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Hieu Nguyen Xuan

Huong Hoang Lan

Thi My Hang Nguyen

University of Foreign Language Studies - the University of Danang, Vietnam

 

Abstract

This study investigates the understanding, challenges, and use of collocations among Vietnamese third-year English Language Teaching (ELT) majors in their English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing, using a mixed methods approach. Analysing 72 letters and essays, along with group interviews with 8 students, the study revealed that while students recognised the importance of collocations in English writing, their understanding of the concept was partial. Challenges in learning collocations included difficulties with word choice and memorisation, while problems with using collocations were linked to insufficient comprehension, memory issues, and negative direct translation from their mother tongue. Although a discrepancy was found between students' perceived frequency of collocation use and their actual usage in writing samples, the most frequent subtype, Adjective + Noun, aligned with students’ reported preferences. However, no significant correlation was found between the frequency of lexical collocation usage and writing scores. The study concludes with implications for improving the collocation learning process.

 

Keywords

Lexical collocation, EFL writing, collocation usage, writing proficiency