| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立高雄第一科技大學 === 應用英語所 === 95 === Many scholars consider collocation acquisition as one of the keys for EFL learners to achieve fluency in language comprehension and production. Among lexical collocations, verb-noun combinations have been found to be one of the most difficult kinds for EFL learners in Taiwan. Owing to the great amount of time spent on interaction between learners and textbooks, examining collocations in EFL textbooks is deemed a worthwhile research topic. Therefore, the present study investigated verb-noun collocations found in the three most popular series of English textbooks for senior high schools in Taiwan (Far East, Lung Teng, and San Min-Chen).
The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations, the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English, and two English native speakers served as authorities to confirm the collocation status of verb-noun combinations found in the reading texts for each lesson. These collocations were further analyzed to determine: First, the total number of different collocations found in the readings. Second, the ways the collocations were highlighted as well as the amount of collocations highlighted in the reading texts. Finally, the collocations occurring in each series were first identified by searching the textbook corpora using a proprietary computer-based program. Then, the number of times each collocation was recycled throughout the whole series was calculated. The major findings of the study are summarized as follows:
1. The three series of textbooks (Far East, Lung Teng, and San Min-Chen) had different quantities of verb-noun lexical collocations (391, 372, and 428 respectively per series; 65, 62, and 71 per volume; and 5.4, 5.5, and 5.9 per lesson) appearing in their reading texts. However, a one-way ANOVA test showed that there was no significant difference (p > .05) in the number of collocations among the three publishers.
2. The three publishers took different approaches to highlighting whole collocations in the readings: Far East used five different colors alternatively from lesson to lesson (i.e., one color in a lesson), Lung Teng boldfaced them, and San Min-Chen colored them all purple. As for the amount of verb-noun lexical collocations highlighted as a unit, all three series had a low percentage (4.6%, 7.2%, and 5.6%, respectively).
3. Each collocation in all three series on average occurred about twice per lesson, including once each in the reading and the non-reading texts, less than three times per volume, and less than five times throughout the whole series. Moreover, the analysis of the frequency ranges showed that less than 21% of the collocations occur six or more times and around 79% of them appear from one to five times in a whole series.
Based on these findings of the present study, we conclude that collocations appear to receive little explicit attention in the textbooks. It is suggested that textbook writers may need to re-evaluate their treatment of collocations to highlight more collocations in the readings to promote students’ awareness of them and repeat collocations more often in each volume and throughout a series to have adequate exposures to ensure acquisition. Because textbook writers are required to follow the Curriculum Guidelines for Senior High School provided by the Ministry of Education in Taiwan, detailed criteria in these guidelines for treating collocations in textbooks may be necessary. Finally, it is recommended that EFL teachers provide explicit instruction to make up for the limited number of exposures to collocations and to assist learners in noticing collocations not highlighted in textbooks, thus helping them improve their language fluency.
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