Western Washington University Western CEDAR The dnE a L. Sterling Collection Western Libraries and the Learning Commons 11-21-2005 The Lexical Approach: Collocation in High School English Language Learners Claire Smith [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://cedar.wwu.edu/sterling_collection Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons Recommended Citation Smith, Claire, "The Lexical Approach: Collocation in High School English Language Learners" (2005). The Edna L. Sterling Collection. 1. https://cedar.wwu.edu/sterling_collection/1 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Western Libraries and the Learning Commons at Western CEDAR. It has been accepted for inclusion in The dnE a L. Sterling Collection by an authorized administrator of Western CEDAR. For more information, please contact [email protected]. WlA/U LIBRARIES GIFT OF THE RACHEL ROYSTON PERMANENT SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION OF THE DELTA KAPPA GAMMA SCXTETY This is an authorized facsimile, made from the microfilm master copy of the original dissertation or master thesis published by ProQuest Information and Learning Company' UMI® Dissertation Services. The bibliographic information for this thesis is contained in the UMI Dissertation Abstracts database, the only central source for accessing almost every doctoral dissertation accepted in North America since 1861. Dissertation UMI Services 777 Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1346 USA 800.521.0600 734.761.4700 web www.itproquest.com Produest COMPANY Printed in 2006 by digital xerographic process on acid-free paper THE LEXICAL APPROACH: COLLOCATION IN HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS by CLAIRE SMITH Presented to Educational Foundations and Leadership Department and the Graduate School of George Fox University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education 11/21/2005 UMI Number: 3195526 Copyright 2006 by Smith, Claire All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI UMI Microform 3195526 Copyright 2006 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 George Fox University School of Education Newberg, Oregon ‘The Lexical Approach: Collocation in high school English language learners!’ a doctoral dissertation prepared by Claire Smith in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Education degree in the Educational Foundations and Leadership department. This dissertation has been approved and accepted by: U Abstract Collocation involves knowing which words typically co-occur in fluent,native-like language. Studies across several settings have shown that collocation skills lag behind other aspects of second language learning. The present study looks at collocation skills in a linguistically diverse immigrant high school population in the USA, correlating scores on a collocation test (based on Bonk, 2000) with length of residence in the USA. The correlation was moderate for the group as a whole, but close to zero for the 19 - 36 month residence bracket. The second half of the study compares the collocation skills and the approachesto collocation of Russian- and Spanish-speaking students. Although they did not differ in overall level of performance, there was evidence of different approachesby the two language groupsto collocation. Ill TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ...............................................................................................................................................1 Inttoduction..............................................................................................................................................1 Statementof the problem:............................................................................................................2 Part 1: the large group study.........................................................................................................3 Research question.................................................................................................................... 3 Hypothesis.................................................................................................................................3 Part 2: the small group quantitative study..................................................................................3 Research question....................................................................................................................3 Hypothesis 2a...........................................................................................................................4 Hypothesis 2b..........................................................................................................................4 Hypothesis 2c,..........................................................................................................................4 Hypothesis 2d..........................................................................................................................5 Part 3: the small group qualitative study.....................................................................................5 Research question....................................................................................................................5 Hypothesis 3a.......................................................................................................................... 5 Hypothesis 3b..........................................................................................................................5 Hypothesis 3c...........................................................................................................................5 Hypothesis 3d..........................................................................................................................6 Definition of terms.........................................................................................................................6 Limitations and delimitations.......................................................................................................7 CHAPTER 2............................................................................................................................................9 Review of the literature..........................................................................................................................9 Early Approaches to Foreign Language Pedagogy................................................................. 9 Grammar-and-Translation.....................................................................................................9 Naturalistic..............................................................................................................................10 Communicative......................................................................................................................11 Recent developments in linguistics.......................................................................................... 12 The Lexical Approach of Michael Lewis................................................................................ 14 Key aspects of the approach...............................................................................................14 Classroom applications........................................................................................................ 17 Evaluations of Lewis............................................................................................................ 19 Collocation.................................................................................................................................... 21 Definitions and categorization........................................................................................... 21 Pedagogical aspects...............................................................................................................25 Measuring collocation.......................................................................................................... 28 L2 collocation performance................................................................................................29 Development of L2 Collocation........................................................................................33 Approaches to collocation.................................................................................................. 34 Conclusions from the literature review...................................................................................36 IV CHAPTER 3 38 Methods.................................................................................................................................................. 38 Research questions.......................................................................................................................38