Frequency and English Receptive Collocational Knowledge

doi:10.12002/j.bisu.547

Abstract

Abstract:

This paper presents an investigation of Chinese freshmen’s English receptive collocational knowledge and its relationship with vocabulary breadth knowledge and lexical frequency using the British National Corpus-based vocabulary size test and a collocational knowledge test. The results revealed that the participants had poor performances in English collocational knowledge, which lagged behind the development of vocabulary size, there was a relatively high correlation between receptive collocational knowledge and vocabulary size (r=0.51) although the correlation was not significant for the low vocabulary group, and there was a low correlation between receptive knowledge and lexical frequency (word frequency and collocational frequency) (r=0.21); for high vocabulary size group, the correlation was slightly higher than it was for the low vocabulary size group. The results revealed the neglect of collocation when teaching English vocabulary at primary and high schools, which suggests that a fundamental change is needed in English teaching pedagogies in the initial stages by moving from “grammar+words” model towards “focusing on collocation” teaching, and that sufficient language input should be provided to enhance the frequency effect of collocation.

Keywords: Chinese freshmen; vocabulary breadth knowledge; lexical frequency; receptive collocational knowledge; “words+grammar” model

摘要：

本文以英国国家语料库（BNC）数据为参照，利用词汇量测试和搭配知识测试的方法，研究我国大学新生的英语接受性搭配知识及其与词汇广度和词频的相关性。研究发现：①大学新生的接受性搭配知识较差，发展落后于词汇量知识；②接受性搭配知识与词汇量总体存在较强的相关性（r=0.51），但低词汇量学习者的接受性搭配知识与词汇量的相关性不显著；③接受性搭配知识与单词频次和搭配频次均存在低相关性（r=0.21），高词汇量学习者的搭配知识与词频的相关系数略高于低词汇量学习者。研究表明，我国中小学英语词汇教学对搭配知识的重视程度不够，建议中小学英语教学改变现有“单词+语法”的教学模式，重视词汇搭配教学，并确保学习者得到足够的语言输入，以增强搭配的频次效应。

关键词: 中国大学新生, 词汇广度知识, 词频, 接受性搭配知识, “单词+语法”模式

CLC Number:

H03/H313

Lou Jie, Yu Xiaoqiang. Frequency and English Receptive Collocational Knowledge[J]. Journal of Beijing International Studies University, 2024, 46(5): 131-143.

楼捷, 俞晓强. 二语词汇广度、词频与接受性搭配知识的相关研究[J]. 北京第二外国语学院学报, 2024, 46(5): 131-143.

Figures/Tables 4

References 29

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节点词分布	平均词长	平均搭配频次	平均搭配强度
1K	3.65	47	7.8
2K	3.57	45	7.3
3K	3.85	43	7.5

节点词分布	平均词长	平均搭配频次	平均搭配强度
1K	3.65	47	7.8
2K	3.57	45	7.3
3K	3.85	43	7.5

	词汇量平均成绩				搭配知识平均成绩
	1K	2K	3K	4K	1K	2K	3K
Mean	8.48	7.67	5.69	4.79	36.07	29.57	22.03
SD	1.09	1.08	1.48	1.53	4.79	5.49	5.34
p值	0				0

	词汇量平均成绩				搭配知识平均成绩
	1K	2K	3K	4K	1K	2K	3K
Mean	8.48	7.67	5.69	4.79	36.07	29.57	22.03
SD	1.09	1.08	1.48	1.53	4.79	5.49	5.34
p值	0				0

词汇量分组	词汇量平均总分	搭配知识平均总分	r	p值
低组	24.25（SD=2.12）	81.12（SD=10.32）	0.19	0.47
高组	29.03（SD=1.67）	94.22（SD=11.72）	0.42	0.01
总体	26.64（SD=3.06）	87.67（SD=12.81）	0.51	0.00