The impact of collocation

interventions on the lexical

accuracy of student timed
writings

William Tiley and Ben Rentler

Presentation Outline

Background Vocabulary at our university and challenges

01
How we addressed the challenges and our hypothesized
02 Vocab Interventions
outcome

Writing Study Methodology and findings

03
Speaking Study Comparing results of a previous study
044
Conclusions Main Takeaways from both these studies
05
 “Fluent and appropriate language use
requires collocation knowledge” (2001, p.323)
—Paul Nation
 01
Background into
our study
Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University

 Assurances of Learning in the Center for
Language Education

Accuracy Error Examples:

○ Many students are addicting with video games.

○ Many students have addiction on video games.
○ Many students are addicted video games.
 02
Vocabulary
Interventions
Two week Intervention Plan

Week 1 Week 2
 What does the literature say?
Collocations and vocabulary
● Learning vocabulary through collocations has proved to be effective in enhancing students'
accurate usage of target vocabulary (Koya, 2003; Ozaki, 2011; Pakadaman & Gilakjani,
2019)
Japanese context
● Ozaki (2011) confirmed that explicit instruction can mitigate the challenges faced in
accurate vocabulary production.
● Kurosaki (2010) determined that direct instruction of collocations improves accuracy

Impact on writing
● Collocation-focused instruction improved students use of vocabulary in essay writing
(Nesselhauf, 2013)
● Developing collocation competence through awareness building activities positively impacts
the fluency of student writing (Mounya, 2013).
Research
Question
Do collocation-focused interventions
increase student accurate use of target
collocations in writing?
 03

Writing Study
Methodology and Findings
Creating the Corpus
Timed Writing Test
- 250-350 words, 5 paragraphs
- Simple academic structure
- Structure, Textbook Vocabulary, Target Grammar
- 7% of students final grade

Combined 71 student essays to make a 20,746 word

corpus.

Vocabulary
Unit 1 - Interventions Test
Data
Unit 3 - Standard Instruction
Control
Analysing the Corpus
AntConc
Free corpus analysis program

Classifying Vocabulary Uses

After Kurosaki (2010)
- Acceptable
- Acceptable Target
… they are more likely to be tired
- Acceptable Non Target
… able to prevent serious health problems
- Infelicitous
Sleep deprivation do harm to our body
- Wrong
Sleep deprivation is negative effect for APU
students
 Findings
Target Collocation
Accurate Usage Attempted Usage
Attempts

Acceptable Target + Acceptable Target +

All classifications
Infelicitous Acceptable Non Target

Unit 1 - Intervention 1.11 1.85 2.93

Unit 3 - Control 1.01 1.35 2.65

Difference +0.10 +0.5 +0.28

All figures indicate number of uses per student

 04
Comparisons with
Speaking
Speaking and Writing Compared
 Findings
Target Collocation
Accurate Usage Attempted Usage
Attempts

Acceptable Target + Acceptable Target +

All classifications
Infelicitous Acceptable Non Target

Writing Intervention 1.11 1.85 2.93

Writing Control 1.01 1.35 2.65

Writing Difference +0.10 +0.5 +0.28

Speaking Intervention 1.68 3.07 4.72

Speaking Control 1.10 1.35 3.78

Speaking Difference +0.59 +1.72 +0.94

All figures indicate number of uses per student

 05
Conclusions
Limitations
What does this all mean?
Research
Question
Do collocation-focused interventions
increase student accurate use of target
collocations in writing?

In line with previous research

In line with our speaking study
 Limitations
Differences in Speaking and Writing Study
Speaking - Control students, Test students
Writing - Same students

Time
Unit 1 Interventions 1 month before Timed Writing Test
Unit 3 vocabulary taught 1 week before the test

Test Topic
Public Health writing prompt - same topic as Unit 3
Removed ‘deprivation’ from analysis

Variables
Prior vocabulary knowledge
Stress and cognitive load
Interrater Reliability in Analysis
 References
Koya, T. (2003). A study of collocation in English and Japanese noun-verb combinations. Intercultural communication
studies, 12(1), 125-141

Kurosaki, S. (2010). An analysis of Japanese L2 learnersʼ knowledge of “verb+ noun” collocations. 実践女子大学 FLC
ジャーナル , (5), 63-77.

Nesselhauf, N. (2003). The use of collocations by advanced learners of English and some implications for teaching.
Applied linguistics, 24(2), 223-242.https://doi.org/10.1093/ applin/24.2.223

Ozaki, Shigeru (2011). Teaching collocations effectively with the aid of L1. The Language Teacher 35.3: 37–40.

Pakdaman, S., & Pourhosein Gilakjani, A. (2019). The Impact of Collocation Activities on Iranian Intermediate EFL
Learnersʼ Knowledge of Vocabulary. International Journal of Research in English Education, 4(4), 70-82.DOI:
10.29252/ijree.4.4.70

Tiley, W., & Rentler, B. (2022). Activating Accurate Vocabulary Use in Spoken English: Collocation-Focused Classroom
Action Research at a Japanese University. APU Journal of Language Research, 7, 38.
Thanks!
Do you have any questions?

wtiley@apu.ac.jp
rentler@apu.ac.jp

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