Teaching and Learning Collocations in the Vietnamese Context: Teachers’ Voices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54855/acoj.241515Keywords:
teaching collocations, Vietnamese learners, technological tools, collocation errorsAbstract
This primary research focuses on teachers’ perceptions of the teaching and learning of collocations in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in the context of Vietnam. The study involves four teachers currently teaching in different educational settings in Ho Chi Minh City. A purposeful sampling technique is adopted to select the participants. The findings from semi-interviews can shed light on how teachers teach collocations to EFL learners, whether they apply technological applications or web-based platforms in teaching collocations and assisting learners to acquire collocations, as well as possible causes for some of the learners' collocation errors. Teachers' sharing about the procedure of teaching collocations in different classroom settings, including public schools and private classes in either secondary level or universities, is provided. Moreover, challenges during the process of conducting such practices based on the teachers' perspectives are discussed. As a result, suggestions for teachers and learners can be made to facilitate Vietnamese EFL learners' acquisition of collocations, in many cases, with the assistance of technology.
References
Al-Zahrani, M. S., 1998. Knowledge of English lexical collocations among male Saudi college students majoring in English at a Saudi University. Ph.D. dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania.
Bahns, J. (1993). Lexical collocations: a contrastive view. ELT Journal, 47(1), 56–63. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/47.1.56
Bahns, J., & Eldaw, M. (1993). Should we teach EFL students collocations? System, 21(1), 101–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/0346-251x(93)90010-e
Baker, P. (2006). Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. Bloomsbury Academic.
Benson, M., Benson, E., & Elson, R. (1997). The BBI dictionary of English word combinations, Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Biskup, D. (1992). L1 Influence on Learners’ Renderings of English Collocations: A Polish/German Empirical Study. Vocabulary and Applied Linguistics, 85–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-12396-4_8
Bruton, A. (2007). Vocabulary learning from dictionary referencing and language feedback in EFL translational writing. Language Teaching Research, 11(4), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168807080961
Cantos-Gomez, P., & Sánchez, A. (2001b). Lexical Constellations: What Collocates Fail to Tell. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 6(2), 199–228. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.6.2.02can
Cao, D. (2018). The effect of an online collocation dictionary on advanced learners’ use of collocations in L2 writing. https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/22829/
Cao, D., Pho, P. D., & Dangnguyen, A. C. (2021). Profiling Collocation Use in English Textbooks for Vietnamese Students. Journal of English Education, 6 (2), 82-91.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.31327/jee.v6i2.1579
Clear, J. (1993). From Firth Principles — computational tools for the study of Collocation. John Benjamins Publishing Company eBooks, 271. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.64.18cle
Creswell, J. W. (2001). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB26859968
Hadley, G. (2002). An Introduction To Data-Driven Learning. RELC Journal, 33(2), 99–124. https://doi.org/10.1177/003368820203300205
Hama, H. Q. (2010). Major sources of collocational errors made by EFL learners at Koya University. http://repository.bilkent.edu.tr/handle/11693/15003
Hill, J. 2000. Revising priorities: From grammatical failure to collocational success. In Teaching Collocation, ed. Michael Lewis, 47–70. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.
Hill, M., & Laufer, B. (2003). Type of task, time-on-task and electronic dictionaries in incidental vocabulary acquisition. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 41(2). https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.2003.007
Hsu, J. (2007). Lexical Collocations and Their Impact on the Online Writing of Taiwanese College English Majors and Non-English Majors. International Conference on English for Specific Purposes.
Kjellmer, G. 1994. Dictionary of collocations. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Kolln, M. (1992). Rhetorical grammar: grammatical choices, rhetorical effects. College Composition and Communication, 43(2), 269. https://doi.org/10.2307/357575
Koprowski, M. (2005). Investigating the usefulness of lexical phrases in contemporary coursebooks. ELT Journal, 59(4), 322–332. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/cci061
Koya, T. (2004). Collocation Research Based on Corpora Collected from Secondary School Textbooks in Japan and in the UK. Dialogue, 3, 7–18. http://www.talk-waseda.net/dialogue/no03_2004/2004dialogue03_k1.pdf
Laufer, B., & Waldman, T. (2011). Verb-Noun Collocations in Second Language Writing: A Corpus Analysis of Learners’ English. Language Learning, 61(2), 647–672. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2010.00621.x
Le, Q. T. (2023). Utilizing Electronic Dictionaries: Voice from Vietnamese EFL Learners. AsiaCALL Online Journal, 14(2), 18-36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54855/acoj.231422
Lew, R., & Doroszewska, J. (2009). Electronic Dictionary Entries with Animated Pictures: Lookup Preferences and Word Retention. International Journal of Lexicography, 22(3), 239–257. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijl/ecp022
Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into Practice. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA35070833
Liu, C.P. (1999). An analysis of collocation errors in EFL writing. The Proceedings of the English International Symposium on English Teaching (pp.483-494). Taipei: Crane Publishing Ltd.
Nation, I. (1990). Teaching & Learning Vocabulary. Heinle ELT.
Nesselhauf, N. (2003). The Use of Collocations by Advanced Learners of English and Some Implications for Teaching. Applied Linguistics, 24(2), 223–242. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/24.2.223
Nesselhauf, N. (2005). Collocations in a learner corpus. John Benjamins.
Nguyen, H. (2020). Analysis of lexical collocational errors in essays committed by double-majored students at Hanoi National University of Education. Tạp Chí Khoa Học Xã Hội và Nhân Văn (VNU Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities), 6(2), 280–288. https://doi.org/10.33100/jossh6.2.nguyenthithanhhuyen
Partington, A. 1998. Patterns and meanings: Using corpora for English Language research and teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Pham, T. T., Nguyen, L. A. D., Dang, H. M., & Le, T. T. P. (2024). Exploring Tertiary Vietnamese EFL Students’ Engagement in Vocabulary Learning through the Use of an AI Tool. Proceedings of the AsiaCALL International Conference, 4, 129-149. ISSN: 2833-6836; ISBN: 979-8-9870112-4-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.54855/paic.23410
Rahimi, M., & Momeni, G. (2012). The effect of teaching collocations on English language proficiency. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 31, 37–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.013
Rasti-Behbahani, A. (2021). Why digital games can be advantageous in vocabulary learning.
Theory and practice in language studies, 11(2), 111–118.
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1102.01
Sinclair, J. M. (1991). Corpus, concordance, Collocation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Shitu, F. M. (2015). Collocation errors in English as Second language (ESL) essay writing. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Social, Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 9(9), 3270–3277. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1110888
Stuart, K., & Trelis, A. B. (2006). Collocation and knowledge production in an academic
discourse community. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266863517_Collocation_and_knowledge_production_in_an_academic_discourse_community [accessed on: 12/02/2024]
Sung, J. (2003). English lexical collocations and their relation to spoken fluency of
adult non-native speakers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.
Trinh, T. L. A., Tran, T. K. N., Vo, T. B. N., & Huynh, T. T. S. (2021). The Difference Effects of Paper Dictionaries vs. Online Dictionaries. AsiaCALL Online Journal, 12(3), 28-38. Retrieved from https://asiacall.info/acoj/index.php/journal/article/view/34
Trinh, T. H., Nguyen, M. N., & Tran, T. T. H. (2022). Teachers and Students' Perceptions of Using Digital Games in Improving Vocabulary at Non-English-majored Class. AsiaCALL Online Journal, 13(5), 112-131. https://doi.org/10.54855/acoj.221358
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Nguyen Hoang Xuan Chieu
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, in a journal or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.
Copyright
The copyright of all articles published in the acoj remains with the Authors, i.e. Authors retain full ownership of their article. Permitted third-party reuse of the open access articles is defined by the applicable Creative Commons (CC) end-user license which is accepted by the Authors upon submission of their paper. All articles in the acoj are published under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, meaning that end users can freely share an article (i.e. copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt it (i.e. remix, transform and build upon the material) on the condition that proper attribution is given (i.e. appropriate credit, a link to the applicable license and an indication if any changes were made; all in such a way that does not suggest that the licensor endorses the user or the use) and the material is only used for non-commercial purposes.