyzed and synthesized. Finally, Chapter V will focus on pedagogical
implications, limitations, suggestions for further research, discussions and
conclusions.

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CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
In this chapter, the researcher would like to present some ideas, and insights of other researchers about
the definitions of Collocations, classifications of Collocations, teaching of Collocations and factors
influencing performance in Collocations through the studies they have done relating to the thesis.

Also, related studies are provided as the second part of this chapter.

A. Related Literature
2.1. Definitions of Collocations
In order to understand more clearly about the term Collocation, we will have a look at
this term in its origin. “The term Collocation has its origin from the Latin verb
collocare which means to set in order/to arrange” (Martynska, 2004, p.2).
Collocation has been variously defined within linguistics and language teaching:
 “How words typically occur with one another” (Carter & McCarthy, 1988,
p.32). For example, in English, promise goes with make, keep, or break, as in If I
make a promise, I’ll keep it, but not with do or take.
 “Collocation means a natural combination of words; it refers to the way
English words are closely associated with each other” (O’Dell & McCarthy,
2008, p.4).
 “The term Collocation is used to refer to a group of words that come
together, either because they commonly occur together like take a chance, or
because the meaning of the group is not obvious from the meaning of the parts,
as with by the way or to take someone in ” (Nation, 2001, p.317).
 “The co-occurrence of words which are statistically much more likely to
appear together than random chance suggests” (Woolard, 2000, p.29).
 According to the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Student of English
(2002), Collocation is a means of combing words in a language to produce
natural-sounding speech and writing.
There are two different ways to approach this issue: “frequency-based approach” and
“phraseological approach”.
 First, “frequency-based approach” indicates that a Collocation is considered
the co-occurrence of words as a certain distance (Nesselhavf, 2004). In the paper
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of Firth-A Synopsis of Linguistic Theory, he first defines Collocation as “the
company words keep” (Firth, 1957, p.179). According to Hill (2002),
Collocation is about the meaning of a word and about its relationship with other
words. Besides, two “neo-Firthians” are Halliday, who is Firth’s student, and
Sinclair, who has done pioneering work in corpus linguistics have been inspired
by Firth’s ideas about the relationship between lexis and grammar. Halliday
(1966) highlights that “Collocation is the co-occurrence of two words,
independence of grammatical types and likely to take place over sentence
boundaries” (Wang, 2005, p148). Likewise, Collocations have been defined by
Sinclair as “the occurrence of two or more words within a short space of each
other in a text” (Sinclair, 1991, p.170). For Nesselhauf (2003), one of
researchers chasing the “frequency-based approach” states Collocations as “cooccurrence of all frequencies” and “a relationship between lexemes”.
Consequently, the “frequency-based approach” can be related to the fields of
Corpus Linguistics and Computational Linguistics (Gyllstad, 2007).
 Second, “phraseological approach” states that Collocations are seen as a type of
word combination (Nesselhauf, 2004). Based on the viewpoint of Gyllstad
(2007), Russian phraseology influenced this approach strongly, and this can be
related to the fields of Lexicography and Language Pedagogy. Cowie and
Howarth are major representatives for this approach. Cowie (1981, as cited in
Nesselhauf, 2004) considered Collocations a type of word combination which is
an abstract combination in actual texts. Also, Lewis (1997), who is another
important representative on this side, indicates in his Implenting the Lexical
Approach, that Collocations are those combinations of words which occur
naturally with greater than random frequency. Although Collocations co-occur,
not all words which co-occur are Collocation

To sum up, as Woolard (2000) declares, there is the overlap in the number of
definitions of Collocations. Similarly, according to Nesselhauf (2004), the mixed use
of the term “Collocations” in both the sense of the “frequency-based approach” and
the “phraseological approach” was often found in the same research.
Among various definitions of Collocations, I appreciate the viewpoint of O’Dell and
McCarthy (2008): Collocations as a natural combination of words which mention the
way English words are closely associated with each other. This definition belongs to
“phraseological approach” which Collocations are seen as a type of word
combination. For example, in English, pay and attention go together, as do commit
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and crime; blond goes with hair and heavy with rain. For another example, promise
goes with make, keep, or break, as in If I make a promise, I’ll keep it, but not with do
or take. In my opinion, it is easy to understand or follow this definition because of its
clarity and illustrating examples.
2.2. Classifications of Collocations
In one research on Collocations, Mongkolchai (2008) concludes that although
Collocations can be classified in many different ways, two frequent classifications
found are (1) lexical and grammatical Collocations and (2) unique, strong, weak and
medium-strength Collocations.
For Benson and Ilson (1986), English Collocations are categorized into two major
groups: grammatical and lexical Collocations.
1. Grammatical Collocations: Benson (1985) defines that grammatical

Collocation are the ones in which an important word (usually content word)
combines with a grammatical one. They consist of the main word (a noun, an
adjective, a verb) plus a preposition or infinitive such as apathy towards (noun +
preposition pattern), fond of (adjective + preposition pattern), in advance
(preposition + noun pattern).
2. Lexical Collocations: Benson also states lexical Collocations are the ones in
which two basically “equal” words co-occur with each other. They do not
contain prepositions or infinitives but comprise only content words. In other
words, they consist of various combinations of nouns, adjectives, verbs and
adverbs. For examples, do a course (verb + noun pattern), traffic accident (noun
+ noun pattern), argue heatedly (verb + adverb pattern).
According to Hill’s viewpoint (2000), there are four types of Collocations: unique,
strong, weak and medium-strength Collocations.
1. Unique Collocations: These are fixed and cannot be replaced by any other
words. That means they are so strong that they cannot be changed in any way
such as to and fro or foot the bill. “The meaning of some fixed Collocations
cannot be guessed from the individual words. These Collocations are called
idioms” (O’Dell & McCarthy, 2008, p.8).
2. Strong Collocations: These Collocations are strong or very strong but not
unique. Usually, strong Collocations have few other possible collocates. For
example, moved to tears or reduced to tears. “A strong Collocation is one in
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which the words are very closely associated with each other. For example, the
adjective mitigating almost always collocates with circumstances or factors. It
rarely collocates with any other word” (O’Dell & McCarthy, 2008, p8).
3. Weak Collocations: they consist of a number of word co-occurrences and can
be easily guessed, such as a white shirt, a red shirt, a green shirt, a long shirt, a
small shirt, etc. “Weak Collocation are made up of words that collocate with a
wide range of other words” (O’Dell & McCarthy, 2008, p8).
4. Medium- strength Collocations: These Collocations are of the same meaning
as suggested by Lewis (2000). They can sometimes be weak Collocations such as
to hold a conversation and to make a mistake. In normal circumstances, learners
have already realized each individual word such as to make and a mistake but
they can be used as a single item or as a Collocation.
Similarly, Lewis (2000) classifies Collocations as follows.
1. Strong Collocations: these refer to Collocations that have a very limited
number of collocates. Most collocates are fixed, for example, rancid butter or
rancid oil.
2. Weak Collocations: these refer to Collocations that have a wide variety of
collocates; for example, many things can be long or short, cheap or expensive,
good or bad.
3. Medium-strength Collocations: these are words that always go together more
frequently than weak Collocations. Some examples are hold a meeting, carry out
a study, etc.
There are seven Collocation patterns as these following examples:
Patterns

Examples

1) adjective + noun

great reputation


2) noun + noun

traffic accident

3) verb + adverb

smile broadly

4) verb + noun

do homework

5) adjective + preposition

pleased with

6) adverb + adjective

perfectly happy

7) phrasal verbs

pass away

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2.3. Teaching of Collocations
2.3.1. How to Teach Collocations
Wei (1999) highlights some interesting points about how to teach Collocations
The overwhelming number of Collocations: According to some rough estimates, there
are ten thousands of Collocations. For example, in Collins COBUILD English words
in use, more than 100,000 Collocations are given. Also, there are more than 70,000
Collocations listed under about 14,000 entries in the BBI Combinatory Dictionary of
English (Bahns, 1998). Obviously, Collocations are too numerous for all of them to be
taught in the classrooms. Focus needs to be placed on building students’
consciousness of how words work in combination with one another so that they can
continue developing their Collocational competence after they leave the ESL classes.
Clear and explicit presentation should be used to provide guidance in building
students’ awareness of the importance of Collocations.
Selection of words and Collocations: In deciding what to teach, it is important to
consider the frequency of words, and in selecting words, a useful source is The
Educator’s Frequency Guide (1995), the comprehensive word frequency study that
has ever been done. In teaching advanced ESL/EFL students to use English
Collocations, the teachers use the frequency guide to select some words that are
common but may be problematic for students. After selecting the words, it may also
be necessary to select meanings. For instance, the word manage, with the meaning
succeed in has much higher occurrence than the meaning be in charge of. The two
have their own distinct Collocations: the former most frequently occurs in the
structure manage to do something; the latter usually collocates with a noun that refers
to business such as a shop, a company, a restaurant, etc. In this case, learner’s
dictionaries are excellent sources of commonly used Collocations.
Techniques, activities, and exercises can be used in teaching Collocations. Actually,

there are many useful ways to approach learners. The most useful ones are interactive
and presenting challenges to students. Besides, the good exercises should be designed
to reinforce learning. Moreover, the activities need to be interactive and studentcentered to encourage students’ initiative and maximize feedback such as peer
correction, sentence making by individual or group work.

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2.3.2. Encouraging Students to be Aware of Collocations
Collocational knowledge is an essential part of language acquisition.
“A central element of language teaching is raising students’ awareness of, and
developing their ability to chunk language successfully” (Lewis, 1993, p6).
Likewise, Ellis claims, “The acquisition can be hastened as a result of explicit
instruction or consciousness-raising” (Ellis, 1997, p133).
Besides, Hatch and Brown in “Vocabulary, Semantics and Language Education”
emphasize that the awareness of the importance of what people has a great
contribution to their success. In addition, EFL learners often fail to express their
thoughts because they are unaware of the important Collocations of a key word that is
central to their writing or utterance (Hill, 2000). Therefore, the learners’ awareness of
the importance of Collocation is also required in learning Collocation process.
Students who meet words initially with their common collocates, use them more
naturally and pronounce them better, so teachers should raise learner’ awareness of
Collocations as early as possible.
2.3.3 Learners’ Problems about Collocations

Deveci (2004) figures out some common learners’ problems about English
Collocations:
1. Have interlingual problems. For example, instead of making mistakes, learners
may misuse doing mistakes.
2. Make negative transfer from their mother tongue. For example, some
Vietnamese learners tend to use strong rain instead of heavy rain.
3. Look for general rules for Collocations that do not work for all Collocations.
For example, learners believe that the opposite of put on your coat is put off your
coat.
4. Decrease ability to use and remember appropriate Collocations when learning
words through definitions.
5. Fail to make sense of an idiom because of cultural differences.
6. Not identify Collocations as meaningful phrases when reading texts.

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2.3.4. Factors Influencing Performance in Collocations
There are many factors influencing the use of English Collocations, but the researcher
only states three main factors: teaching, learning strategies, and students’ awareness
about the importance of Collocations.
Teaching: Collocation is arbitrary and unpredictable (Lewis, 1997). For example, it is
correct to say “to make the bed” but not “to do the bed”; “to turn on” but not” to open
the light”, etc. Obviously, it is hard for EFL learners to cope with and to produce

Collocations effectively if Collocations are not focused on and practiced. Hill states
that “Collocation should play an important part in our teaching from lesson one” (Hill,
2000, p.60). Hence, EFL teachers should observe Collocational errors of students.
When a teacher teaches new vocabulary, s/he might realize the necessity to introduce
a chunk, not a single word, so as to let learners register from the very beginning the
word being taught and its word partner/s (Conzett, 2000). For example, if a teacher
wishes to teach the word “homework”, s/he should introduce “to do homework” as a
chunk instead of letting students register in their memory only the single word,
homework. As a result, it is possible that students may be confused whether a
collocate of homework is to do or to make. Therefore, English teachers should remind
students of the correct use of Collocations and suggest the ways to students to learn
Collocations efficiently such as encouraging learners to look for certain Collocations
in a dictionary in order to draw learners’ attention to Collocations or encouraging
learners to guess the meaning of an unknown word from the context and suggest that
they look up difficult words and pay attention to the examples provided in a
dictionary.
Learning strategies: There are some researchers paying attention to Collocation
learning strategies such as Ahmed (1980), who conducts a research on vocabulary
learning strategies that learners apply. He figures out that successful learners are more
aware of what they could learn about new words, and become more conscious of
textual learning. They also pay more attention to Collocations in the context. In
contrast, less successful learners are so passive in learning. Additionally, Schoutenvan Parrern (1989) finds that the less successful students tend to neglect the context.
Moreover, contextual learning, dictionary and note-taking strategies also contribute to
their Collocation learning results.

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Students’ Awareness about the Importance of Collocations: Students who meet
words initially with their common collocates use them far more naturally and
pronounce them better. Hatch and Brown (1995) in “Vocabulary, Semantics and
Language Education” believe that the awareness of the importance of what people do
has a great contribution to their success. Also, learning Collocations requires the
learners’ awareness of the importance of Collocation. Especially, it is more necessary
when learners study English at a high level because Collocations can help learners
communicate more effectively. As the result, teachers should emphasize the
importance of Collocations when teaching them.
B. Related Studies
In Huang’s study (2001), he investigated Taiwanese EFL students’ knowledge of
English Collocations and the Collocational errors they made. The subjects were 60
students from a college in Taiwan. The research instrument was a self-designed
Simple Completion Test that measured the subjects’ knowledge of four types of
lexical Collocations: free combinations, restricted Collocations, figurative idioms, and
pure idioms. The results indicated that, for the subjects, free combinations created the
least amount of difficulty, whereas pure idioms were the most challenging.
Additionally, they performed about equally well on restricted Collocations and
figurative idioms. In general, the subjects’ deviant answers demonstrated their
insufficient knowledge of English Collocations. It is concluded that EFL learners’
errors in Collocations can be attributed to negative L1 transfer.
In the study Collocation problems in EFL Learning, Higuchi (1999) investigated the
Collocational problems and devising exercises He conducted the research on his
Japanese students whose age was from 18 to 20. After collecting thirty sets of short
essays and personal letters, he realized that Collocation is a major problem in their
performance. Meanwhile, he recognized that the teachers should train students in
Collocation from the early stages because it is actually very difficult for the students

at high-beginning level to tackle the exercises he devised and draw rules from the
Cobuild Corpus data. He suggested the way to raise students’ consciousness of
Collocation by taking up examples with Collocation problems from the students’
texts, discussing problems and devising exercises. Moreover, to conclude his paper,
he notes that “EFL teachers, especially non-natives, should consult computer corpora
such as the Cobuild Corpus data, unbiased perspectives of the real usage of English.
Examining these data is difficult for high-beginning students, yet these activities

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CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

surely raise their consciousness about Collocation and lead them to gain naturalness in
this area afterwards.”
Mongkolchai (2008) was interested in investigating the level of Collocational ability
of the third year English majors at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok in
Thailand. This study aimed to study the ability of the third year English majors at
Srinakharinwirot University about English Collocations, studied the patterns of
Collocation used by the students, and attempted plausible explanations for the
students’ violations about English Collocations. The research instrument used to
investigate the informants’ ability of English Collocations was a test of two parts: the
first was in a sentence completion form and the second was in a multiple choice form.
The analysis based on seven patterns of Collocation on the basis of Lewis (2000)’s
strategy. The 56 item test was used as a research tool and it was conducted with 57
third-year English majors. The results showed that the students’ ability was fair with

the mean of 52.32%. The findings revealed that the informants’ ability in using noun +
noun Collocations was at the highest level (68.64%), followed by adjective + noun
(67.32%), verb + noun (55.26%), adjective + preposition (51.10%), phrasal verb
(46.05%), verb + adverb (41.67%) and adverb + adjective (36.18%) respectively, and
the problems mostly resulted from the informants’ limited knowledge of Collocation,
and their transfer of L1 to L2 Collocations. Plausible explanations were also attempted
to account for the violations.
In summary, in this section, the notion of Collocation is presented by providing an
overview of the various definitions of Collocations and the way in which Collocations
have been classified. In the next chapter, the research methodology will be presented.

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CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter, I will present (1) the research design, (2) the participants, (3) the instruments, and (4)
the procedures of the research in order to answer two research questions:
(1) What are common mistakes that Cantho University (CTU) third year English majors make when
using English Collocations?
(2) What are common factors influencing the students’ ability on using Collocations?

3.1. Research design
This research follows a descriptive design in which the ability in using English

Collocations of English majored juniors is surveyed. Moreover, discovering,
categorizing mistakes, and indicating factors influencing the use of English
Collocations of CTU English majored 3rd year students are also focused.
3.2. Participants
“ Collocation can probably be considered a more advanced type of word knowledge,
and so may be best left to higher-level students who are enhancing and consolidating
vocabulary that has already been partially learned” (Schmitt, 2000, p.86). That is the
reason the researcher wants to choose 76 English majored students from course 33
who have had the input of Collocations. Almost these advanced students have learnt
semantics in which a lot of Collocations are taught. Furthermore, all of them have
studied the same English program in the university. In other words, third year students
are supposed to be advanced students and acquire enough linguistic knowledge about
Collocations, so they are suitable participants to my research. The participants’ ages
are not much different, commonly from 20 to 21.
3.3. Research instruments
In this study, a Collocation test and a questionnaire are employed as two kinds of
instruments.

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CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

3.3.1 Test:
The test (See Appendix 1) was duplicated based on the test of Angkana Mongkolchai
at Srinakharinwirot University in Thailand which was approved by three specialists

who were English lecturers. One of these was an English native speaker.
The Collocation test consisted of 2 parts: the first was in a sentence completion form
and the second was in a multiple choice form.
Seven patterns of Collocation on the basis of Lewis (2000)’s strategy used in this
study are:
1. adjective + noun e.g. a difficult decision
2. noun + noun e.g. a radio station
3. verb + adverb e.g. apologize humbly
4. verb + noun e.g. submit a report
5. adjective + preposition e.g. fond of
6. adverb + adjective e.g. sound asleep
7. phrasal verb e.g. turn off
The researcher piloted the test with 20 third year students in English of Cantho
University. A tried-out test, comprising 40 items, 20 items for each part was
conducted. Only 28 items were selected, four items for each of the seven patterns. The
aims of using Collocation test were to discover and categorize mistakes. It meant that
the tests were gathered and analyzed for the purpose of finding out whether
Collocation was a problem for CTU English majored third-years students as well as
which category of mistakes was more common.
3.3.2 Questionnaire:
The questionnaire (See Appendix 2) was designed based on the literature review. The
questionnaire was segmented into two main parts. The first one was biography which
asked for participants’ personal information including age, gender and whether the
students have studied semantics to make sure that the participants have had enough

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CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

input of Collocation. The second one was about real state of Collocation learning and
use as well as teaching. In other words, the focus of interest was on the real state of
English Collocation use, learners’ evaluations or ideas about Collocation teaching,
strategies used for learning Collocations and attitudes of learners towards Collocation
learning in learning English. To ensure the confidentiality, the questionnaires did not
require the participants to provide their names. Furthermore, participants would find it
more comfortable to give responses to the questions when the questionnaire assured
that no one could know who they were. In order to guarantee the reliability of the
questionnaires, the researcher piloted in 20 students course 32 at Can Tho University.
The researcher conducted the questionnaires after deleting some items which were
unnecessary. As a result, the reliability of the piloted questionnaires was at an
acceptable value: (α = .7002)
In the questionnaire, there were 20 items that are arranged in random order. A fivepoint scale (1 – strongly disagree, 2 - disagree, 3 - neutral, 4 - agree and 5 – strongly
agree) was used. Table 3.3.1 showed the Clusters of the questionnaire.
Table 3.3.1: Clusters of the questionnaire
Clusters
Cluster 1 - the students’ opinions about their use
of Collocation in reality
Cluster 2 – Collocation teaching
Cluster 3 – Collocation learning strategies
Cluster 4 - the students’ awareness of the
importance of Collocations

Statements
1, 9, 17, and 20
13, 14, and 19.

2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 12, and 15
3, 6, 8, 16, and 18

In order to answer the second research question, the researcher focused on 3 clusters
(cluster 2, 3 and 4). However, based on cluster 1 the researcher wanted to deal with
respondents’ Collocation use. The researcher investigated whether Collocation was a
problem for CTU English juniors. Although through the Collocation tests, the
researcher would reach a conclusion of whether Collocation was really problematic
for students or not, the researcher still wanted to deal with respondents’ self evaluation
of their Collocation use.
3.4. Procedure: Research procedure consisted of two stages: (1) collecting
Collocation tests and (2) collecting questionnaires.

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CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

3.4.1. Collecting Collocation tests:
The tests were distributed to the English majors of third year at CTU. The tests were
collected after 30 minutes. To make sure that the test-takers had enough seriousmindedness, the researcher administrated the class. After collecting data, I analyzed
the mistakes made in these tests.
3.4.2. Collecting Questionnaires:
The questionnaires were delivered to CTU English major third-year students after
Collocation test has been collected. Before the students started, I gave them a clear
instruction to make sure they understood what to do. During that process, participants

were asked to be careful in their choice of appropriate answers. They were also
encouraged to ask any questions if they found something unclear. All the
questionnaires were collected as soon as the students finished in order to avoid them
being loosing.
In this chapter, the data collection methods were presented in details. Basing on the
tests and questionnaires, the researcher can answer two research questions. To have a
deep understanding, the researcher will show the results in the next chapter.

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CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

CHAPTER 4
RESULTS
In this chapter, the findings of the study are shown in three main parts. First, the students’ ability in
English Collocations is revealed. Second, Collocational mistakes found are presented and classified
into seven patterns of Collocations: (1) adjective + noun, (2) noun + noun, (3) verb + adverb, (4) verb
+ noun, (5) adjective + preposition, (6) adverb + adjective and (7) phrasal verb (Lewis, 2000). Lastly,
the most common reasons for the students’ mistakes about English Collocations are attempted.

4.1. Collocation Test Analysis:
To answer the first research question, the test of 28 items was used. Seventy six
Collocation tests were collected and analyzed in order to pick out Collocation
mistakes. 1 mark for each correct answer, so minimum mark was 0, and maximum
mark was 28. The test scores were calculated by using the SPSS program 11.5. The

reliability of the marks was at a nearly acceptable value (α = .6858).
Basic statistics, mean and standard deviation, were used to find out the students’
ability about Collocations. The results showing the ability of the informants were
presented in the table below.
Table 4.1.1: The minimum, maximum, mean and standard deviation of the test
scores

Mean Total
Valid N
(leastwise)

N
76

Minimum Maximum
1.00
3.14

Mean
2.0000

Std. Deviation
.46657

76

Table 4.1.1 showed that the students’ ability about Collocations was fair with the
mean of 2.00 while the total score was 28. The standard deviation, however, was at
.46657 indicating that the whole group’s Collocation ability was close to each other. It
was possible that the test was quite difficult for the informants.


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CTU English Majored Students’ Ability in Using English Collocations

Table 4.1.2: Clusters of the Collocation test
Clusters
Cluster 1
Cluster 2
Cluster 3
Cluster 4
Cluster 5
Cluster 6
Cluster 7

Questions (Q)
part 1 : Q1+ Q2 , part 2 : Q1 + Q2
part 1 : Q3+ Q4 , part 2 : Q3 + Q4
part 1 : Q5+ Q6 , part 2 : Q5 + Q6
part 1 : Q7+ Q8 , part 2 : Q7 + Q8
part 1 : Q9+ Q10 , part 2 : Q9 + Q10
part 1 : Q11+ Q12 , part 2 : Q11 + Q12
part 1 : Q13+ Q14 , part 2 : Q13 + Q14

Patterns

1) adjective + noun
2) noun + noun
3) verb + adverb
4) verb + noun
5) adjective + preposition
6) adverb + adjective
7) phrasal verbs

Table 4.1.2 showed the Clusters of the Collocation test. These seven clusters were
equivalent to seven Collocational patterns.
The mean scores and the standard deviation of using English
Collocations among third year students at CTU
2.5
2.07

Mean Scores

2

1.95

2.11

2.09

1

0.908

2.01

1.76

1.5
0.884

2.01

0.918

1.061

Mean

1.113
0.831

0.945

Std. Deviation

0.5
0
1

2

3

4


5

6

7

Cluster

Figure 4.1.3: The mean scores and the standard deviation of using English
Collocations among third year students at CTU
The descriptive statistics showed that the mean scores between seven clusters were not
slightly different.
 5 clusters had mean scores higher than 2 (M clutser 1 =2.07, M clutser 3 =2.11,
M clutser 4 =2.09, M clutser 7 =2.01)
 2 clusters had mean scores lower than 2 (M clutser 2 =1.95, M clutser 6 =1.76).

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