The Influence Of English Proficiency Upon Verb-Noun Collocation Errors In The English Writing Of Non-English Major University Students

The present study investigates the influence of English proficiency uponverb-noun collocation errors in the English writing of non-English major universitystudents.80subjects of two proficiency levels participated in the study. Throughanalysis of verb-noun collocation errors in their compositions, we have the followingfindings:(1) although a decrease in the number of verb-noun collocation errors isobserved, there is no significant difference among learners of two proficiency levels.(2) The number of verb selection errors is the highest among all the five types oferrors，followed by errors of usage and noun selection errors. However, there is nosignificant difference in all of the five kinds of errors among learners of twoproficiency levels. Learners of relatively higher proficiency made more noun selectionerrors, errors of usage and preposition selection errors than those of relatively lowerproficiency. However, they made fewer verb selection errors and number selectionerrors compared with learners of lower proficiency.(3) L1influence is a major causeof verb-noun collocation errors committed by non-English major university students.The negative impact of L1influence decrease with the increase of English proficiencylevels, but no significant difference is found among learners of two proficiency levels.(4) The research has analyzed four possible causes of verb-noun collocation errors,which are inadequate collocational knowledge, difference between English andChinese verb-noun collocations, first language transfer and communicative stragegies.The research also provided some pedagogical implications for collocation teaching,including raising awareness of collocation, increasing collocation instruction invocabulary teaching, having instruction on L1-L2differences in specific collocationsand increasing collocation input and making use of collocation errors.