Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2016 Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese Xiaolin Peng University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Education Commons, Linguistics Commons, and the Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures Commons Recommended Citation Peng, Xiaolin, "Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese" (2016). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1940. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1940 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1940 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Use of Verb-Noun Collocations by Advanced Learners of Chinese Abstract The important role of collocations has been widely accepted in the current literature, but to date there are still relatively few studies on language learners’ collocation knowledge and development within different local contexts. The current study intends to contribute to the literature by investigating the oral production of Chinese verb-noun (V-N) collocations by a group of highly proficient learners comprised of both Chinese as a foreign language learners (CFL learners) and Chinese heritage language learners (CHL learners), as compared to Chinese native speakers (CNSs). The study brings together current literature on collocation and heritage language learners both from a Western perspective and from the Chinese linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective. Samples of spoken language data discussing both academic and non-academic topics were collected through one-on-one interviews with 10 CFL learners, 10 CHL learners and 10 CNSs. The data are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to yield the following three findings: (1) There is a significant difference in using Chinese verb-noun (V-N) collocations among CFL learners, CHL learners, and CNSs. In general, CNSs produced significantly more V-N collocations in terms of both number (token) and range (type) than CFL learners and CHL learners, (2) The two different oral topics are also found to affect learners’ production of collocations. All three groups used more monosyllabic V-N collocations in discussing daily topics and more disyllabic V-N collocations in discussing academic topics. Moreover, CFL learners and CFL learners exhibited both similarities and differences in applying collocations under the two oral contexts, (3) There are different categories and characteristics of collocation usage in terms of the acceptability and communicativeness of non-conventional collocations produced by learners. The discussion further analyzes several factors that tend to influence CFL learners’ and CHL learners’ production of collocations. The findings of this study expand our understanding about advanced learners’ knowledge and production of Chinese V-N collocations. Moreover, they also provide invaluable information for educators and practitioners who are involved in FL and HL instruction of Chinese. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Education First Advisor Yuko G. Butler Keywords Chinese linguistics, collocation, heritage learner Subject Categories Education | Linguistics | Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1940 USE OF VERB-NOUN COLLOCATIONS BY ADVANCED LEARNERS OF CHINESE Xiaolin Peng A DISSERTATION in Education Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Supervisor of Dissertation _________________ Yuko G. Butler, Associate Professor of Education Graduate Group Chairperson _________________ J. Matthew Hartley, Professor of Education Dissertation Committee Yuko G. Butler, Associate Professor of Education Nancy H. Hornberger, Professor of Education Christina Frei, Adjunct Associate Professor of Education DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, Shikui Peng and Runfang Li, and to my husband Xiaofang Yang. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENT First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my advisor and committee chair, Dr. Yuko Butler, for her constructive comments, practical assistance, and endless patience throughout the past two years My heartfelt thanks also go to Dr. Hornberger and Dr. Christina Frei for serving as my committee members and for providing their guidance and comments on my thesis proposal, literature review and research design. I am very grateful to my supervisor and mentor, Dr. Theresa Jen at the Lauder Institute, for her continuous encouragement and support. I also would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to all my students, my research participants, the two native speaker raters, as well as my colleagues and friends in both Graduate School of Education and Lauder Institute, who have inspired me and encouraged me along the way. I especially want to express my gratitude to members of my family: my parents, my husband, my two boys, for their faith and unfaltering support to my academic pursuit. iii ABSTRACT USE OF VERB-NOUN COLLOCATIONS BY ADVANCED LEARNERS OF CHINESE Xiaolin Peng Yuko G. Butler The important role of collocations has been widely accepted in the current literature, but to date there are still relatively few studies on language learners’ collocation knowledge and development within different local contexts. The current study intends to contribute to the literature by investigating the oral production of Chinese verb-noun (V-N) collocations by a group of highly proficient learners comprised of both Chinese as a foreign language learners (CFL learners) and Chinese heritage language learners (CHL learners), as compared to Chinese native speakers (CNSs). The study brings together current literature on collocation and heritage language learners both from a Western perspective and from the Chinese linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective. Samples of spoken language data discussing both academic and non-academic topics were collected through one-on-one interviews with 10 CFL learners, 10 CHL learners and 10 CNSs. The data are analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively to yield the following three findings: (1) There is a significant difference in using Chinese verb- noun (V-N) collocations among CFL learners, CHL learners, and CNSs. In general, CNSs produced significantly more V-N collocations in terms of both number (token) and iv range (type) than CFL learners and CHL learners, (2) The two different oral topics are also found to affect learners’ production of collocations. All three groups used more monosyllabic V-N collocations in discussing daily topics and more disyllabic V-N collocations in discussing academic topics. Moreover, CFL learners and CFL learners exhibited both similarities and differences in applying collocations under the two oral contexts, (3) There are different categories and characteristics of collocation usage in terms of the acceptability and communicativeness of non-conventional collocations produced by learners. The discussion further analyzes several factors that tend to influence CFL learners’ and CHL learners’ production of collocations. The findings of this study expand our understanding about advanced learners’ knowledge and production of Chinese V-N collocations. Moreover, they also provide invaluable information for educators and practitioners who are involved in FL and HL instruction of Chinese. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENT ........................................................................................................ III ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................................. IV LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................... X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ............................................................................................... XII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 1.1. Background of the study ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Significance of collocations in language acquisition ........................................................... 2 1.3. Learning collocations in Mandarin Chinese ....................................................................... 4 1.4. Organization of the current study ....................................................................................... 6 CHAPTER 2: COLLOCATIONS IN LANGUAGE LEARNING ................................. 8 2.1. Overview of collocation in language acquisition ................................................................. 8 2.1.1. Approaches in defining and identifying collocations ....................................................... 9 2.1.2. Theoretical models on the acquisition and processing of collocations ............................ 14 2.1.3. Main findings on L2 learners’ collocational competence ............................................... 17 2.1.4. Research methodologies in studying L2 collocational competence ................................ 21 2.1.5. Summary of research challenges ................................................................................... 24 2.2. Chinese V-N collocations