Collocations in Malaysian English learners’ writing: a corpus-based error analysis

Ang, Leng Hong and Hajar Abdul Rahim, and Tan, Kim Hua and Khazriyati Salehuddin, (2011) Collocations in Malaysian English learners’ writing: a corpus-based error analysis. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 17 (specia). pp. 31-44. ISSN 0128-5157

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Abstract

Although many researchers emphasise that the knowledge of collocations is of great help for language learners to achieve fluency and proficiency, it has been widely recognized that second language learners often have problems with collocations owing to various reasons. This study describes the methods and the results of a corpus-based investigation of the types and sources of verb-noun collocational errors in a subcorpus of a Malaysian learner corpus, EMAS (The English of Malaysian School Students). The corpus consists of 130 essays written by Form Four Malay learners from three different states in peninsula Malaysia. This study was based on the Interlanguage theory and Error Analysis framework was employed to conduct the analysis. Wordsmith Tools software was used to generate the data for this study. To determine the accuracy of collocations, the Oxford Collocations Dictionary and the online British National Corpus (BNC) were referred to. Various types and sources of collocational errors were classified and explained accordingly. The findings of this study indicate that of all seven types of collocational errors, the one occurring most frequently is the preposition-related collocational errors. With regard to the sources of collocational errors, intralingual transfer was found to be the most prominent among the three major categories of sources of collocational errors.

Item Type:Article
Keywords:collocation; errors; error analysis; interlanguage; learner corpus
Journal:3L ; Journal of Language, Linguistics and Literature
ID Code:3043
Deposited By: Mr Azam
Deposited On:28 Oct 2011 08:21
Last Modified:14 Dec 2016 06:33

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