Effects of Worksheet-Based Collocation Instruciton on Taiwan's Junior High School Students' Learning of Verb-Noun Collocations

• Main Authors: Cheng-chu Lin, 林呈鞠
• Other Authors: Ching-chi Chen
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/76983140219664512196

碩士 === 高雄師範大學 === 英語學系 === 99 === Abstract This study aims to probe into the effect of the worksheet-based collocation instruction (WBCI) on collocation acquisition in junior high. The WBCI consisted of three 45-minute lessons on lexical collocations, one per week for successive three weeks long. The subjects were 50 third-year students in Zuoying Junior High, divided into high achievers (HA) and low achievers (LA) according to their average scores of the previous monthly achievement exams. The subjects were demanded to take a pretest, a posttest, and a delayed posttest in sequence. All the tests were divided into two sections—blank-filler and multiple-choice sections, to investigate their productive and recognitive aspects of collocation competence respectively. Among them, the pretest was administered before the WBCI, and the delayed posttest was carried out one month after the posttest, which was implemented one day after the WBCI. The results were concluded as follows: (1) The result has suggested that the WBCI contributed equally significantly to the enhancement of both HA subjects’ and LA subjects’ productive and recogitnive collocation knowledge. (2) As to their retention, all the subjects were able to retain the collocation acquisition except LA subjects on the receptive aspect of collocation knowledge, for LA learners regressed on this part significantly. Similarly, when it talked to the residual effect, LA learners seemed to forget most of what they had learned; their scores in the delayed posttest weren’t significantly better than those before the WBCI, i.e., their entry behavior. (3) This study also discussed the influence of collocation type on the effect of collocation teaching. Although the subjects improved most in VN-2 (hypernymy and troponymy) and least in VN-4 (L1-L2 non-congruence), such differences failed to achieve the significant level. In other words, the subjects improved equally significantly on all the four collocation types. In sum, the collocation teaching was alleged to be effective in junior high for both HA and LA learners, and consequently, the incorporation of collocation teaching into the EFL curriculum was sincerely urged, and more inspiring teaching ways were expected for on the further studies. Keywords: collocation, lexical approach, worksheet.