A Study on the Effectiveness of Task types (noticing-reformulation) on Iranian Low Intermediate EFL Learners’ Retention of Collocations |
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Ministry of Sciences, Researches and Technology
Rudaki Higher Education Institute of Tonekabon
( Non governmental – Non profit )
Department of English Language
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of M.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Title:
A Study on the Effectiveness of Task types (noticing-reformulation) on Iranian Low Intermediate EFL Learners’ Retention of Collocations
Supervisor:
Dr. Morteza Khodabandelou
Advisor:
Dr. Shahrokh Jahandar
January 2015
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Abstract
The present study aimed at the effectiveness of task types (noticing-reformulation) on Iranian upper- Intermediate EFL Learners’ retention of collocations. The study follows a two-group pretest, treatment, post-test design which was documented 40 upper-intermediate Iranian EFL learners with the same proficiency level measured by an OPT test and two non- native English teachers. The participants were randomly assigned to an experimental and control group that were exposed to Noticing-Reformulation tasks and traditional methods respectively to determine whether there was any development in the long-term retention of collocations.
Analysis of the data obtained from independent-samples t-tests along with the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient indicated that there were significant quantitative and statistical differences in the output of participants from the two different groups, with learners who participated in the experimental group outperforming and incorporating significantly more retention of collocations in the immediate and delayed post-test than learners from the control group.
Key Words: Noticing, Reformulation, Collocation, Retention, Output, OPT.
Table of Content
Title Page
CHAPTER 1: Introduction
1.0. Introduction ……………………………………………………..………………..1
1.1. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………….……….…3
1.2. Statement of the Problem ……………………………………………….…….….5
1.3. Significance and Purpose of the Study………………………………………..….6
1.4. Research Questions of the Study …………………………………………..……7
1.5. Hypotheses of the Study…………………………………………….……………7
1.6. Definitions of Key Terms………………………………………………….….….8
1.6.1.Collocation………………………………………………………………………8
1.6.2. Noticing………………………………………………………….…….…….…8
1.6.3. Reformulation …………………………………………………..………….…..8
1.6.4. Task ……………………………………………………………………..…..….9
1.6.5. Intake ………………………………………………………………..…….……9
1.6.6. Noticing the Gap………………………………………………………….…….9
1.6.7. Retention …………………………………………………………..…………..10
1.7. Summary………………………………………………………….………..….…1
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIW
2.0. Introduction……………………………………………………………….…..….11
2.1. Feedback Research in SLA……………………………………………………….11
2.1.1. The role of feedback in SLA……………………………………………………11
2.2. Psycholinguistic Processes in Second Language Acquisition …………………..21
2.2.1. Noticing and learning……………………………………………………..……21
2.2.2. The Noticing Hypothesis and SLA……………………………………………..27
2.2.3. Noticing, Intake and Subliminal Perception……………………………..…….35
2.2.4. Individual Differences in Noticing and Awareness ……………………….…..36
2.2.5. A Critical Review of Noticing Hypothesis in SLA………………………..…..37
2.3. The Theories of Vocabulary Acquisition……………………….………………..42
2.3.1. Collocation……………………………………………………………….…….42
2.3.2. Research on collocations………………………………………………..……..44
2.4. Noticing, Awareness and Attention in Learning Collocations………………….47
2.5. Problems in Collocation Production………………………………….……..…..49
2.6. Vocabulary Retention……………………………………………………………50
2.7. Summary……………………………………………………………………..….51
CHAPTER3: METHODOLOGY
3.0. Introduction……………………………………………………………….….….52
3.1. The Design of the Study………………………………………………………….52
3.2. Participants……………………………………………………………..……..…53
3.3. Materials ……………………………………………………………………..…..53
3.3.1. Concordance Software for Text Analysis………………………………..……54
3.3.2. Testing Instruments…………………………………………………………….54
3.3.2.1. The Self-report and Collocation Pre-test…………………………….………54
3.3.2.2. Immediate Collocation Retention Post-test……………………….…….…..54
3.3.2.3. Delayed Collocation Retention Post-test ………………………………..….55
3.3.3. Questionnaires …………………………………………………………….…..55
3.4. Procedure…………………………………………………………………….…..57
3.4.1. Week 1: Self-report Collocation Pretest/ Comparison Session………………..58
3.4.2. Week 3: Immediate Collocation Retention Post-test……………………….….59
3.4.4. Delayed Collocation Retention Post-test………………………………………59
3.5. Methods of Analyzing Data……………………………………………………..60
3.6. Scoring……………………………………….………………………………..…61
3.7. Summary…………………………………………………………………..……..61
CHAPTER4: RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS
4.0. Introduction………………………………………………………………………62
4.1. Data Analysis and Findings ………………………………………………….…62
4.1.1. The descriptive Analysis of the Data……………………………………..……62
4.1.2. Inferential Analysis of the Data……………………………………………..…66
4.2. Results of the Hypothesis Testing…………………………………………..……68
4.3. Summary……………………………………………………………………….…68
CHAPTER5: DISCUSSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
5.0. Introduction………………………………………………………………..…..…69
5.1. General Discussion…………………………………………………………..……69
5.1.1. Discussion of the Findings Gained by the Questionnaire………………..……70
5.2. Implications of the Study…………………………………………………………71
5.2.1. Theoretical Implications……………………………….……………….………71
5.2.2. Pedagogical Implications………………………..…………………………..…71
5.3. Limitations of the Study………………………………………….…………….…72 5.4. Suggestions for Further Research………………………………………..………73
5.5. Summary …………………………………………………………………….……73
REFRENCES…………………………………………………….……..……………74
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A: Oxford Placement Test (OPT)…………………………………………90
Appendix B: Self-report Collocation Pretest …………………….……………….….96
Appendix C: Pretest Administered for Participants of Both Groups (Exactly the same test was given for immediate and delayed post-tests)………………………………..96
Appendix D: Post-test Administered for Participants of Both Groups ………..…..…97
Appendix E: Questionnaire………………………………………………..……….…98
List of Tables
Title Page
Table 2.1. Comparison of reformulation and direct correction …………………….. 15
Table 3.1. Data collection procedure of the study ……………………………………58
Table 4.1. Group Statistics for the Delayed Post-test…………………………………63
Table 4.2. Group Statistics for the Immediate Post-test………………………………63
Table 4.3. Correlations Between the Pretest and Delayed Post-test of Experimental Group…64
Table 4.4. Correlations Between the Pre and Delayed Post-test of Control Group….64
Table 4.5. Correlations Between Pre and Immediate Post-test of Experimental Group and Control Group…………………………………………………………………….65
Table 4.6. Correlations Between Pre and Immediate Post-test of Control Group .…65
Table 4.7.Independent-samples t-test for Immediate Post-test…………………….…66
Table 4.8. Independent-samples t-test for Delayed Post-test…………………………67
Chapter one
Introduction
1.0. Introduction
Achieving the goals of L2 collocation instruction is no easy matter. Even a well-planned collocation lesson based on contemporary pedagogical principles cannot guarantee that learners will acquire the natural co-occurrence of words that is taught.
For anyone teaching or learning a foreign language, collocation is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating challenges that they will encounter, but nevertheless can be frustrating at times. Equally, for those who are into researching foreign language collocation knowledge, learning and retention. Within the last few years learning collocations has become of paramount significance and the focus of an overwhelming majority of research studies. The pivotal aim of the researches carried out in the field has been investigating the factors and variables, which contribute to successful collocation learning, and ways of storing the most possible collocations in long-term memory.
During the last decades the area of foreign language learning has been marked by a true explosion of research into collocation learning strategies that emanated from the first attempt at pinpointing reasons why some learners achieve better results in collocation learning and retention than their peers. Accordingly, wide-ranging volumes of research in collocation learning have been published in the last 20 years or so, but not all of them have reported sufficient collocation knowledge among EFL learners and have rarely embraced dedicated studies investigating into the impact of using Noticing-Reformulation technique on collocation knowledge and retention.
The role of memory is also crucial in any kind of learning and collocation learning and retention are no exception. According to the above-described continuum, learning of collocations is not linear. Learners, without fail, forget some components of knowledge. Hence, there should be tasks which can encourage long-term retention of collocations.
On the basis of available research results, it is probably safe to say that not everyone would deny the significance of noticing in converting input into intake. Regarding the aforementioned issue, learning and retention of collocations have always sustained defeat. When obtaining new information, most of it is forgotten immediately, after which the process of forgetting slows down.
All in all, traditional teaching of collocations seems to be a slow and inefficient process which does not necessarily imply long-term retention. Explicit vocabulary teaching via Noticing-Reformulation technique may be an alternative to traditional instruction. Because it might be able to ensure that lexical development in the target language follows a systematic and logical path. However, the contribution and effect of Noticing-Reformulation technique on collocation learning is still under dispute.
One of the chief assumptions of my study is that a teacher’s knowledge of how to teach collocations is also a very influential factor in foreign language vocabulary learning and retention. It is also a criterion which should not be eliminated from the process of learning. It has become apparent, on the basis of the above-mentioned argumentations, to all subjects involved in the processes of language learning, that collocation learning cannot rely on implicit incidental learning or traditional teaching. Here I shall mention that my proposal does not contradict the findings of learners’ autonomy in language learning. I only see when our students fail to learn, the balance of failure is shifted one way and only rests on our students’ shoulders. The advocates of this view- not disputing the significance of acquiring grammatical- syntactical structures- have begun to insist on more explicit collocation teaching.
The underlying issue is that some scholars argue the heart of language comprehension and use is the lexicon. Nearly the same idea was shared by Lewis (2000) who expresses that “the single most important task facing language learners is acquiring a sufficient large vocabulary”.
Many higher education faculty members and EFL teachers find themselves with the opportunity or requirement to teach English collocations, but how can they design and develop an effective way to develop the skill for teaching them? It is difficult to find an answer to this question, due to a lack of a clear theoretical framework to guide instructional interventions. Accordingly, teaching collocations has always been disregarded in EFL classes. English Collocations in Use (McCarthy &O’Dell) for self-study and classroom use is sometimes used for pedagogic treatment of collocations in the classroom, however, they haven’t reached a consensus on how to teach it in a more effective way. Learners, meanwhile, often use the aforementioned book for self-study, but the net results may not always be a success. I want to teach collocations in a way which can potentially help students focus their attention on language lexicon.
I therefore sat Noticing-Reformulation tasks to increase the likelihood that they would attend to lexicon in both input and their foreign language output. I hoped that this attention would lead to learning and retention of collocations with their subsequent use in learners’ language production. In order to perceive how this may come about, I decided to illustrate and consider the ideas of noticing and intake in second language ac
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