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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 that some 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 English}

Language 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}

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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 in other 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 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 its most 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 have same 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 profit

Noun+Noun Pocket calculator

Verb +Adj+ Noun Learn a foreign language Noun + Adv Live dangerously

Adv+ Adv Half understand

Adv+ Adj Completely soaked

Verb + 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

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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 pride

Verb+ Prep Burst into tears

Verb+ Adv Pull steadily

Adv+ Adj Happily marry

In this paper, researchers will focus on the 4th_{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 (linguistic competence), 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 observe how 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, 96 university 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 EFL university 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 one spoken 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 10 Adverb + adjective 10 Verb + adverb 5 Verb + 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, comment on 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 stress

and 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 most important 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 English Language 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 data x: 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 7.5 2. 7 7.5 3. 6.5 6 4. 7 6.5 5. 7 7 6. 5 7.5 7. 6 7.0 8. 8.5 8.5 9. 9 9 10. 6.5 7.5 11. 8.5 7.5 12. 9 7 13. 6.5 8.5 14. 6 6.5 15. 7.7 7 16. 5.5 7.5 17. 5.5 7.5

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18. 6.5 7.5 19. 8 9 20. 5 7 21. 6 7 22. 8 7 23. 7 8.5 24. 4 6.5 25. 5 5 26. 7.5 7.5 27. 6.5 7.5 28. 7.5 7 29. 7 7 30. 5.5 7.5 31. 7 7.5 32. 4.5 8 33. 7.5 9 34. 7.5 8 35. 7 7.5 36. 6.5 6.5 37. 4.5 5 38. 8 8.5 39. 6 8 40. 7 5.5 41. 7 8.0 42. 7 7 43. 6 9 44. 6 7 45. 5 7.5 46. 7 7.5 n = 46

∑ x = 303.2 (x : collocation test score) ∑ y = 322 (y : final speaking test score) ∑ xy = 2321.65

∑ x2_{= 2470}

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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-yao Chiu. 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 the relationship 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.

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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 can analyze 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.

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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 will highly 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 lexical collocations 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

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collocation knowledge. Undertaking more studies is necessary to achieve more vivid and logical result.

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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

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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

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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. plan

7. 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

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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

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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!

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*.*

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

Nckh- Version 5

Table of contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

References

Appendices