Chapter 1 the study of collocations

 
5.1  Free Production of Collocations 
 
 
The accurate use of collocations in the subjects' essays was used as evidence 
for the acquisition of collocations.  There were significant differences in the 
production of a number of collocation types between and within the three 
proficiency groups. 
 
5.1.1  Between-Group Differences 
 
 
Subjects used significantly more Type 13. SV Inf and 19. SV(O) that 
collocations as their level of proficiency increased (see Table 24).  There were also a 
number of collocations which were used significantly more by subjects in the 
highest level group.  For example, Type 1. Noun Prep, 5. Adjective Prep, 15. SVO to 
Inf, and 21. SVOc collocations were used significantly more by subjects in Group 3. 
 Types 1 and 5 are lexical collocations, and Types 13, 19, 15 and 21 are grammatical 
collocations that are syntactically more demanding than the simple grammatical 
collocations SV to Inf and SVc. 
 
The analysis of the collocations in the subjects' textbooks revealed that the 
use of Type 13. SV Inf, 19. SV(O) that, 1. Noun Prep, 5. Adjective Prep, 15. SVO to Inf, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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and 21. SVOc collocations in the textbooks also increases as the level of difficulty of 
the language increases from TWE1 to TWE3.  It is possible that the subjects' 
exposure to larger amounts of collocations of these collocations as their level of 
proficiency increased has influenced the production of these types in their essays.  
That is, the more the subjects were exposed to a particular collocation type, the 
more they used it.  This is also reflected in the fact that the order of frequency of 
the 37 collocation types in each of the three textbooks correlated significantly with 
the frequency of use of the 37 types of collocation in the students' essays, i.e. the 
order of frequency of use for each group correlated significantly with the order of 
frequency of the 37 types of collocation in the textbook for that particular group. 
 Types 
26. 
SVc and 29. Adjective Noun were used significantly more by 
subjects at the lower proficiency levels.  This could be due to the fact that these two 
types of collocation are more frequent in everyday speech and syntactically simple 
(e.g. Type 26. SVc includes constructions such as 'I am a student', 'I am bad', 'She 
became a teacher'; Type 29. Adjective Noun includes collocations such as 'long hair', 
'good student', 'beautiful girl').  Another explanation for the extensive use of these 
collocation types by Group 1 subjects is that students in this group used fewer 
collocation types overall, with more tokens used for each type.  As the level of 
proficiency increased, the number of collocation types used in the essays also 
increased.  The analysis of the collocations in the essays showed that subjects in the 
lowest proficiency level, Group 1, used only 23 out of the 37 collocation types 
investigated in this study, while subjects in the higher proficiency levels, Groups 2 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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and 3, used 29 and 28 of the 37 types respectively.  Group 1 used fewer collocation 
types and a greater number of tokens for some types (e.g. 26. SVc and 29. Adjective 
Noun).  Similar results were reported by Zhang (1993), who found that the more 
proficient L2 learners used significantly more collocation types than the less 
proficient L2 learners (Zhang 1993:147). 
 
Another factor that could have influenced the subjects' performance with 
regard to the use of SVc and Adjective Noun collocations is the topic of the essay.  
Group 1 subjects had to describe themselves and their family in the essay, a topic 
that may have prompted the use of more Adjective Noun and SVc phrases.  Group 2 
subjects had to describe themselves and their plans for the future, and Group 3 
students had to describe and discuss pollution problems in their home town.  The 
essay topics for Groups 2 and 3 were thus not as purely descriptive as for Group 1. 
 Type 
11.