ERIC Number: EJ845735
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Jul
Pages: 13
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0889-4906
EISSN: N/A
Investigating the Viability of a Collocation List for Students of English for Academic Purposes
Durrant, Philip
English for Specific Purposes, v28 n3 p157-169 Jul 2009
A number of researchers are currently attempting to create listings of important collocations for students of EAP. However, so far these attempts have (1) failed to include positionally-variable collocations, and (2) not taken sufficient account of variation across disciplines. The present paper describes the creation of one listing of positionally-variable academic collocations and evaluates the extent to which it is likely to be useful to students from across a wide range of disciplines. A number of key findings emerge. First, cross-disciplinary collocations differ in type from the collocations on which most researchers have traditionally focused in that they tend not to be combinations of two lexical words, but rather pairings of one lexical and one grammatical word. Second, most of the words which are found in academic collocations are not found on Coxhead's influential Academic Word List. This, it is argued, reflects a serious methodological weakness in Coxhead's listing. Third, the vocabulary needs of students in the arts and humanities are characteristically different from those of students in other disciplines. Researchers and teachers therefore need to deal with these learners separately. The paper finishes by making a number of recommendations for future developments in this area. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)
Descriptors: Intellectual Disciplines, Problems, Higher Education, English for Academic Purposes, Vocabulary, Computational Linguistics, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Academic Discourse
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A