The Research Into The English Collocation Competence Of Senior Hieh School Students In An Hui Province

The present study investigates the English collocation competence of senior high school students in the city of Tong Ling, An Hui province and the collocation errors they frequently committed. Data for the study were collected from a total of265senior high school students who participated in the study. Each student was asked to take a50-item multiple-choice collocation test that is employed to measure the participants’ English collocation competence (chunking competence) and fill in a questionnaire that aims to assess the influence of the participants’ learning background and learning psychologies (learning motivation, strategies and cognitive styles) on their collocation competence. And the test result was employed to analyze the collocation errors the participants made. The results from the collocation test and the questionnaire aims were examined to answer the following three questions:(1) To what extent is the participants’ collocation competence correlated with their English subject scores on the Senior High School Entrance Examination?(2) What is the relationship between the senior high school students’ collocation competence and their learning background and learning psychologies?(3) What are the possible causes of collocation errors made by senior high school students?The results indicated that the participants’ collocation knowledge was relatively insufficient (M=23.53) and that there was a significantly positive correlation between students’ performance in the collocation test and their English subject scores on the Senior High School Entrance Examination (r=.758**) which shows that the collocation competence is an important indicator of the language proficiency of senior high school students. Moreover, the participants’ learning psychologies such as learning motivations and some learning strategies had a significant bearing on their collocation competence. In addition, the number of English learning years and the amount of time of extracurricular English learning both also had a significant effect on collocation competence in the present study. It is worth mentioning that Adj.+N collocation is the most tricky chunks for the participants in the present study, which contradict the students’opinions and their performance on the collocation test. The findings from the analyzing the collocation errors the participants made in the collocation test shows that negative transfer, the use of synonyms, false concepts hypothesized, and ignorance of rule restrictions contributed to the most common errors the students committed in the collocation test. It can be inferred that language transfer, overgeneralization, and use of synonyms are most frequently-used strategies which the Chinese senior high school students employed in English learning.The present study suggests that it is strictly necessary for EFL teachers to shift the focus onto collocation teaching from individual word teaching at the early stage of English learning.Due to the limitation of time and various resources, the research into the English collocation competence of senior high school students may be not comprehensive. So, the findings from the case study schools may not apply to senior high schools elsewhere. Consequently, further relevant study should be undertaken on a larger scale.