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Table of contents

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study………………………..4

1.2. Aims of the study……………………………………………………………5

1.3. Scope of the study…………………………………………………………..5

1.4. Methods of the study………………………………………………………..5

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Key concept……………………………………………………….…….…..6

2.1.1. Definitions of collocation……………………………………….……….6

2.1.2. Types of collocation………………………………………………….….72.1.3. The relation between collocation and speaking proficiency…….……...9

2.2. Related studies……………………………………………………………..11

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1. Participants……………………………………………………………..….14

3.2. Data collection instruments……………………………………………..…14

3.2.1. Collocation test……………………………………………….………..14

3.2.2. Speaking test………………………………………………………..…163.3 . Data procedure………………………………………………………….…17

3.4 Data analysis……………………………………………………….….……17

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4. Research question: ………………………………………………………..18

To what extent is third- year students’ knowledge of using collocations related to

their speaking proficiency? ..................................................................................18

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………….…………24

5.1. Expected outcome and contribution of the research………………………25

5.2. Limitation of the research and recommendation for further research……26

References………………………………………………………………….…..25

Appendices………………………………………………………………….….27Questionnaire

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This paper would not have been completed without the support of many people,

to all of whom, we are profoundly indebted.First and foremost, we would to thank my supervisor Mrs. Pham Minh Hien, for

her constant support and insightful comments which were decisive factors in the

completion of the study.

Last but not least, we are truly grateful to our families and friends for their

continual encouragements during the time we conducted the research.

Supervisor’s signature:

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ABSTRACT

The present study explores the knowledge and use of English lexical collocations

and their relation to the speaking proficiency of third-year students at Faculty of English Language Teacher Education. Data for the study were collected from 50

third-year students. Each student was asked to take two tests: (1) one lexical

collocation test, measuring the subjects’ knowledge of lexical collocations; (2) one

English speaking test, administered to collect the subjects’ use of lexical

collocations and measure their speaking proficiency. Test results were examined for

correlations between the subjects’ knowledge of lexical collocations and their

speaking proficiency. The study findings showed that there was a positive

correlation between third-year students’ knowledge of lexical collocations and their

speaking proficiency. The current study concluded that knowledge of lexical

collocations play a significant role of developing speaking proficiency.

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CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

1.1. Statement of the problem and rationale of the study

One of the difficulties for foreign language learners arises from the fact thatsome word combination- collocations are acceptable and some not or

“collocational competence” (Hill, 1990). There are some collocation- related

problems such as learners may make negative transfer from their mother tongue;

learners may look for general rules for collocations that do not work for all

collocations. When students learn words through definitions or in isolation their

chances of using appropriate collocations or remembering the words decrease.

When students read texts, they may not recognize collocations as meaningful

phrases, which would inhibit their understanding of the text. Therefore, the study

was conducted in the hope of contribution to the better understanding about

collocation, the principal step to deal with the above problems.

It is well-recognized that collocations are a crucial part of language use and it is

collocation proficiency that differentiates native and non-native speakers (Ellis,

2001; Fontenelle, 1994). As back as the 1930s, Palmer (1933, cited in Nation, 2001,

p.317) discussed collocation’s importance and the fact that each must be “learnt as

an integral whole”. The strongest view held so far is that collocation competence is

an indispensable component in the process of second/foreign language acquisition

(Lewis, 1997, 2000; Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Richards & Rogers, 2001).

Raising full awareness of the significance of using collocation, researchers decided

to carry out this study.

When getting for help from researchers who have conducted studies,

practitioners often find these reports on English collocations too diverse, yielding

findings of limited practical value. For instance, many pioneer studies merely

investigated learners’ knowledge of collocation (Bahns & Eldaw, 1993; Biskup,

1992); or analyzed some collocation errors and collocation teaching. Only recently

have researchers seen the studies targeting the possible connection between

collocations and general language skills (Al-Zahrani, 1998). Based on these reports,

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researchers undertook the research about the relation between using collocation and

speaking skill.

1.2. Aims of the study.

First of all, researchers want to provide students and lecturers with better

understanding about the importance of English collocations and using collocation.

Secondly, the purpose of the study is to examine the using of collocation and its

relation with English speaking proficiency among 3rd year students at Faculty of

English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, and VNU.

To fulfill the purpose of the study, the experiment carried out in this study aiming

to answer the following research question:

- To what extent is third- year students’ knowledge of using collocations

related to their speaking proficiency?

1.3. Scope of the study.

Due to the small scope of a student research paper and to serve the practical

purpose of the student researchers, this paper only focuses on the overview of

knowledge of using collocations among the 3rd year students at Faculty of EnglishLanguage Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU.

The research examines whether collocation knowledge can be a key element in

enhancing the third year students’ speaking ability. This will give the researchers

focused aims, which may be conductive to bring out the desired outcomes.

1.4. Methods of the study.

Data for the study were collected from 50 third year students at Faculty of

English Language Teacher Education, ULIS, VNU. Each student was asked to take

a collocation test which measured the students’ collocation knowledge.

Together with test results, researchers used speaking scores of each student at

the end-of- 5th term speaking test. Descriptive and correlation statistics will be used

to analyze the data. Data were synthesized and analyzed to discover the

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significant correlation between students’ knowledge of collocation and speaking

skill.

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1. Key concept.

2.1.1. Definitions of collocation.

Within the area of corpus linguistics, collocation is regarded as a sequence of words

or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. According to

Firth (1957) who is known as the father of collocation, this term is defined as

“statements of the habitual or customary places of that word.” (1957: 181). Or inother words, collocation is an expression consisting of two or more words that

correspond to some conventional way of saying things. Different in words but in

similar nature, collocation, in its simplest definition, consists of two words which

are linked together in the memory of native speakers and occur together with some

frequency in both written and oral discourse (Aghbar, 1990). For example, “catch a

cold” and “severe cold” are two commonly used word combinations that qualify as

collocations.

Holliday (1966) emphasized the importance of collocations in the study of lexis,

which he considered as complementary to grammatical theory. He defined a

collocation as “a linear co-occurrence relationship among lexical items which co-

occur together” (1966:153).

Partly influenced by Firth‘s (1957) original, somewhat fuzzy, conception of

collocation as ―mutual expectancies, SFL theory also defines collocation in itsmost elemental form as ―lexical items that regularly co-occur (Halliday & Hasan,‖

1976, p. 284) or, in Sinclair‘s (1991, p. 71) terms, ―a tendency for words to occur

together and identifiable by frequency of occurrence. More recently within broader

research on collocation, however, it has become apparent that simple frequency of

occurrence is not sufficient to fully account for the composition of collocation

(Nation, 2001). For example, while two items may occur together frequently like

“of the”, this is not to say they form a significant collocation. Therefore, Margaret et

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al, (2002) argued that “Collocation is the way words combine in a language to

produce natural-sounding speech and writing.”

In conclusion, there are many different definitions of collocation. All of them havesame thing in that they deal with the characteristics of collocation- collections of

words that ‘fit together”. This study will thus define collocation, adapted from

Margaret et al. (2002) and Holliday (1966) as significantly frequent combinations of

some words to create natural-sounding speech.

2.1.2. Types of collocation.

According to Hill, we can further categorize collocations based on the

elements they contain (2000:51):

Type Example

Adj+ Noun Huge profitNoun+Noun Pocket calculator

Verb +Adj+ Noun Learn a foreign language Noun + Adv Live dangerouslyAdv+ Adv Half understandAdv+ Adj Completely soakedVerb + Prep+

Noun

Speak through an interpreter

Some collocations are longer; for example, adverb + verb + adjective + noun +

preposition + noun as in seriously affect the political situation in (Northern Ireland),described by Lewis as a semi-fixed expression.

Lewis (1998) proposed the following categories for collocations:

1. Strong: A large number of collocations are strong or very strong. For

example, we most commonly talk of rancid butter, but that does not mean

that other things cannot be rancid.

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2. Weak: These are words which co-occur with a greater than random

frequency. Many things can be long or short, cheap or expensive, good or

bad. However, some things are more predictable, which could be called

collocation; for example, white wine or red wine.3. Medium strength: These are words that go together with a greater frequency

than weak collocations. Some examples are: hold a meeting; carry out a

study.

Another way to classify collocations is based on the view of Below - a spectrum of

collocations adapted from Howert (1996) and Carter (1987).

1. Free Combination

run a risk

make an attempt

2. Restricted Combination

(i) Adjective + noun:

hardened + criminal

extenuating + circumstance

(ii) adverb + verb

readily + admit

totally + unaware

(iii) verb + noun -renovate + house

shrug + shoulder

(iv) noun + verb

brake + screech

cloud + drift

3. Multi-word Expressions

(i) irreversible binominals—part and parcel, leaps and bounds

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(ii) phrasal verb—pull out, give up

(iii) idioms—to take the bull by the horns, to set the ball rolling

According to McCarthy & Felicity O’ Dell, in “English Collocation In Use”

collocation is divided into 6 types:

Type Example

Adj+ Noun Bright color Noun + Verb Pose a problem Noun + Noun A sense of prideVerb+ Prep Burst into tearsVerb+ Adv Pull steadily

Adv+ Adj Happily marry

In this paper, researchers will focus on the 4 th classification because of some main

reasons. Firstly, the classification of McCarthy & Felicity O’ Dell is very familiar

with English learners and is suitable for learning collocation with the purpose of

regular using. Moreover, the focused aim is to examine the students’ knowledge of

using collocation in speaking and there are a variety of exercises, according to this

classification, help researchers to evaluate their ability.

2.1.3. The relation between collocation and speaking proficiency.

Considering the function of language that is a device of communication, it can not

be devised that speaking is one of the ways to gain the function of that. As one of

the language skills, speaking can be complex process. The first speaking has some

points to show that speaking and productions are related in the mind of individual

for the learners. The learners also need production to get interaction in receiving

messages, result according to Hymens, “Communication competence”. .

A good speaker has to produce the sounds, stress patterns, rhythmic structures,

and intonations of the language; using grammar structures accurately; selecting

vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the audience, the topic being;

paying attention to the success of the interaction and adjusting components of

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speech such as vocabulary, rate of speech, and complexity of grammar structures to

maximize listener comprehension and involvement (Brown, 1994).

Therefore, speaking requires that learners not only know how to produce specific

points of language such as grammar, pronunciation, or vocabulary (linguisticcompetence), but also they understand when, why, and in what ways to produce

language (sociolinguistic competence). Finally, speech has its own skills, structures,

and conventions different from written language (Burns & Joyce, 1997; Carter &

McCarthy, 1995; Cohen, 1996). A good speaker synthesizes this array of skills and

knowledge to succeed in a given speech act.

Collocations are indispensable for second language (L2) learners, especially at an

advanced level. This is due to the fact that collocation knowledge is an essential part

in both speech and writing (Bahns & Eldaw, 1993; Fontenelle, 1994; Herbst, 1996;

Lennon, 1996; Moon, 1992). To gain overall language proficiency, learners need to

gain collocation competence (Fayez-Hussein, 1990).

According to Kjellemer (1992), the more accurate language learners are able to

use collocations, the fewer pauses and hesitations they make during long chunks of

discourse. This is only one of many reasons why it is necessary for language

learners to master collocations. By doing so, their speech sounds more natural, and

is more easily understood by native speakers. Also, language learners are able to

express their ideas in more varied ways when they learn collocations (Lennon,

1986).

Furthermore, Benson and IIson (1997) have stated that language learners must

acquire how words collocate with each other in order to be able to produce language

with native-like accuracy and fluency in both oral and written forms. Thus, their vocabulary and overall language proficiency level increase as their collocation

knowledge increases.

Learning collocations not only increases the mental lexicon but develops

fluency as well. As Michael says, “fluency is based on the acquisition of a large

store of fixed or semi- fixed prefabricated items, which are as the foundation for any

linguistic novelty or creativity” (1997:15).

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Many researchers have stressed the importance of collocations in language

learning. Brown (1974) suggested that learning collocations improve the learner’s

oral proficiency, listening comprehension and reading speed. In addition, she argued

that we speak and write in chunks and learning collocations helps learners observehow native speakers in both spoken and written contexts use language chunks. N.

Like Brown (1974), Lewis (2000) stated that learning chunks of words helps

language learners develop their communicative competencies better than learning

words in isolation.

Including collocations in learners’ communication is very useful since it is

natural for learners of a foreign/second language to want to be like a native speaker.

“Native-like proficiency of a language depends crucially on knowledge of a stock of

prefabricated unites (Cowie, 1996, p. 389). Therefore, EFL learners should have a

number of collocations in stock to communicate fluently and accurately.

To sum up, we can infer that collocation plays important role of giving learners

great help to develop speaking fluency and accuracy as a native speakers.

2.2. Related studies.

Realizing the importance of using collocation, many researchers conducted a

number of studies to investigate the correlation between collocation and general

language proficiency. In this part, a great number of studies have been reviewed to

provide the background for our research.

The correct use of collocations accounts much for L2 Learners writing, and

several researchers have investigated the use of collocations in L2 learners writing,

and identified the correlation between L2 learners’ collocational knowledge and

their writing proficiency.Zang’s study (1993) was one of the first studies on this topic and is importantly

contributed to the following researches. He tested 60 (30 native and 30 non- native)

speakers of English by using a blank- filling collocation test and writing test. The

collocation test measures students’ collocational knowledge while the writing task

collected their use of collocations and their writing fluency. He compared the

correlation between his subjects’ knowledge of collocations and their writing

quality, and the application of collocations in the subjects’ essays and writing

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quality. He found that “collocational knowledge is a source of fluency in written

communication among college freshmen”. In fact, Zhang set off a trend in

collocation studies in which the correlations between the EFL students’ knowledge

of collocations use of collocations and English writing fluency were examined.Hus (2007) investigated the use of English lexical collocations and their relation

to the online writing of Taiwanese college English major and non- English majors.

He found that there was a significant correlation between L2 learners’ frequency of

lexical collocations and their scores. It was also shown that verb- noun collocations

and adjective- noun collocations are easier to acquire than other sud- type.

Besides writing, some researchers opened up their field of the research with

speaking skill. Labov argued “competence in the spoken language appears to be a

necessary base for competence in writing” (1963: 88).

Ding and Qi (2007) examined the correlation between the competence of

collocation formulaic sequence and speaking and writing. They analyzed 70 second

year English majors speaking in the TEM 4 examination and 22 four year students

writing concentrating on the use of chunks in their production. Total and correct

uses of collocations in both forms of production are counted, and it is made clear

that learners’ collocations can better predict their language competence than

grammatical knowledge. They suggest that a better awareness of chunks contributes

greatly their language production, and that teachers should help to raise learners’

awareness of the collocational knowledge.

Sung (2003) was the leading scholar who investigated the relationship between

collocation and speaking fluency. She explored knowledge and use of English

lexical collocations in their relation to speaking proficiency. In her experiment, 96university students in the United States, 24 native and 72 non-native English

speakers, were invited to participate. Each subject had to complete two tests: one

collocation test and one speaking test. The collocation test was used to measure the

subjects’ knowledge of lexical collocations while the speaking test was used to

elicit the subjects’ use of lexical collocations and measure their speaking

proficiency. Her results showed that there was a significant correlation between the

knowledge of lexical collocations and the subjects’ speaking proficiency.

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Jeng-yih, Tim Hsu & Chu-yao Chiu conducted the study, “Lexical Collocations

and their Relation to Speaking Proficiency of College EFL Learners in Taiwan”,

exploring the knowledge and use of English lexical collocations and their relation to

the speaking proficiency (assessed by two speaking tests) of Taiwanese EFLuniversity learners. Data for the study were collected from 56 junior English majors

at a national university of science and technology in southern Taiwan. Each student

was asked to take three tests: (1) one lexical collocation test, measuring the

subjects’ knowledge of lexical collocations; (2) one English speaking test,

administered to collect the subjects’ use of lexical collocations and measure their

speaking proficiency; and (3) PhonePass spoken English test, a standardized oral

test, which was combined with the speaking test to measure the students’ speaking

proficiency. The study findings showed that there was a significant correlation

between Taiwanese EFL learners’ knowledge of lexical collocations and their

speaking proficiency.

Investigating a specific language skill, Lien (2003) addressed the effects of

collocation instruction especially on reading comprehension. The collocation test

and reading comprehension pre-test were administered in order to investigate the

relationship between knowledge of collocations and reading comprehension. The

major findings of the study included: (1) collocational knowledge was associated

with reading comprehension; (2) the subjects performed better after receiving

collocation instruction compared with the other types of instruction; and (3) the

subjects also reported positive attitudes toward the direct teaching of collocations.

All in all, despite the differences in measurement of collocational knowledge

and use, those studies come to the consensus that learners knowledge and use of collocations both correlate with the general language proficiency, either writing,

reading or speaking.

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY

3.1. Participants

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The subjects in this study were 50 third-year students at Faculty of English

Language Teacher Education. These participants were chosen for the following

reasons.

Firstly, the purpose of the study is to examine the relation between knowledge of

using collocations and speaking skill proficiency of third-year learners.

Furthermore, with at least 8-year-formal English training, the third year students

should have learned a certain number of collocations, and also would have had

many opportunities to practice speaking English.

Besides, no previous study has ever looked into these subjects in this setting. Thus,

the researchers chose only 50 third-year learners as the target subjects. An

investigation of these students’ performance would provide the researchers with

sufficient data to explore their collocation performance and speaking proficiency.

The participants were chosen by systematic sampling strategy. With the total

sample of 50 third year students, the researchers have ten classes selected and each

class distributed 5 students. However, 4 subjects provided uncompleted tests which

could not be data for the study. To sum up, we only have 46 complete tests to give

a brief data analysis.

3.2. Data collection instruments

In this study, the data were gathered by two tests, including one written and onespoken tests- they are a lexical collocation test and an English speaking test.

3.2.1. Collocation test

Collocation test consisted of 40 items with three types of tests: multiple choice,

matching and fill-in-blank. Forty items were extracted from the book “English

Collocation in Use” with six major types of lexical collocations as categorized by

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McCarthy & Felicity O’ Dell. Table 1 summarizes the distribution of the number

for lexical collocations in the test:

Table 1: Number of Items Used in the Test of Lexical Collocations

Patterns Number of questions

Noun + noun 10Adverb + adjective 10

Verb + adverb 5Verb + proposition 5

Verb + noun 5 Noun + adjective 5

Total 40

The first type is multiple choices mainly concentrating on Noun+ Noun collocation,

the second is matching which involves collocation of Adv + Adj, and the third is

box-gap filling on Verb + Prep and Verb+ Adv. The forth is gap-filling focusing on

collocations of Noun + Noun, Adj + Noun and Noun + Verb. The variety of

collocation types and exercises will motivate students’ interest and help them to do

the test with the most reliable result.

3.2.2. Speaking test

In the speaking test, students spoke together in pairs or sometimes in a group of

three. There will be two examiners: the Interlocutor, the examiner who asks the

questions and gives students their tasks and the Assessor who will listen and take

notes. The test takes approximately 15 minutes and is divided into four parts:

Part I About 3 minutes The interlocutor asked both students some

general question, e.g. about their family, home

town, job, free time, etc. The interlocutor

suggested similar general questions the students

can ask each other.Part II About 4 minutes The interlocutor gave each student a set of two or

more photographs or picture to discuss, commenton or compare. The other student(s) are then

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asked to make a brief comment or response.Part III About 4 minutes The interlocutor gave the students a problem-

solving or opinion activity which they negotiated

or discusses together.Part IV About 4 minutes The interlocutor asked questions which allowed

student to further discuss some of the issues and

themes raised in Part 3.

The important thing is students’ speaking skill could be judged according to the

following criteria:

Grammar and vocabulary: students’ ability to use grammatical structures and

vocabulary accurately and appropriately. Students are expected to have sufficient

grammar and vocabulary to express themselves without pausing too many times.

Discourse management : students; ability to express their ideas and opinion in a

coherent, connected manner. To achieve this, each student needs a range of

grammatical structures and phrases or linking words which show the relationship

between ideas or sentences.

Pronunciation: students’ ability to produce individual sounds correctly, to use stressand intonation in a way that aids communication, and to link words together so that

your spoken language sound natural. Students are expected to have a perfect native-

speaker accent.

Interaction communication: students’ ability to interact with the interlocutor and the

other students by asking questions, responding in a suitable way and taking turns in

the conversation.

Grammar and vocabulary, discourse management and pronunciation are three mostimportant criteria to evaluate the students’ speaking proficiency. However, the

relationship of collocation according to McCarthy (1995) is fundamental in the

study of vocabulary. J. R. Firth is often quoted having said "you know a word by

the company it keeps (Firth, 1957). Knowledge of appropriate collocations is part of

the native speakers' competence. Therefore, the significance of using collocation is

more emphasized in this kind of speaking test.

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3.3. Data procedure.

This study was composed of two stages. In the first stage, each of students took part

in the speaking test with the help of English teacher from Faculty of EnglishLanguage Teacher Education. We contacted to these teachers to receive the scores

of all students, but that time we had no idea of who would be able to take part in our

questionnaire. In the second stage, two week later, the collocation tests were

delivered randomly for 50 students in the list. Then we checked their answers and

counted their scores of collocation test. Based on the name, group and student

identification numbers, we could find their scores of speaking test. From two types

of points, we carried out an in-depth analysis of the results.

3.4. Data analysis

All the data were calculated to give the descriptive statistics of two variables for the

study: one variable is the score of collocation test to measure students’ knowledge

of using collocation and another is the score of speaking test to demonstrate their

degree of speaking development. Moreover, standard deviation formula correlation(r) was adapted to measure possible relation between knowledge of using

collocation and speaking ability.

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Research question

1. To what extent is third- year students’ knowledge of using collocations related

to their speaking proficiency?

To answer the question, researchers calculated the standard deviation formula

correlation. The overview of this calculation is demonstrated as following example:

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Standard Deviation Formula Correlation:

Correlation problems:

Data correlation analysis

Find the coefficient of correlation of the following datax: 76 77 77 78 79 80 81

y: 78 75 78 82 82 79 81

Solution

Coefficient of correlation for the given data

x y xy x^2 y^2

76 78 5928 5776 6084

77 75 5775 5929 5625

77 78 6006 5929 6084

78 82 6396 6084 6724

79 82 6478 6241 6724

80 79 6320 6400 6241

81 81 6561 5041 5041

Sum 402 555 43464 41400 42523

Correlation r:

r= (43464/7) - (402/7)(55/7) / (√ (41400/7 - (402/7)2

)(√((42523/7) - (555/7)2

))r = 620.85 - (57.42*7.85) / √ (5914.28 - 3297.05) * √ (6074.71 - 6285)

r = 620.85 - 450.747 / √ (2617.23) * √ (210)

r = 170.103 / 51.158 * 14.491

r = 0.2294.

Result:

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The degree of correlation between two variables x and y is r=0.2294

The given two variables are positively correlated.

Consider two variables x and y:

• If r = 1, then x and y are perfectly positively correlated. The possible values

of x and y all lie on a straight line with a positive slope in the (x,y) plane.

• If r = 0, then x and y are not correlated. They do not have an apparent linear

relationship. However, this does not mean that x and y are statistically

independent.

• If r = -1, then x and y are perfectly negatively correlated. The possible values

of x and y all lie on a straight line with a negative slope in the (x,y) plane.

Back to our data for the study, table 2 presents the variables of third year students:

score of lexical collocation test and final speaking test.

Table 2 : The scores of collocation test and speaking test.

No. of students Scores of lexical

collocation test (x)

Scores of final speaking

test (y)1. 5 7.52. 7 7.53. 6.5 64. 7 6.55. 7 76. 5 7.57. 6 7.08. 8.5 8.59. 9 910. 6.5 7.511. 8.5 7.512. 9 713. 6.5 8.514. 6 6.515. 7.7 7

16. 5.5 7.517. 5.5 7.5

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18. 6.5 7.519. 8 920. 5 721. 6 722. 8 723. 7 8.524. 4 6.525. 5 526. 7.5 7.527. 6.5 7.528. 7.5 729. 7 730. 5.5 7.531. 7 7.5

32. 4.5 833. 7.5 934. 7.5 835. 7 7.536. 6.5 6.537. 4.5 538. 8 8.539. 6 840. 7 5.541. 7 8.0

42. 7 743. 6 944. 6 745. 5 7.546. 7 7.5

n = 46

∑ x = 303.2 (x : collocation test score)

∑ y = 322 (y : final speaking test score)

∑ xy = 2321.65

∑ x2 = 2470

∑ y2=2488

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r= 0.5998

This result reveals that students’ knowledge of using collocation and speaking

proficiency is positively correlated. This result is closely similar to some other

studies such as Sung (2003), Ding and Qi (2007), Jeng-yih, Tim Hsu & Chu-yaoChiu. However, the findings of this study are somewhat different from the Sung’s

study in 2003. In her results, there was a moderately significant correlation between

the knowledge of lexical collocations and frequency of lexical collocations in the

speaking performance of the non- native speakers in the United States. One possible

explanation is due to the different focuses on the categories of lexical collocations.

One possible explanation might be due to the different focuses on the categories of

lexical collocations. Sung (2003) included more subtypes of lexical collocations

(based on Benson et al., 1997) in her recording of students’ spoken data. In the

current study, the researchers looked at the subjects’ subtypes of lexical collocations

which are fewer than Sung’s. Another possible explanation might be that the

subjects in Sung’s study were residents in the United States; they may be more

proficient in English.

It is beyond the scope of the current study to draw a concrete conclusion on therelationship between use of collocations and speaking proficiency. Therefore,

further larger scale research could investigate the correlation between these two

variables.

Basing on the relationship between two variables, the table 3 was drawn up to

demonstrate the result more adequately.

Table 3 : The relation between the scores of collocation test and speaking test.

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It’s illustrated from the graph that the score of collocation test and speaking test

experienced the same trend with the significant increase from 5 points, reached the

top of average 7.5 points and then dramatically decreased to 9 points. The numbers

of good marks from 8 points to 10 points is very limited, which might reveal a

limited capability of using collocation and speaking English among third year students. However, the emphasis is the positive relation between collocation and

speaking.

In this positive relationship, high values on one variable are associated with high

values on the other and low values on one are associated with low values on the

other. So, it’s clear from the graph that that students’ knowledge of using

collocation and speaking proficiency is positively correlated.

To sum up, in this chapter, the researchers attempted to explain fully what we cananalyze from collected data. Comprehensive overview on standard deviation

formula correlation was presented at the beginning of this chapter aiming at making

clear understanding about the way we analyses and synthesize data. An exact

calculation and a graph were shown to indicate the desired result. It’s illustrated

from the result that there is a significant relationship between third-year students’

knowledge of using collocation and their speaking skill proficiency. So, we come to

conclusion in the chapter V.

22



CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION

5.1 The contribution of the research.

The current study has attempted to explore the relation between English

collocations and second language acquisition. More specifically, it examines

whether a correlation exists between third-year students’ knowledge of using

collocation and their speaking skill proficiency.

The main contribution of the study is the emphasis on the significance of using

collocation to develop speaking skill. Understanding this kind of relationship willhighly motivate teachers to pay more attention to impart knowledge of collocation

to students in class lessons. Moreover, once students comprehend the meaning and

the role of collocation in enhancing their speaking skill, they are led to practice

using collocation, master it sufficiently and apply it more regularly. So, the study

generates strong motivation in both teachers and students, not only third-year but

other levels.

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In the term of pedagogical implication, the study has demonstrated that

knowledge of collocations is significantly associated with Vietnamese university

EFL learners’ spoken English. Future bigger scale studies might still need to be

carried out in order to examine whether or not direct instruction on lexicalcollocations will benefit EFL learners’ speaking proficiency. Nevertheless, a

cautious way to deal with lexical collocations can be the introduction of a lexis-

focused syllabus (Willis, 1990; Lewis, 1993, 1997) as a supplementary component

to any current existing syllabus. In other words, teachers can at least try to provide

EFL learners sources of lexis, such as corpus, concordance, and dictionaries of

collocations, ensuring these learners to have direct exposure to chunks of English

language and learn to extract and use patterns of lexical collocations effortlessly.

5.2 . Limitation and recommendations of the research

The subjects were limited to the students at Faculty of English Language

Teacher Education. Therefore, while the study revealed interesting findings about

the relationship between learners’ use of lexical collocations and their speaking

fluency, the findings may not be easily generalized beyond the subjects of the study.As a result, other studies with the attendance of larger participants should be

recommended.

The second limitation pertains to the number of the selected collocations used in

the study. Due to the time constraints, this study made use of only 40 items of

collocation in one collocation test to measure the reception of the participants’

knowledge of collocations.However, the use of more collocations will be better to

give a comprehensive measurement of learners’ collocational competence and more

tests, which focus on more collocations, will offer a clearer picture of the

participants’ reception of collocations.

Another limitation of this study is related to the scope of collocations investigated.

This study only examined lexical collocations and did not include grammatical

collocations. As a result, the performance of the subjects on the collocation test only

reveals their knowledge of lexical collocations, but does not represent their overall

24



collocation knowledge. Undertaking more studies is necessary to achieve more

vivid and logical result.

References

Aghbar, A. A. (1990 October). Fixed expressions in written texts:

Implications for assessing writing sophistication. Paper presented at a meeting

of the English Association of Pennsylvania State System Universities (ERIC

Document Reproduction Service No. 352 808).

Aghbar, A. A. & Tang, H. (1991). Partial credit scoring of cloze type items. Paper

presented at 1991 Language Testing Research Colloquium, Education Testing

Service, Princeton, NJ, 1-24.

Brown, D. (1974). Advanced vocabulary teaching: The problem of

collocation. RELC Journal, 5(2), 1-11.

Benson, M., Benson, E., & Ilson, R. (1997). The BBI dictionary of English word

combinations. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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Firth, J. R. (1957) Papers in Linguistics. London. Oxford University Press.

Halliday, M., & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesion in English. London: Longman

Hill, J. (1999). "Collocational competence". English Teaching Professional , 11, 3-8.

Hill, J., and M. Lewis, eds. 1997. Dictionary of selected collocations. Hove, UK:

Language Teaching Publications.

Hill, J. (1990). Revising priorities: from grammatical failure to collocation success.

In M. Lewis (Ed.), Teaching collocation (pp. 28-46). Hove, London:

Language Teaching Publications.

Huang, L. S. (2001). Knowledge of English collocations: An analysis of Taiwanese

EFL learners. Texas papers in foreign language education: Selected

proceedings from the Texas foreign language education conference 2001, 6(1),

113-129. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. 465 288).

Hsu, J. Y. (2002). Development of collocational proficiency in a workshop on

English for general business purposes for Taiwanese college students.

Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania,

Pennsylvania

Hsu, L. C. (2005). The effect of lexical collocation instruction on Taiwanese college

EFL learners’ listening comprehension. Unpublished master thesis, National

Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, Taiwan.

Kjellmer, G. (1991). A mint of phrases. In K. Aijmer & B. Altenberg (Eds.), English

corpus linguistics: Studies in honour of Jan Svartvik (pp. 111-127). Harlow,

Essex: Longman.

Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward .

London: Language Teaching Publications.

Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the lexical approach: Putting theory into practice.

London: Language Teaching Publications.

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Lewis, M. (2000). Teaching collocation: Further developments in the lexical

approach. London: Language Teaching Publications.

Lien, H. Y. (2003). The effect of collocation instruction on the reading

comprehension of Taiwanese college students. Unpublished doctoral

dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

McCarthy, Michael and Felicity O’Dell. 2005. English Collocation in Use.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Nation, Paul. 1990. Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. New York: Newbury

House.

McCarthy, M. (1995) Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nation, I. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Sung, J. (2003). English lexical collocations and their relation to spoken fluency of

adult non-native speakers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana

University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.

Zhang, X. (1993). English collocations and their effect on the writing of native and

nonnative college freshmen. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana

University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania, USA.

Appendices

Collocation Test

Hello everyone! ^.^! We are Dao Thi Tham and Phan Thi Thanh Loan, group

08.1.E4. We are doing a research on the significance of using collocation in

27



developing speaking skill. We hope to receive your co-operation by answering

these questions as much carefully as possible. This will help us to gain the most

reliable and best results. Thank you very much..!**

Your full name:……………………………………………………………….Your group:……………………………………………………………………

Your student identification number:……………………………………………

EXERCISE 1: Circle one suitable word in the column B.

A B

1. Older people feel a slight pang

of ………………as they think

back on their school days.

a. nostalgia b. hungriness c. longing

2. When Paul saw how harshly the

poor were treated by the wealthy

landowners he felt a surge of

………………

a. temper b. anger c. hostility

3. I got some travel………….. with

detail of camping trips. a. books b. brochures c. catalogue

4. The …………….café and shops

of Lunar Square are pleasant but

very expensive.

a. Pavement b. street c. road

5. The old town is a ………… area. a. Talking b. conservation c. speaking

6. I always have to look for

……………. accommodation. a. Fun b. budget c. plan7. I can’t believe food ………….are

good for our long-term health a. Addictives b. habits c. hobbies

8. This man has the sense

of………… He made us laugh all

the time.

a. mood c. wit c. humor

9. Every parent feels a sense

of……………. when their child

28



does well or wins something a. congratulation b. pride c. praise

10.I’ve got to make

some…………..calls before my

dinner.

a. telephone b. mobile c. phone

EXERCISE 2: Write the suitable adjective in column B with suitable adverb in column A.

A B

1. Deeply ………………… angry

2. Ridiculously ………………. disappointing

3. Highly ………………………. controversial

4. Utterly ………………………… nice

5. Bitterly ………………………… cheap

6. Strongly ………………………… happy

7. Absolutely ………….…………… tired

8. Extremely ………………………… opposed

9. Perfectly ………………………. stupid

10.Furiously …………………………. ashamed

EXERCISE 3: Choose the suitable words in the box to fill in the blanks.

Soundly for from quickly out

29



Down Strongly of completely up

1. Diana was so tired that she slept……. …through the night.

2. The evidence suggests…………. quite that the fire was caused by an explosion.

3. You shouldn't drive so fast! She drove…………. back to the office.

4. I………………. forgot to give your brother the message.

5. Mr. Trotter paid ………..the cost of the repairs.

6. I withdrew …………my university course after a year.

7. Hamid has always dreamt…………………….getting famous.

8. The mist came ………………….at about midday.

9. Jack struck ………….a friendship with the boy she sat next to at primary

school.

10.You can take …………….six library books at one time.

EXERCISE 4: Fill in the blanks with one correct word.

1. At a funeral people pay their last……………… to the person who has died.

2. I have a ………………. that something is wrong.

3. Some kids take an …………………. in us.

4. Chapter three touches on …………………..such as pollution.

5. We also need to take into ……………………the economic history.

6. ……………….. flight is more expensive than international one.

7. If their family is a strong, loving one. It can be called …………… home.

8. Whether it is a ……….…. meal or a …………..meal you are looking for, you

should carefully prepare for it.

9. Helen has to bring …………………. four young children.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

30



*.*

If you would like to know your result, please give us your email address!

………………………………………………………………………………..

nckh- version 5

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