Chapter 1 the study of collocations

Table 10.  Collocation types included in the blank-filling test. 
TYPES Group1 
Group2 
Group3 
1. Noun Preposition 1 
5 
3 
4. Preposition Noun 3 
6 
7 
5. Adjective Preposition 5 
5 
15 
11. SV(O) Preposition O 12 
14 
27 
23. SV(O) Adverbial 1 
1 
2 
24. SV(O) wh-word 2 
1 
3 
27. Verb Noun (creation) 6 
10 
11 
28. Verb Noun (eradication) 0 
0 
2 
29. Adjective Noun 1 
0 
2 
30. Noun Verb 1 
0 
0 
31. Noun1 of Noun2 3 
1 
0 
33. Verb Adverb 1 
3 
1 
34. Noun Noun 2 
1 
1 
 
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36. Preposition Determiner Noun 6 
11  12 
37. Phrasal Verb 6 
7 
4 
 
 
 
         TOTAL:       50                 65               90 
 
3.4  Data Collection Procedures 
 
 
In the following sections, the procedures followed by the researcher for 
the collection of data are reported. 
 
3.4.1  Test Administration 
 
 
The test was administered on three consecutive days: one day for each 
group.  All subjects for each group were tested on the same day.  All the 
subjects belonging in a particular group were tested together.  During the data 
collection, the researcher personally monitored the testing. 
 
The subjects were told that their school had agreed to participate in a 
research project undertaken by the Centre for Language Teaching and Research 
of the University of Queensland.  Their knowledge of English was to be 
assessed using a test and the collective results of their performance would be 
forwarded to their school after the completion of the project.  A complementary 
copy of the Macquarie Dictionary of Australian English would be donated to 
the school library for student use as a reward for their participation to the 
testing.  Subjects were assured that the data would be treated confidentially 
and would not affect their course marks. 
 
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After the tests were distributed to the subjects, they were asked to first 
complete the questionnaire, then to write the essay, then to do the translation 
task and finally to complete the blank-filling task.  The researcher explained 
what each test required the students to do.  All test instructions were written 
and spoken in Greek.  The questionnaire and the topic for the essay were 
written in Greek, while the translation and the blank-filling test were 
introduced by instructions in Greek asking students to translate and fill in the 
sentences respectively (see Appendix F for the exact wording of the 
instructions). 
 
Subjects were then asked to complete the tests.  They were encouraged 
to ask the researcher about anything in the test they might find difficult to 
understand, or any unknown words.  Even though the vocabulary used for the 
test items came out of the students' textbooks, the researcher realised that the 
students might not remember certain words under the pressure of time.  
Therefore, any words unknown to the students were explained by the 
researcher, with care taken that the particular words were not giving away the 
answers to any of the test items.  Such cases were limited only to subjects in 
Group 1 because of their low level of English. 
 
The subjects were allowed one hour and thirty minutes to complete the 
test, and they were told that they should not leave any of the test items 
unanswered.  
 
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Students finishing earlier than expected were asked to remain seated and 
revise their tests, e.g. try to expand their composition.  When the time was up 
all of the subjects had finished and they were allowed to leave the room. 
 
The same procedure was followed for each day of the testing, until all 
three groups of subjects had been tested.