Chapter 1 the study of collocations

3.1.6  Descriptive Statistics for the TWE Series 
 
 
There is a steady increase of the English collocations included in the 
books (Figure 1).  TWE1 contains 2,161 collocations, TWE2 contains 3,922 
collocations, and TWE3 contains 5,901 collocations.  Token-type ratios were 
calculated for each book (see Table 7). 
 
206

---

1
2
3
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
Sum of Col l oca ti ons per textbook
Ta sk  W a y   Engl i sh  1, 2, 3
1Figure 1.  Distribution of collocations across the TWE series 
 
Table 7.  Collocation tokens and token/type ratios in the TWE series 
TYPE 
TWE1 TWE2 TWE3 Total  Tokens
/ Type 
1. Noun Preposition 
    76 
    80 
  145 
  301 
100.3 
2. Noun to Infinitive 
      2 
    16 
    27 
    45 
  15 
3. Noun that-clause 
      0 
      0 
      0 
      0 
    0 
4. Preposition Noun 
  228 
  215 
  429 
  872 
290.67 
5. Adjective Preposition 
    45 
    75 
  128 
  248 
  82.66 
6. Predicate Adjective to Infinitive 
      3 
      9 
    37 
    49 
  16.33 
7. Adjective that-clause 
      8 
      7 
    12 
    27 
    9 
8. SVO to O/ SVOO 
    15 
    26 
    27 
    68 
  22.66 
9. SVO to O 
      1 
      3 
      7 
    11 
    3.66 
 
207

---

10. SVO for O/ SVOO 
      4 
      6 
      9 
    19 
    6.33 
11. SV(O) Preposition O 
    10 
    45 
      5 
    60 
  20 
12. SV to Infinitive 
    19 
  234 
  285 
  538 
179.33 
13. SV Infinitive 
    26 
  230 
  347 
  603 
201 
14. SV V-ing 
    31 
      9 
    22 
    62 
  20.66 
15. SVO to Infinitive 
      4 
    25 
    56 
    85 
  28.33 
16. SVO Infinitive 
    11 
    28 
    37 
    76 
  25.33 
17. SVO V-ing 
      1 
    16 
    14 
    31 
  10.33 
18. SV Possessive V-ing 
      0 
      0 
      0 
      0 
    0 
19. SV(O) that-clause 
    45 
  149 
  234 
  428 
142.67 
20. SVO to be c 
      0 
      0 
      3 
      3 
    1 
21. SVOc 
      4 
      9 
    32 
    45 
  15 
22. SVOO 
      3 
    13 
      8 
    24 
    8 
23. SV(O) Adverbial 
  110 
  130 
    61 
  301 
100.33 
24. SV(O) wh-word 
    73 
  174 
  203 
  450 
150 
25. S(it) VO to Infinitive 
      0 
      0 
      0 
      0 
    0 
26. SVc 
  402 
  351 
  503 
1256 
418.67 
27. Verb Noun/Pronoun (creat) 
    30 
  135 
  143 
  308 
102.67 
28. Verb Noun (eradication) 
      3 
      5 
      4 
    12 
    4 
29. Adjective Noun 
  306 
  704 
1346 
2356 
785.33 
30. Noun Verb 
      3 
    11 
      2 
    16 
    5.33 
31. Noun1 of Noun2 
    16 
    21 
    47 
    84 
  28 
32. Adverb Adjective 
      3 
    15 
    30 
    48 
  16 
 
208

---

33. Verb Adverb 
    58 
  173 
  146 
  377 
125.67 
34. Noun Noun 
  197 
  319 
  498 
1014 
338 
36. Preposition Determiner Noun 
  240 
  345 
  454 
1039 
346.33 
37. Phrasal Verb 
  184 
  344 
  600 
1128 
376 
TOTAL 
OCCURRENCES 
 
2,161 3,922 5,901 11,984 ------ 
 
 
As can be seen from Table 7, there were also collocation types for which 
no instances of collocations were found in any of the books: 
 
Type 18. SV Possessive V-ing 
Type 25. S(it)VO to Infinitive 
Type 3. Noun that-clause 
 
 
These categories have not been included in the calculation of the means 
and standard deviations for each textbook that appear below. 
 
A look at the mean number of collocations found in each book confirms 
this steady increase of collocations, see Table 8.  The standard deviation was 
also calculated for each book, see Table 8, and it was found that as the level of 
English progresses in the TWE series the variability from the central point in 
the distribution of scores becomes greater, that is, some types of English 
collocations are represented by a large number of tokens, which gets even 
larger in the third book of the series, while in other types the  occurrences 
remain consistently low.  It also appears that the scores are much more spread 
 
209

---

out in the second and third books than in the first one, which has generally low 
levels of English collocations.  
 
Table 8.  Means and standard deviations per textbook 
BOOK MEAN STD 
TWE 1 
61.5 
97.01 
TWE 2 
111.1 
150.1 
TWE 3 
167.8 
261.9 
 
 
As we can also see in Table 7 above, most of the collocation types have a 
small number of tokens in all three books, a few have a medium sized number 
of tokens, and only a couple have a high number of tokens.  This indicates that 
some types are represented more than others in the TWE series. 
 
There is little recycling of collocations across the three books.  For about 
half of the collocation types there were no common collocations appearing in all 
three books.  The largest amount of recycled collocations across the three books 
are under the following types:  
 
Type 24. SV(O) wh-word (13 tokens appearing in all three books);  
Type 37. Phrasal Verb (18 tokens appearing in all three books);  
Type 36. Preposition Det Noun (11 tokens appearing in all three books); Type 4. 
Preposition Noun (11 tokens appearing in all three books).  
 
 
210

---

 
A closer look at these categories revealed the following: 
i)  Type 24. SV(O) wh-word - The collocations that belong to this category and 
appear in all three books are instructions mainly for carrying out role-play tasks 
- e.g. "ask if she has got a brother" (TWE1, Unit 5, p.66). 
ii)  Type 37. Phrasal Verb - Most of the recycled collocations in this category also 
appear in task instructions - e.g. "try to fill in the 'What is Done By Whom' 
table" (TWE3, Unit 3, p.47). 
 
From the above, it appears that most of the recycled collocations are 
mainly standard expressions used for giving instructions to the students about 
the task they are asked to perform. 
 
A close look at the textbook data shows that there is little recycling of the 
collocations used in TWE1 and TWE2, and TWE1 and TWE3.  TWE2 and TWE3 
appear to be more compatible as they have 329 collocations in common.  
However, an examination of these 329 collocations revealed that one third of 
them (28%) belonged to the types used for task instructions (see above). 
 
3.2 Subjects 
 
 
Three groups of Greek students of English were involved in the present 
study.  They were all learners from the same Greek Junior High School and 
were taught English via the TWE  coursebooks.  The first group consists of 
students in the first year of Junior High School, the second one consists of  
students in the second year of Junior High School, and the third group 
comprises students in the third year of Junior High School. 
 
211

---

 
The Junior High School that participated in the study used the TWE 
series, and it was situated in an urban area, i.e. Veria which is the capital of the 
prefecture of Imathia, to ensure that its students were mainly from the same 
town rather than from the nearby villages.  Permission was obtained from the 
Principal of the Junior High School and the Department of Education for 
Secondary Schools, as the research would engage the participating students for 
one hour and forty minutes for the completion of the test. 
 
There were 347 subjects participating in the study: 107 subjects for the 
first group, 125 subjects for the second group, and 115 subjects for the third 
group.  All subjects were between 12 and 15 years of age.  They were Greek 
nationals who were native speakers of Greek, and they all had the same level of 
formal education.  These subjects had to be screened with regard to their 
language proficiency and their production of collocations, and hence those 
subjects that had not written an essay were not included in the study (see 
3.5.2.).  Ultimately, there were 275 subjects included in the study: 91 subjects for 
Group 1, 94 subjects for Group 2, and 90 subjects in Group 3.  The subjects' 
mean age for each group was calculated: 12 years and 9 months for Group 1, 13 
years and 8 months for Group 2, and 14 years and 7 months in Group 3 (see 
Appendix A). 
 
The study was conducted three teaching weeks before the end of the 
school year in Greece.  By this time students were in the final chapters of their 
books and under revision in preparation for the annual exams which follow the 
end of the school year.   
 
212

---

 
3.3  Materials 
 
 
The test instrument used for the data collection consisted of a 
questionnaire eliciting background information about the subjects, and a 
battery of three tests: an essay writing task eliciting free-production data, a 
translation task, and a blank-filling task eliciting accuracy in the use of 
collocations.  The purpose and the contents of the materials are examined in 
detail below. 
 
3.3.1  Questionnaire 
 
 
The first part of the test instrument was a questionnaire in Greek aiming 
to elicit information about the students' background.  There were 15 questions, 
10 open ended and 5 closed ones, asking information such as the students' age, 
sex, recent marks in English, how many languages they speak, whether they 
had any additional exposure in English, when they started learning English, 
how often they watch English movies with Greek subtitles or without subtitles, 
how often they read English books and/or newspapers, how often they listen 
to English songs, whether they speak English with their friends, and whether 
they correspond with pen friends in English.  The questionnaire was the same 
for all three groups.  See Appendix A for information on the subjects' gender 
and age and Appendix B for the English translation of the questionnaire. 
 
 
213

---

3.3.2  Composition 
 
 
The first test in the battery of tests was a composition task measuring 
free production of collocations.  Students were asked to write an essay of 
approximately 200 words on a given topic.  There were different topics for the 
three different groups and each topic had been covered in the textbook of the