Chapter 1 the study of collocations

CHAPTER 6 
 
CONCLUSIONS  
 
6.1  Summary and Conclusions 
 
 
This study has investigated the development of English collocational 
knowledge in three different proficiency levels - post-beginners, intermediate and 
post-intermediate - of 275 Greek learners of ESL.  Three tests measuring the 
learners’ knowledge of collocations were used: essay writing, a translation test and 
a blank-filling test.  The essay writing measured free production of collocations, 
and the translation and blank-filling tests were measures of cued production.  
Evidence was sought for the development of collocational knowledge between and 
within the three proficiency groups.  Results revealed that there are specific 
patterns of development across and within the three different groups.  
Collocational knowledge increased steadily as the overall language proficiency 
increased, and the development of collocational knowledge was found to be 
influenced by the frequency of the input, the L1-L2 difference, the overall language 
proficiency, and the 'saliency' of the collocation types.  Grammatical and lexical 
collocations that were simple and frequent in everyday use of English were 
acquired early and the more complex grammatical collocations were acquired 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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later.  Lexical collocations that were idiomatic, fixed and/or unpredictable were 
more difficult than those that were less arbitrary and more rule-bound.  Finally, the 
development of collocational knowledge in terms of the three proficiency levels 
can be described as follows: Post-beginner students have already acquired the 
simple and frequent grammatical collocations, e.g. SVc, they use few types of 
collocation and a large number of tokens for some of them, they are more accurate 
with regard to lexical collocations than complex grammatical collocations, but their 
overall accuracy is very low.  At the intermediate level, students use more 
collocation types and they use both simple and complex grammatical collocations, 
but their overall accuracy does not improve.  At the post-intermediate level, 
students become more accurate with respect to grammatical, both simple and 
complex, and lexical collocations, and their collocational knowledge is significantly 
advanced. 
 
From a theoretical point of view, the present study developed a 
classification of the various studies on collocations in three major approaches: 
lexical composition, the semantic and the structural approach.  Each approach has 
been critically reviewed to reveal its strengths and weaknesses for the study of 
collocations. 
 
The systematic use of a classification system for classifying collocations 
makes the replication of this study possible.  If this classification system is used in 
future studies on collocations, it will enable a comparison of the results, and 
support a systematic contribution to how collocational ability develops. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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The empirical contribution of this study lies in the use of the different 
elicitation instruments and the analyses of the data.  The detailed description of the 
construction of the battery of tests used for the collection of data (Chapter 3), as 
well as their strengths and weakness (see next section) can be used as a guide for 
designing  future studies on collocations and developing more sensitive and 
effective elicitation instruments. 
 
The analysis performed on the data is an improvement over analyses in 
other developmental studies, i.e. studies on the order of acquisition of morphemes. 
 It shows not only the order of acquisition of collocational types, but also the 
strength of the relationship of the items on the implicational order. 
 
From a pedagogical point of view, this study provides a picture of how 
English collocational knowledge develops in ESL learners.  Knowing how 
collocations are acquired is fundamental for devising ways of teaching them and 
strategies for learning them.  
 
It was the aim of this study to investigate the development of collocational 
knowledge in L2 acquisition, and to provide a starting point towards unravelling 
the acquisition process of English collocations.  A model for the development of 
collocational knowledge has been suggested, and the possible factors affecting the 
various stages of collocational knowledge have been examined.  Hopefully, the 
study of collocations will continue in the future.  Further studies should reveal a 
more detailed picture of the development of collocational knowledge in L2 
learners, with important implications for L2 theory and instruction. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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