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PERCEPTIONSONTHEUSEOFCOLLOCATIONS
INACADEMICIELTSWRITINGTASK2BYSENIOR
ENGLISHMAJORSTUDENTSATQUANGNAM
UNIVERSITY
NguyenThiKimPhuong1
Abstract:OneoftheIELTSmarkingcriteriaislexicalresourcewhichfocuseson
thewaystudentsusecollocationsintheirwritingsection.Therefore,IELTStesttakers
shouldmakeeffectiveuseofcollocationstoaceIELTSWritingtest.ThismeansIELTS
learnersshouldnotlearnindividualwordsbythemselvesandshouldfocusonwhatother
wordstheselexicalitemsarecollocatedwithtobuilduptheirvocabularyrangeand
thus,maximizetheirIELTSscore.ThispaperpresentsastudyonQuangNamUniversity
Englishmajorstudents’perceptionofusingcollocationsinIELTSWritingTask2.
ThispieceofresearchisexpectedtoinformteachersofEnglishatQuangNam
UniversityoftheproblemsstudentsusuallyencounterinIELTSWritingTask2andto
gainaninsightintohowstudentsperceivetheirusingofcollocationsinacademicIELTS
WritingTask2.Itwillalsoputforwardssomerecommendationsontheuseofcollocations
forimprovingbandscoreonIELTSWritingTask2.
Keywords:collocations,perception,IELTSacademicwritingessay,problems
1.Introduction
Itiswidelyacknowledgedthatwritinghasalwaysbeendemandinganddifcultfor
studentsespeciallyIELTSWritingTask2whichrequirestesttakerstowriteatleast250
wordspresentingaboutatopicbymeansofgivingandjustifyinganopinion,discussing
thetopic,summarizingdetails,outliningproblems,identifyingpossiblesolutionsand
supportingwhattheywritewithreasons,argumentsandrelevantexamplesfromtheir
ownknowledgeorexperience.
Notably,IELTSlearnersoftenfacedifcultieswhenitcomestocollocations,also
knownasthenaturalcombinationofwordsorthecorrectarrangementofwordsina
sentence.RegardingIELTSWritingTask2,IELTStesttakersshouldmakethemostof
collocationstobeawareoflanguagechunksusedbynativespeakersinwritingespecially
inIELTSWritingtest.Thecorrectuseofcollocationsisanessentialpartofimproving
English leveland boosting IELTS score. Using collocations correctly allows IELTS
learnerstowriteandspeakmorelikeanativespeaker,anelementwhichiscriticalfor
examinerstolookoutwhenmarkingthetest.
Itis,therefore,essentialforteacherstoraisestudents’awarenessofcollocations
andtoteachstudentshowtousecollocationsappropriatelyandaccuratelyintheirwriting
ingeneralandinIELTSwritinginparticular.
1.MA,DepartmentofForeignLnaguages,QuangNamUniversity
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NGUYEN THI KIM PHUONG
ThispaperpresentsthendingsoftheresearchonusingcollocationsinIELTS
WritingTask2.Itseekstohelpstudents,especiallythosemajoringinEnglishatQuang
Nam University, enhancetheir English competence andboost their writing skills to
maximizetheirIELTSwritingbandscore.
2.Literaturereview
2.1.TheDenitionsofCollocation
Manydenitionsofthetermcollocationhavebeenproposedintheliterature.The
conceptofcollocationswasrstidentiedbyPalmer(1933,ascitedinNation,2002,p.
317)asastringofwordsthat“mustorshouldbelearned,orisbestormostconveniently
learnedasanintegralwholeorindependententity,ratherthanbytheprocessofpiecing
togethertheircomponentparts.”Firth(1957,p.183),whorstcoinedthetermtorefer
to“thecompanythatwordskeep".Besides,McCarthy(2000,p.12)denedcollocation
as“amarriagecontractbetweenwords,andsomewordsaremorermlymarriedtoeach
otherthanothers”.InthepositionofWoolard(2000,p.29),collocationsarereferred
toas“theco-occurrenceofwordswhicharestatisticallymuchmorelikelytoappear
togetherthanrandomchancesuggests”.
2.2.ClassicationofCollocations
Overthepastdecades,therehavebeenmanystudieshavingfocusedonacertain
type of collocation, investigating, for example, the use of verb-noun collocations
(Gyllstad,2007orPeters,2009)oradjective-nouncollocations(SiyanovaandSchmitt,
2008).
Inaddition,somestudieshavealsoincludeddifferenttypesofcollocationssuch
asadjective-noun,adverb-adjective,verb-nounorphrasal-verb-nouncollocations(Fan,
2009; Peters, 2014; 2016).Basically, there are twotypes of collocation: lexical and
grammaticalcollocations.
2.3.IELTSWritingTask2
The WritingTask2 ofthe IELTS testrequirestesttakerstowrite atleast250
words.Theywillbepresentedwithatopicandwillbetestedontheirabilitytorespond
bygivingandjustifyinganopinion,discussingthetopic,summarizingdetails,outlining
problems,identifyingpossiblesolutionsandsupportingwhatyouwritewithreasons,
argumentsandrelevantexamplesfromyourownknowledgeorexperience.
InanIELTSwritingexam,theassessmentofTask2carriesmoreweightinmarking
thanTask1andismarkedwithfourcriteriaincludingTaskResponse,Coherenceand
Cohesion,LexicalResourceandGrammaticalRangeandAccuracy.Itcanbeseenthat
inthemarkingcriteriainIELTStesttakersaremarkedonLexicalResourcethatmarks
onthewaywritersusecollocationsinthewritingsection,especiallyessays.Ferguson
(2019)gavethetipsthathelpstudentsincreasetheirscoreasfollows.
-TaskResponse:ThisTask2markingcriterionisabouttheanswertotheIELTS
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essayquestion,themainideaandhowtheyaredeveloped.Inordertoincreasethescore,
studentsshouldpayattentiontoallissuesintheessayquestion,writeabouttheissues
ratherthanjustthegeneraltopic,answertheessayquestionwithrelevantmainpoints,
planthesupportingpointssotheydonotgooffthetopicandwriteover250words.
-CoherenceandCohesion:TheIELTSexaminerwillchecktheorganizationof
youressay,theparagraphsandyouruseoflinkingdevices.Theirscorewillincreaseif
theyhaveeitherfourorveparagraphsbutnotmoreandnotless,havejustonecentral
topicineachbodyparagraph,organizetheirideaslogically,usearangeoflinkingwords
andavoiderrorsinlinkingwords.
-LexicalResource:theuseofvocabulary,paraphrasing,spellingandthenumber
ofmistakeswritersmakewillbeassessedinthiscriterion.Theyshouldpayattentionto
collocations,paraphrasecarefullytoavoiderrors,usearangeofwordsappropriatefor
topic,spellwordscorrectly,avoidmakingerrorsandavoidusinginformallanguageif
theywanttogetahighscore.
-GrammaticalRangeandAccuracy:TheIELTSexaminerwillgivecandidatea
bandscorefortheirsentencestructures,thetensestheyuse,theircontrolofgrammarand
alsothenumberofmistakestheymake.Theirscorewillincreaseiftheyusedifferent
grammar tenses (conditionals, perfect tenses, passive voice, past, future, etc.), pay
attentiontowordorderintheirsentences,usearangeofsentencestructures,usethe
correctpunctuation(fullstopsandcommas),avoiderrorsingrammar(articles,plural
nouns,uncountablenouns,wordorder).
3.ResearchMethods
TheaimofthestudyistoidentifytheseniorEnglishmajorstudents’attitudesas
wellastheirawarenessoftheuseofcollocationsIELTSwritingtask2inordertond
outtheiractualunderstandingaboutthiscriterionintheacademicIELTSwritingtask2
atQuangNamUniversity.Inthisstudy,questionnairesandinterviewedareconducted
fordatacollection.
3.1.Questionnaire
Asthequestionnairesandstudents’writingIELTS6testswillbeprimarilyusedto
collectdata,thequantitativeapproachplaysacrucialroleinthisresearch.Inaddition,
attheendofthequestioninthequestionnaire,therewillbeanoptionalspaceforthe
respondents to express their subjective comments. Therefore, both quantitative and
qualitativeapproacheswillbechosentoobtainanddealwiththedateofthisresearch.
The questionnaire was distributed to 80 senior students from two classes
DT15TAN01,DT15TAN02with40studentsineachclass,withareturnof100%.Their
agesrangedfrom21to23yearsold,andtheycomefromdifferentareasinVietnambut
mostlyfromQuangNamprovince.
Information about the participants who responded to the questionnaire is
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summarizedinTable1below.
Table1.Students’personalinformation
Students’personal
information
Category Numberof
students
Percentage
Gender Male 4 5%
Female 76 95%
Age 21 20 25%
22 53 66%
23 7 9%
YearsofstudyingEnglish 6-9years 11 14%
Morethan9years 60 75%
Years of studying academic
IELTSWritingTask2
Morethan3years 9 11%
Thequestionnairewasconstructedtocapturetheparticipants’ownperceptions
andreectionsbecauseitwasnotonlyanessentialmeasurementtoolforthecollection
ofdata,butitwasalsouniqueandtailoredtotthecircumstancesofourstudy.
3.2.Interview
Inordertofurthersomequalitativefeaturestoourstudy,somein-depthinterviews
wereimplementedtomakemoreinvestigationsintothesubjectswhomayhavequite
differentopinionsorconceptsincomparisonwiththeothers.
Thein-depthinterviewswereconductedafterthereceiptandpreliminaryanalysis
of the initial questionnaire. The purpose of the interviews was to collect insightful
informationwhichwasrelatedtotheperceptions,theclassroompractice,thedifculties
aswellastheexpectationoftheparticipantswithrespecttotheimprovingtheirIELTS
writingtask2.
Theinterviewswereopen-endedinnatureandviewedaspurposefulconversations
withthestructuresshapedintheprocesstogetaccesstosocialrelationshipsinaprofound
way.
Therewere09participants(01maleand08female)inthestudy.Eachinterview
tookabouteightminutes.Alltheinterviewswererecordedandcompletedintwosessions
ontwodifferentdaysattheclassroomsetting.
4.FindingsandDiscussion
Questionsinthequestionnaireandinterviewaresubdividedintothreemainparts
weretakenintoconsiderationindetailsinthissectioninthelightofservingtheresearch
purposesandsupplyingvitalcluesfortheresearchquestionsunderthreeheadings:(1)
students’attitudestowardsacademicIELTSwritingtask2;2)Students’conceptionof
difcultiesinwritingIELTStask2;(3)students’awarenessofcollocations.
4.1.Students’attitudestowardsacademicIELTSWritingTask2
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Inthispart,students’perceptionaboutrequirementofwritingIELTStask2will
bediscussed.AscanbeseenfromFigure1,thehighestpercentageofstudents(71%)
understoodtherequirementofwritingIELTStask2verywellwhereas15%ofthem
knewitratherwellandsimilarly14%didnotunderstanditverywell.
Figure4.1:Students'perceptionofIELTSwritingtask2
Datacollectedfromtheinterviewsalsoreinforcedtheabovendings.Therewere8
students(80%)answeredtheyhadinformationthattheirIELTSessaywouldbeassessed
usingthe4criteriaincludingtaskresponse,coherenceandcohesion,lexicalresource
(vocabulary)andgrammaticalrange&accuracy.Eachcriterionwasworth25%oftheir
totalmarksfortask2.Theirscorewouldbeimprovediftheypaidattentiontoallissues
intheessayquestionandwroteover250words.
4.2.Students’conceptionofdifcultiesinIELTSWritingTask2
Concerning students’ problems in writing IELTS task 2, the data from Table
4.2belowshowsthatthevastmajorityofstudentshadproblemsinusingcollocations
correctlyand65%ofthestudentssaidthattheirproblemwaslackofvocabularywhile
13%(represented10students)statedspellinghinderedtheirwriting.Itcanbeseenthat
thesefactorsbelongtothecategoryoflexicalresource,whichisoneoffourcriteria
usedtoassesstheirIELTSessay.Similarly,68%ofstudentsclaimedthatgrammarmade
theirwritingdifcult.AccordingtothecriteriaforIELTSWritingTask2,grammarthat
requiresstudentstousearangeofsentencestructures,differentgrammartensesaswell
asavoiderrorsingrammarincludingarticles,pluralnouns,uncountablenounsandword
orderaccountsforaquarteroftotalscoreforwritingtask2.Meanwhile,nearly50%
claimedwhattheyconfrontedinorganizingandstructuringtheirwriting.Remarkably,
45%studentsstatedthatlackofideastowritewastheirproblem.Theyrealizedthat
71%
15%
14%
Very well
Rather well