methods of learning english collocations in order to enhance english vocabulary for third year students of english faculty at thuong mai un

ABSTRACT
One of the most problematic areas for foreign language learning is collocation. It is
often seen as arbitrary and overwhelming, a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to
the attainment of native - like fluency. This graduation thesis aims to illustrate the
roles, importance, and types of English collocations and to investigate the use of
collocations in the business context, then giving the methods of learning English
collocations. In this regard, the usage of English collocations of third –year students
of English faculty at Thuongmai University is going to be examined. The writer
discusses how English Collocations can be dealt with in the school and at home.
This study will give the useful theory and information which is related to English
collocations. In addition, different solutions to students at both basic and
intermediate levels are provided at the end of this graduation thesis.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would to thank my supervisor over the course of this – Ms. Nguyen
Thi Thanh Huyen, for all her insightful comments, suggestions and keeping me
focused in writing this dissertation, and also my friend – Dinh Thi Giang for all her
advice and support during the coursework. Lastly, I‘d also like to thank my parents,
without whom none of this would have been possible.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES
No

Table/chart

Name

Page

1

Table 2.1

Grammatical collocations

13

2

Table 2.2

Types of lexical collocations

14

3

Chart 3.1

The amount of time students have been

21

learning English
4

Chart 3.2

The amount of time a student spend per day

22

on learning English
5

Chart 3.3

The weaknesses in learning English

23

6

Chart 3.4

The methods that students use to learn

24

English collocations
7

3

Chart 3.5

Point ladder of students’ ability to use

3

25


English collocations
8

Chart 3.6

Point ladder of students’ ability to remember

25

English collocations
9

Chart 3.7

Students’ opinions about difficult factors in

26

reading skills
10

Chart 3.8

Students’ opinions about difficult factors in

27

listening skills
11

Table 3.1

Students’ opinions about the importance of

27

English collocations
12

Table 3.2

Students’ opinions about the best methods
for learning English collocations

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CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
1.1.

Rationale
In the field of applied linguistics, a great deal of research efforts has been

dedicated to the way to teach and learn English skills, while the methods of learning
English collocations have not aroused the same degree of interest. In recent years,
we can see that a lot of students have paid more attention to English collocations,
especially for students learning IELTS or TOEFL. The main reason is that
nowadays English collocations become more and more important for students to
learn and remember vocabulary. It's extremely necessary to know what words pair
with each other and know how to use collocations.
In the past, some people used to try to find out the rules of forming English
collocations as well as the importance of English collocations. They did some
research on lexical collocations, grammar, types, the origin of collocation…
However, not many people have research on the methods of learning collocations .
It is a truth that understanding clearly about collocations is very important in
not only English communication but also in all English skills (especially in reading
and listening skills). Besides, third– year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai
University are chosen as respondents because they are people who should know
more about academic vocabulary and business terms which can absolutely help
them build a strong foundation to work effectively in their future career.
Therefore, this thesis topic: “methods of learning English collocations in order to
enhance English vocabulary for third - year students of English Faculty at

Thuong Mai University” is performed with the strong expectation to find out the
best methods for them to form English collocations and learn them easily, which
1.2.

would properly improve their English skills.
Aims of the study
English collocations are not new terms for English learners. However, not
everyone can understand exactly about it. When trying to learn English vocabulary,
researcher realized that remembering English collocations can help English learners
to remember new words longer and applied them into speaking fluently. Knowing
how to use and form collocations is the key to learn vocabulary and help them gain
the high band when they take the IELTS exam or TOEIC. In addition, almost third –
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year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University are recognized that they
have not gained enough knowledge about English collocations. Therefore, this
study has been conducted and followed these ideas:
-

Explore the ways that third – year students of English Faculty use to deal with
collocations and their weaknesses in learning English collocations. From that, I can

-

help them to understand the importance of collocations in the process of learning
Suggest some suitable methods for English learners and third – year students of

English Faculty about learning English collocations and enhance their vocabulary.
1.3.
Research subjects
- The research questions of the study:
• What are the methods that students use to learn English collocations?
• What are the weaknesses that students have in learning English collocations?
• How can students do to enhance English collocations and vocabulary
- Research subjects: The methods of learning English collocations in order to enhance
English vocabulary.
Reasons: In the past, too few people researched this subject, therefore there
are a lot of things to explore and discover. Moreover, English collocations are very
common and important for business students. This is not too difficult to approach.
1.4.

However, this is an interesting and potential topic.
Scope of the study
This study focuses on the methods of learning English collocations for third
– year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University. The main rationale for
this scope of study follows these ideas:
Firstly, they are students from English faculty and now they have spent three
years learning at university, most of them use English at intermediate level and
English is the foundation for them to find a job in the future. In other words,
English will be the most important thing for these students when they choose jobs.
Knowing about English collocations can help them to use English fluently and
easily. Especially, in business, there are a lot of economic terms they have to
understand and translate exactly, English collocations are the basic background for
them to translate closely with original documents.

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Secondly, after consulting and discovering, researcher sees that these
students have enough characteristics of English learners and they are suitable to this
topic as well. Their main characteristics are:
1.5.

They have to learn a lot of subjects related to English at university.
In the third year of university, students have to understand more about specialized
English and academic terms.
English is very important for them in their career.
Research methodology
This study is conducted by quantitative research methods
(emphasize objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical,

or

numerical analysis of data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or
by manipulating pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques.
Quantitative research focuses on gathering numerical data and generalizing it across
groups of people or to explain the phenomenon.)
Researcher chooses this type of methods because of its characteristics.
Firstly, the data is usually gathered using structured research instruments. Moreover,
the results are based on larger sample sizes that are representative of the population.
The research study can usually be replicated or repeated, given its high reliability.
The next reason is that. Researcher has a clearly defined research question to which
objective answers are sought. In addition, project can be used to generalize concepts
more widely, predict future results, or investigate causal relationships.
In detail, the main method of this survey is survey questionnaire. A

questionnaire is a set of questions typically used for research purposes which can be
both qualitative as well as quantitative in nature. A questionnaire may or may not be
delivered in the form of a survey, but a survey always consists of questionnaire.
A questionnaire used in qualitative research asks open ended questions via email,
telephone or face-to-face meetings. A questionnaire used in quantitative research
asks

more

closed ended questions

with

restricted

options

to

answer.

-

There are two types of questionnaire:
Questionnaires that evaluate variables that is separate, including questions

-

regarding an individual’s behavior, facts and preferences.
Questionnaires that measure factors incorporated into a scale like those about

individual identities and different attributes, index and traits.

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In general, questionnaire is only possible way to survey, even though this
method has some disadvantages. At the time of surveying, most of third – year
students of English faculty are in the middle of revision for final test. Therefore,
researcher cannot use some methods like observation and interview. Only by online
questionnaire can help researcher collect information for this study.
1.6.

Organization of the study
The study is going to answer the question: How can students improve

English, especially English collocations? And it also helps them to understand the
importance of English collocations. The organization of this thesis is divided into
four chapters:
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the study. This chapter will put emphasis
on the background of study and give some basic information such as rationale and
the aims of the study, research subjects, scope of the study and research
methodology.
Chapter 2 introduces literature review related to this study. In this chapter,
readers can understand exactly about the theory of this thesis topic. From definition
to the history of English collocations. The last section in chapter 2 focuses on the
importance of English collocations and some main types of English collocations.
Chapter 3 provides a brief description on the plan of surveying. Readers can
know more about the current situation of third – year students of English Faculty

and some difficulties that researcher have to face when conducting. Throughout the
data analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of them will be showed with the
reasons.
Chapter 4 gives some solutions to this phenomenon and some evaluation for
this study.
The last one of this study is APPENDIX which contains the full description
of all questions, methodologies of the survey.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.

Definitions of collocation
In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a sequence of words or terms that co-

occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, collocation is
a sub-type of phraseme. An example of a phraseological collocation, as
propounded by Michael Halliday, is the expression strong tea. While the same
meaning could be conveyed by the roughly equivalent powerful tea, this expression
is considered excessive and awkward by English speakers. Conversely, the
corresponding expression in technology, powerful computer is preferred over strong
computer. Phraseological collocations should not be confused with idioms, where
an idiom's meaning is derived from its convention as a stand-in for something else
while collocation is a mere popular composition.
According to Oxford Collocations Dictionary [2002], collocation is a means
of combining words in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing.

Incorrect combinations such as heavy wind or strong rain do not sound naturally in
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English. Apart from the prevalent grammatical/lexical distinction, the authors also
mention ‘word’ collocation, none of whose elements can be replaced even with its
synonym, e.g. small fortune but not *little fortune and ‘category’ collocation whose
elements can collocate with any items of a precisely determined group of words.
This group can be quite large and its elements- predictable because they make up
the same category, e.g. measurements of time for a noun walk: five minutes’
walk/three-minute walk.
Nowadays, in order to make it easy to understand, some dictionaries define
that collocations are groups of two or more words that are commonly-used together.
These groups of words are largely idiomatic. The “right” and “wrong” words to
use in a given collocation have evolved through custom and usage as the English
language itself has evolved. Because of this, people should think of collocations as
whole units of language, rather the individual words that they are composed of.
By their very nature, collocations do not follow grammar rules that you can
memorize. Collocations are abstract, they normally have no explanation, and the list
is endless. This can be confusing and frustrating for students. For example, you
would order “fast food” for lunch and develop a “quick fix” to a problem. However,
you wouldn’t order “quick food” or come up with a “fast fix.” Both pairs are
grammatically correct, but the former “sounds” correct to native English speakers
while the latter does not.
It is important to learn collocations, because they are important for the
naturalization of one’s speech. Besides, they broaden one’s scope for
expression. “Collocation” refers to how words go together or form fixed
relationships. Collocations are also very common in business settings when certain

nouns are routinely combined with certain verbs or adjectives. For example, draw
up a contract, set a price, conduct negotiations, etc.
Collocations may be strong or weak. Strong collocations are where the link
between the two words is quite fixed and restricted. Strong collocations refer to
words that almost always go together. It's possible that people might understand you
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if you don't use a strong collocation. However, if you do not use a strong collocation
it will sound funny to native speakers.
Example: Make and Do
“make” and “do” provide perfect examples of why collocation is so important.
-

Generally, 'make' refers to things that are made that weren't there before. 'Do' refers
to actions that we take or do such as chores.
-

Collocations with “Make”
make a cup of coffee / tea
make noise
make the bed

-

Collocations with “Do”
do the laundry
do the errands

do business with someone
Make and Do are perfect examples of verbs that go together with specific nouns. A
verb + noun combination that always go together are considered collocations.

2.2.
The importance of English collocation
2.2.1. For English learners

Native speakers of a language have at their disposal thousands of words.
Using their knowledge of grammar, they are, in theory, capable of using the words
to produce and understand an unlimited number of sentences that they have never
said or heard before. In practice, however, they do not produce every sentence from
scratch. They tend to use a great number of ready-made chunks of words and put
them together in various ways according to their communicative needs. Words
become tied, so to speak, to each other due to repeated use in the same chunks by
members of the language community. Sometimes, though, a single use of a group of
words together may be enough to link the words in one chunk in the memory of
speakers of a language because of the dramatic effect of such a use or the prestige
of the user.

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When words are thus combined in a chunk, they have the power to predict
each other's occurrence. On the other hand, due to the fact that English words are
not linked in ready-made chunks in the non-native speakers' memory; inappropriate
word combinations are often produced by most non-native speakers.
It is important to study English collocations because it will help English

learners understand how to use vocabulary words in a sentence correctly.
Many people learning English studied numerous hours to learn thousands of
vocabulary words. They understand the meaning of the word by learning it from a
dictionary, but in the end, they still have a problem using the word in a sentence.
Learning English collocations is the best way for English learners remember
vocabulary and make sentences. Collocations are important because they make your
language sound natural. If you master collocations, your English will be more
idiomatic, that is, more similar to the way it is spoken by native speakers.
Collocations enhance improvement of learners' oral communication, listening
comprehension, and reading speed, and that teaching collocations enables learners
to be aware of language chunks used by native speakers in speech and writing.
For example:
I try to make my bed every morning. (NOT do my bed)
Parents usually tell stories to their children (NOT say stories)
Sean likes to surf the web before going to bed (NOT navigate the web)
Or we say: Strong coffee/tea, NOT powerful coffee/tea
2.2.2. For third – year students of English Faculty at Thuong Mai university

In general, students of English Faculty at Thuongmai university should
know and understand exactly how to use English collocations in business because
English collocations will have initial impact on their work in the future.
In business, we have to write an email, a letter or a contract… for our
partners. Sometimes, we have to write advertisements, Writing Invitation Cards,
Company Profiles, Writing Business Letters, Meetings,… Therefore, if you do not
know about business collocations or how to use it, you would have a lot of troubles.
The following is an example of collocations used in advertisement:

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The new whitening revolution
Pure Vitamin C + Melanin-Block
In just one step!
Dark spots and skin pigmentation, a growing concern by many Asian
women, are mainly caused by constant exposure to harsh UV rays resulting in
overactive melanin production in the epidermis.
With this in mind, L’Oréal Skincare Laboratories has successfully
formulated the latest breakthrough in whitening skincare treatment. White Perfect
Double Action Concentrated Whitening Essence effectively targets pigmentation
both the skin surface and in the epidermis.
THE UNIQUE DOUBLE CHAMBERS
MELANN+BLOCK+LACTIS ACID+DERMOLISS CHAMBER
Melanin-Block acts directly on melanogenesis and effectively reduces
melanin production by -53%.
Efficient exfoliating agents: Lactic acid and Dermoliss gently exfoliate
away melanin-filled dark dead cells to recover skin tone evenness, radiance and
greater transparency.
(Adapted from Maybin, Mercer & Hewings, 2007: p. 70)

As we can see from the example, the collocations found in this advertisement
are as follows:
Mainly caused by, effectively reduces, and gently exfoliate.
According to McCarthy & O’Dell (2005), the words such as mainly,
effectively, gently are called Intensifying Adverbs. Intensifying adverbs refer to the
combination between an adverb and an adjective that can lead to the more attractive
and powerful language. In this regard, it indicates the role of collocations to create
persuasive language in advertising English.
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Here is another example of collocations used in invitation cards:
Mr. and Mrs. John C Smith
request the pleasure of the company
of Mr. James K Brown & Guest
at a small holiday party and dance
Monday, the twenty-third of December
from seven o’clock in the evening until eleven o’clock.
5555 Wilshire Road.
Semi-Formal Holiday attire
R.S.V.P. 5555
Wilshire Road
Los Angeles, CA 90039
(Source: www.couplescompany.com)

Based on this invitation, the collocations specifically used for writing an
invitation can be as follows: - Mr. and Mrs. John C Smith request the pleasure of
the company of Mr. JamesK Brown & Guest at a small holiday party and dance.
To accept a written invitation, you may use the collocations as follows: Mr. A
and … accept with pleasure the invitation of................
Or: …. has much pleasure in accepting
 To conclude, the collocations used for writing, accepting, and declining an

invitation can be particularly used according to the purpose of writing. These
collocations are essential for business writing when you have to deal with
businesspeople around the globe.
We can see that English collocations in business are always related to the

work and important documents. If the translators make mistakes with translation, it
would be difficult for them to deal with the job.
For third – year students of English faculty, when they have spent three years
at university, they should know a lot of academic words and terms. It is more
important for them to learn and remember English collocations, especially in
business area.
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2.3.

Types of English collocations
The main characteristics of collocation in contrast to idiom are their
meanings reflect the meaning of their constituent parts. One of the characteristics of
the way words collocate is that a word in frequent use may often combine with one
which is much less widely used. When words are used together regularly, rules are
formed about their use not for grammatical reasons, but because of the association.
They are always in that order and to put them the other way around seems wrong.
Many words combinations made Benson and Benson classify the collocations into

two types. They are grammatical collocation and lexical collocation.
2.3.1. Grammatical collocations
According to Benson, Benson, and Ilson (1997), grammatical collocation is a
phrase consisting of a dominant word (noun, adjective, and verb) and a preposition
or grammatical structure such as an infinitive or clause. This type also can be called
as fixed combination words. This opinion is supported by Mahmoud (2004). He
said that grammatical collocation is a combination where a preposition is used with
a noun, a verb or an adjective. For examples, by accident, admiration for, the house

needs painting; she (the girl) is ready to go, etc.”

Grammatical collocations
Combination

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Example

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G1 noun + preposition
G2 noun + to infinitive
G3 noun + that clause
G4 preposition + noun
G5 adjective + preposition
G6 predicate adj + to infinitive
G7 adjective + that clause
G8 consists of 19 English verbs

Blockade against, apathy toward.
It was a pleasure to do it.
He took an oath that he would do his duty.
by accident, in advance.
be angry at, be fond of.
It was necessary to work.
It was nice that he can was able to come home
for the holidays.
send ( the dative movement transformation

verb)

Table 2.1. Grammatical collocations
(Cited in Koya, 2005, p.69)
2.3.2.

Lexical collocations
Lexical is a words‟ definition that we can find in the dictionary that mostly
used by a single word. A word is the smallest unit of a language that can exist on its

2.3.2.1.

own in either written or spoken language. (Larson, 1990)
Some Characteristics of Lexical Collocation by Hill (2000)
Some characteristics of Lexical collocations are fixed, identifiable, nonidiomatic phrases and construction. There are some characteristics of lexical
collocations. Hill (2000) shows the characteristics of lexical collocation as follow.
a. The lexicon is not arbitrary. The lexicon is not randomly produced. In
other words, lexicon must obey the language rules.
b. The pattern of collocations is predictable. To a certain extent vocabulary
choice is predictable. For example when a writer thinking about friend, he may have
a large number of word combinations for friend, such as best, loyal, old, personal,
school, etc. Yet the pattern of verb-noun lexical collocation is often unpredictable.
c. The size of the phrasal mental lexicon is large. We need to limit the
predictability by definition of collocation. Those collocations must constitute major
proportion of the whole naturally-occurring text, spoken or written.

2.3.2.2.

Types

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To understand more about these types, we need to elaborate the lexical
words. Lexical words are the smallest units of a sentence that can stand alone and
we can know the meaning by look up the dictionary. According to BBI
Combinatory Dictionary of English, Lexical Collocation consists of nouns,
adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. For examples, make an impression, compose music,
etc. The function of these types is to help learners of English avoid the errors and
identify the highest types which deserve attention in class.
No.
1

Types
Examples
Verb (Creation + Activation) + Come to an agreement, make an
Noun/Pronoun (or Preposition impression, set an alarm, etc
phrase)

2

Verb (Eradication/Nullification) + Extermination the pest disease,
Noun
a square refusal of the ideas, etc.

3

Adjective + Noun

A chronic alcoholic, a pitched
battle, a rough estimates, etc.

4

Noun + Verb

Bees buzz, blizzards rage, blood
circulates, etc.

5

Noun + Noun

A herd of buffalo, a bouquet of
flowers, an act of violence, etc.

6

Adverb + Adjective

Strictly accurate,
addicted, etc.

7

Verb + Adverb

Affect

deeply,
amuse
thoroughly, anchor firmly, etc

hopelessly

Table 2.2. Types of lexical collocations
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS
3.1. Current situation
In general, almost students of Thuongmai University started learning English
when they were Grade Three students in primary school. Some started learning
when they were very small. Therefore, their English level is various.
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Based on this background knowledge, this study puts more emphasis on third
– year students of English Faculty at Thuongmai University. Most of them have
used English at intermediate level and they have approached a lot of methods to
learn English in all skills.
Generally speaking, when asked whether they liked English, most of the
students who were interviewed by the project team answered “yes”, because they
think it is interesting for them and they think English is very important nowadays.
But they also dislike English because English is difficult to master. Sometimes they
cannot communicate with native speakers and handle with some English skills like
writing, speaking or listening. Even though they learn English everyday at school,
they still have trouble when communicating or doing test. The main reason of this
phenomenon is that they do not have an environment to improve and practice
English. Moreover, the methods that they use to learn English are not effective.

About English collocations, most of students who are seriously learning
English think it is extremely important to learn. They think that the most integral
part for English learners to speak like native speakers is understanding how to use
English collocations. For some students, they can use English collocations, but
somehow, they do not understand and know exactly about them.
When asking them about their subjects at university, the project team
recognizes that most of the time they spend at school, they use English and learn
English as well. However, sometimes they have a lot of troubles when using
English. For example, in the class of business correspondence, it’s very hard for
them to deal with academic words or phrases. When they try to translate a business
email in English into Vietnamese, they cannot find the suitable words to translate. In
addition, they lack skills and vocabulary to express their feelings when
communicating, which make them feel unconfident when talking with native
speakers.
For the most part, third –year students of English faculty at Thuongmai
University can use English in communication and study, but they are not excellent.
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When in other faculties, a lot of students have IELTs or TOEIC, only few students
of English faculty have these certificates. Most of them have the same thought that
they are majoring in English so it’s no need to take the IELTS or TOEIC tests.
3.2. Difficulties
When learning English collocations, students have to deal with a lot of
difficulties. Collocations are an especially tricky aspect of learning English because
there is no apparent reason or rule behind them. Instead, collocations need to be
encountered in natural language and learners must familiarize themselves with the
different collocations over time in order to adopt them into their own language.

Here are some difficulties when learning English collocations:
3.2.1. De-lexicalized Verbs
The first difficulty is related to de – lexicalized verbs. De -lexicalized verbs
are also known as empty verbs. There are verbs which are used frequently in
English and with many nouns, thus, they seem to have lost their meaning in the
phrase. Common de- lexicalized verbs are get, go, take, make, do, have. If we
consider the phrase have a coffee, it has the same meaning as drink a coffee, though
this is not what we would say and the use of have does not necessarily equate
to drink.
It is true that a lot of mistakes in collocations are made with de-lexicalized
verbs. They are easily to be misunderstood. Even though the grammar can be
correct, they are still wrong. Or sometimes, students can make wrong collocations
Examples:
Students usually find it difficult to use collocations with “make” and “do”.
Sometimes, they use “make business” instead of “do business”; “make a report”
instead of “do a report”, etc… these phrases have correct grammar, but students use
the wrong collocations.
3.2.2. Randomness
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Another problem when learning English collocations is randomness.
Collocations do not seem to follow any rules nor have any reason behind their
existence. If asked by a student why it is we do the homework rather than make the
homework, we can try to find a flimsy reason to justify it but we are more likely
than not going to reply that “it just is”, which is not a very satisfactory explanation.
Therefore, it is very hard for students to form English collocations, or
remember them. A word can combine with a lot of adjectives, adverbs, nouns,…

However, there are also some words which only exist together, not with anything
else.
Randomness sometimes makes students feel confused and frustrated when
trying to learn English collocations. The only way to deal with this characteristic is
trying to write collocations down and learn by heart.
3.2.3. Meaning and Noticing
The next difficulties related to English collocation is meaning and noticing.
It means that sometimes, when trying to transfer from one language to English, it is
very tough to find exactly words to express the feeling.
Especially when dealing with text, many learners (especially those at lower levels)
tend to focus on individual words that they don’t know, rather than on the
collocation. This is because the usual way of noticing and recording vocabulary is
to write the word (out of context and without its collocates) in a vocabulary
notebook with its L1 translation. Alternatively, more advanced learners will say, “I
know that word” and move on without checking for any collocates in the text. Both
of these problems arise from poor learner-training: learners need to have
collocations pointed out to them before they can be expected to notice them for
themselves.
3.2.4. Difficulties in studying and teaching at Thuongmai university

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For third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai university, learning
English collocations is a very important thing for them to improve English
vocabulary. However, they do not have a good environment to study.
There is no atmosphere of English learning on campus. One doesn’t hear the
students speaking English aloud except in the English class. Even in the English

class, tape recorder is still the primary and almost sole auxiliary equipment for the
students. Most students don’t have the access to multimedia. All the classes are
equipped with projectors and computers. However, sometimes, they are not good
enough for students to study and for teachers to show slides related to the lessons.
In addition, the subjects at university focus mainly on business, there is no
subject that can help them enhance English collocations and learn English skills.
Textbooks cannot meet students’ demands for learning English, especially for
students who want to do the IELTS or TOEIC tests. Moreover, teachers do not have
good methods to teach students, most of them use traditional ways to approach the
lessons. These are the reasons why sometimes students lose their interest in
learning. Absolutely, teachers also feel tired when dealing with students.
3.3. Reasons why third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai
University cannot deal with English collocations.
3.3.1. Objective reasons
There are a number of reasons that may affect students’ ideas towards
learning English. English has become more and more important nowadays,
however, students may sometimes lose their willingness and interest towards
English lesson, which puts a major barrier in front of effective language learning.
For third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University, English
is a compulsory language. They learn English and use it every single day at school.
Therefore, English collocations are not strange with them anymore. However, there
are a lot of problems they have to face when dealing with English collocations. And
these following are some objective reasons.
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The first reason is related to the classroom environment. As we all
know, classroom environment is a second teacher for any student, and if students

can be studied in a good condition, the results would be better.
The second reason is that students in Vietnam usually spend time on working
and earning money, they have very little time to practice English everyday.
3.3.2. Subjective reasons
It is not only because of classroom or equipment,… which are the main
factors that affect the way students learn English collocations, there are also have
many other subjective reasons.
On the one hand, students do not try their best in learning and understanding
English collocations. Because of some difficult subjects, they can lose their interest
intermediately. When learning English business, absolutely students have to learn
English collocations, but they do not understand them, which makes it difficult to
remember new phrases and idioms. Therefore, some of them feel that these subjects
are boring and tough.
Another subjective reason is that some of them think that English
collocations are not important. They think English communication is much more
important. They do not recognize the importance and necessity of English
collocations. Thus, they do not want to learn and discover. It is true that until they
try to learn IELTS or TOEIC, they can understand how they should learn English
collocations
Finally, some students are extremely lazy. They do not care for their future
and career. That’s why they spend very little time on learning English, which will
ruin their knowledge and English skills.
3.4. The process of surveying
The survey is conducted three days from 06/04/2018 to 9/04/2018 by online
survey questionnaires. The main respondents are 50 third – year students of English
faculty at Thuongmai University, they come from different classes and different
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hometowns. Basing on the data collected, some findings about the ways students
use to deal with English collocations and the tendency of using English collocations
to improve their English skills are found.
3.4.1. The design of questionnaires
As the main purpose of the survey is to collect information as well as data
about the difficulties in studying English collocations and how the students deal
with collocations, this survey questionnaires were made including 12 different
questions related to these information, which would take only 10 – 15 minutes to
complete the survey (to ensure that it was suitable for the third - year students of the
English faculty, who can use English at intermediate level). Participants were asked
to tick the most suitable answers in their opinion. The questionnaires are divided
into three parts
-

General questions about their knowledge. ( questions 1, 2, 3, 4)
Questions for students who can use English collocations and

-

understand them. (questions 5, 6, 7)
Questions for all of respondents about their opinions (questions 8, 9,
10, 11, 12)

3.4.2. Data analysis
3.4.2.1. English learning situation
In the first part of survey questionnaires, students were asked about their
general knowledge and the time they spend on learning English. From the data, the
situation of learning English of students is showed on this pie chart:

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Chart 3.1. The amount of time students have been learning English
Looking at the pie chart, it is immediately obvious that most of students have
been learning English for more than 7 years. It means that they can understand and
use English regularly and at intermediate levels. On the other hand, there are only
6% of respondents learning English under 1 year. And due to the fact that they are
third – year students, maybe this figure indicates that they have learnt English
seriously for 1 year. The students learning English from 2 to 5 years and 5 to 7 years
account for 22% and 16% respectively.
However, there is a disappointed fact about their learning English situation.
Even though they have been learning English for a long time (more than 7 years),
they cannot speak English fluently. And the main reason is that they spend very
little time on learning English
This pie chart below is collected from question 2, which shows the amount
of time students spend per day on learning English.

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Chart 3.2. The amount of time a student spend per day on learning English
With this question, three choices are given and the results are surprising.
Most of them spend very little time on studying English (under 2 hour) and there
are only 10% of respondents learning English more than 5 hours per day. These
figures show us a disappointed current situation about the seriousness in learning

English of third – year students of English faculty at Thuongmai University.
In order to find out the best solutions to this problem, some weaknesses of
students in learning English are showed in this chapter.

Chart 3.3. The weaknesses in learning English

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