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ERIC Number: ED502758
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2007-Nov-10
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
The Repetition of Collocations in EFL Textbooks: A Corpus Study
Wang, Jui-hsin Teresa; Good, Robert L.
Online Submission, Paper presented at the International Symposium and Book Fair on English Teaching in the Republic of China (16th, Taipei, Republic of China, Nov 10, 2007)
The importance of repetition in the acquisition of lexical items has been widely acknowledged in single-word vocabulary research but has been relatively neglected in collocation studies. Since collocations are considered one key to achieving language fluency, and because learners spend a great amount of time interacting with their textbooks, the present study investigates verb-noun collocations found in the three most popular series of English textbooks for senior high schools in southern Taiwan. Our focus is verb-noun lexical collocations because these have been shown to be difficult for EFL learners. Repetitions of these collocations were identified by searching the textbook corpus using a proprietary computer-based program. The results show that these collocations were repeated from 3 to 5 times on average. Moreover, most collocations (80%) occurred only one to five times throughout the whole series of textbooks. Because of the low number of repetitions, it is concluded that textbook writers may need to re-evaluate the importance of repetition for collocations if their acquisition is a goal. Furthermore, it is suggested that EFL teachers provide explicit instruction to make up for the limited number of exposures to collocations in textbooks. (Contains 6 tables.) [This paper was published in: Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Symposium and Book Fair on English Teaching in the Republic of China, Taipei, November 10, 2007 (pp. 223-232).]
Publication Type: Reports - Research; Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Taiwan
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A