A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah

Learner writing is often characterized by linguistic errors, especially in lexical verbs, which can contribute to communicative incompetence. It is also generally known that verb-noun collocations are a characteristic of native writing. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the linguis...

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Main Author:	Abdullah, Shazila
Format:	Thesis
Language:	English
Published:	2015
Online Access:	http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/17616/ http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/17616/2/TP_SHAZILA%20ABDULLAH%20APB%2015_5.pdf

id	uitm-17616
recordtype	eprints
spelling	uitm-176162018-09-26T08:18:34Z http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/17616/ A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah Abdullah, Shazila Learner writing is often characterized by linguistic errors, especially in lexical verbs, which can contribute to communicative incompetence. It is also generally known that verb-noun collocations are a characteristic of native writing. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the linguistic errors made by non-native learners and to suggest ways how they can improve their level of proficiency. Previous studies have looked into the occurrences of either lexical verbs or verb-noun collocations with little emphasis on the phraseology of verb-noun collocations formed from commonly used lexical verbs. Based on these premises, the thesis explores the use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in two learner corpora, one of which is a native learner corpus and the other a specific group of non-native learners, i.e. Malay ESL learners. The data-driven analysis specifically adopted for this study allows for a focus on the most commonly used lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations. Furthermore, an in-depth contrastive interlingual analysis between the corpora of native and non-native learners enables the researcher to uncover the difficulties that learners face in using these lexical items. The meticulous processes involved in compiling the non-native learner corpus and the extraction of verb-noun collocations add to the uniqueness of the thesis. The thesis addresses three main questions through a linguistic analysis using both quantitative and qualitative methods with the assistance of WordSmith Tools. First, it seeks to examine linguistic elements of the lexical verbs; second, to ascertain the phraseological patterns of verb-noun collocations; and third, to identify the nonnative elements found in the use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations. The results reveal some similarities and differences that help in understanding how lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations are actually used by both native and non-native learners in writing. What is most obvious is the Malay ESL learners' lack of vocabulary repertoire, which indicates a lack of vocabulary acquisition. The analysis of verb-noun collocations reveals an array of phraseological deviations that stem from a lack of knowledge in syntagmatic relationships between the two lexical elements in the collocations. It is, thus, essential for learners to learn how to use a variety of lexical verbs, including the lexical patterns and grammatical patterns of verb-noun collocations in order to use them appropriately, especially when these patterns differ from their LI. A framework on learning and teaching of the lexical verbs and verbnoun collocations has been proposed based on the findings. This framework can contribute to the improvement of an English syllabus, material design and teaching methodology. It is hoped that the most important contribution of this thesis is to increase awareness of the importance of phraseology in ELT so that various measures can be taken to enhance learners' communicative competence, which should be the aim of every English course. 2015 Thesis NonPeerReviewed text en http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/17616/2/TP_SHAZILA%20ABDULLAH%20APB%2015_5.pdf Abdullah, Shazila (2015) A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah. PhD thesis, Universiti Teknologi MARA.
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	Universiti Teknologi MARA
building	UiTM Institutional Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
description	Learner writing is often characterized by linguistic errors, especially in lexical verbs, which can contribute to communicative incompetence. It is also generally known that verb-noun collocations are a characteristic of native writing. The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the linguistic errors made by non-native learners and to suggest ways how they can improve their level of proficiency. Previous studies have looked into the occurrences of either lexical verbs or verb-noun collocations with little emphasis on the phraseology of verb-noun collocations formed from commonly used lexical verbs. Based on these premises, the thesis explores the use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in two learner corpora, one of which is a native learner corpus and the other a specific group of non-native learners, i.e. Malay ESL learners. The data-driven analysis specifically adopted for this study allows for a focus on the most commonly used lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations. Furthermore, an in-depth contrastive interlingual analysis between the corpora of native and non-native learners enables the researcher to uncover the difficulties that learners face in using these lexical items. The meticulous processes involved in compiling the non-native learner corpus and the extraction of verb-noun collocations add to the uniqueness of the thesis. The thesis addresses three main questions through a linguistic analysis using both quantitative and qualitative methods with the assistance of WordSmith Tools. First, it seeks to examine linguistic elements of the lexical verbs; second, to ascertain the phraseological patterns of verb-noun collocations; and third, to identify the nonnative elements found in the use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations. The results reveal some similarities and differences that help in understanding how lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations are actually used by both native and non-native learners in writing. What is most obvious is the Malay ESL learners' lack of vocabulary repertoire, which indicates a lack of vocabulary acquisition. The analysis of verb-noun collocations reveals an array of phraseological deviations that stem from a lack of knowledge in syntagmatic relationships between the two lexical elements in the collocations. It is, thus, essential for learners to learn how to use a variety of lexical verbs, including the lexical patterns and grammatical patterns of verb-noun collocations in order to use them appropriately, especially when these patterns differ from their LI. A framework on learning and teaching of the lexical verbs and verbnoun collocations has been proposed based on the findings. This framework can contribute to the improvement of an English syllabus, material design and teaching methodology. It is hoped that the most important contribution of this thesis is to increase awareness of the importance of phraseology in ELT so that various measures can be taken to enhance learners' communicative competence, which should be the aim of every English course.
format	Thesis
author	Abdullah, Shazila
spellingShingle	Abdullah, Shazila A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah
author_facet	Abdullah, Shazila
author_sort	Abdullah, Shazila
title	A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah
title_short	A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah
title_full	A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah
title_fullStr	A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah
title_full_unstemmed	A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah
title_sort	data-driven contrastive study on malay esl learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / shazila abdullah
publishDate	2015
url	http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/17616/ http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/17616/2/TP_SHAZILA%20ABDULLAH%20APB%2015_5.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T22:58:41Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T22:58:41Z
_version_	1777418026406117376

A data-driven contrastive study on Malay ESL learners' use of lexical verbs and verb-noun collocations in argumentative writing / Shazila Abdullah

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