An Empirical Study On The Acquisition Of Verb-noun Collocational Knowledge By Chinese Learners Of English

In recent years, many researchers have endeavored to exploit the importance of collocation in language learning. Collocations are considered an important part of second language lexical development and are indispensable for language learners. As the discussion on the role of collocations in EFL or ESL education is increasing, many empirical studies at home and abroad have been carried out. However, there have been a small number of empirical studies of collocation on Chinese EFL learners of English, according to materials collected. Among the empirical studies on the acquisition of English collocation by second language learners, the acquisition of English verb-noun collocation has not been studied extensively from the view of the development of collocational knowledge in terms of receptive mastery and productive mastery as well.The present study, based on collocational knowledge framework put forward by Nation, investigates the possible developmental patterns in the acquisition of English verb-noun collocational knowledge both receptively and productively by Chinese EFL learners at three different proficiency levels. This study examines how 105 Chinese EFL learners acquire three types of verb-noun collocational knowledge, namely the synonymous verb-noun collocation, de-lexicalized verb-noun collocation, and verb-noun collocations that are non-congruent between Chinese and English, in terms of receptive mastery and productive mastery. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the collected data show the following conclusions:1. The development of verb-noun collocational knowledge is linked with English language proficiency levels. On the whole, the development of verb-noun collocational knowledge increases as overall language proficiency develops. The higher the language proficiency level is, the more verb-noun collocational knowledge is acquired.2. Within the same language proficiency level, there exists a hierarchical development in the acquisition of the three types of verb-noun collocational knowledge. The de-lexicalized verb-noun collocational knowledge is acquired best within the three language proficiency levels. At the lower-intermediate proficiency level, the subjects' non-congruent verb-noun collocational knowledge is poorer than synonymous verb-noun collocational knowledge. At upper-intermediate proficiency level and advanced proficiency level the subjects' synonymous verb-noun collocational knowledge is poorer than non-congruent verb-noun collocational knowledge. 3. There exists a wide gap between subjects' receptive and productive mastery of three types of verb-noun collocational knowledge tested. The wide gap between the two suggests that the development from receptive knowledge to productive knowledge is a slow process.4. The possible factors affecting the development in the acquisition of verb-noun collocational knowledge include negative transfer from the target language, negative transfer from L1, transfer of training, strategies used by subjects, frequency in the input and language proficiency.On the basis of the findings, some pedagogical suggestions are provided for EFL teachers and learners such as raising learners' awareness of collocations, reinforcing learners' concept of collocations, increasing students' collocational competence in L2 and avoiding literal translation. And a few exercises and activities are devised to raise learners' awareness of collocations and increase students' collocational competence in L2.