Papers by Fatemeh ebrahimi bazzaz
The present study tries to explore the knowledge and the use of verb-noun collocations in spoken ... more The present study tries to explore the knowledge and the use of verb-noun collocations in spoken and written discourse of English as foreign language (EFL) learners in Iran. In addition, the current study aims at examining and describing possible correlation and the differences in knowledge and use of verb-noun collocations among four groups of Iranian EFL learners representing four academic years (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior). The study also qualitatively examines the factors that influence Iranian EFL students’ use of verb-noun collocations. The participants in this study comprised of four groups of 212 male and female English students according to their academic years in the Department of English Translation, at the Islamic Azad University, Tehran North Branch (IAUTNB) in Tehran, Iran. Data was collected by two tests: a Cloze Test, and a collocation test, and a series of six pictures for writing and speaking. The Test of Collocation was a C-Test in which there were 50...
International Journal of Applied Linguistics and English Literature, 2015
When native speakers of English write, they employ both grammatical rules and collocations. Collo... more When native speakers of English write, they employ both grammatical rules and collocations. Collocations are words that are present in the memory of native speakers as ready-made prefabricated chunks. Non-native speakers who wish to acquire native-like fluency should give appropriate attention to collocations in writing in order not to produce sentences that native speakers may consider odd. The present study tries to explore the use of verb-noun collocations in written discourse of English as foreign language (EFL) among Iranian EFL learners from one academic year to the next in Iran. To measure the use of verb-noun collocations in written discourse, there was a 60-minute task of writing story based on a series of six pictures whereby for each picture, three verb-noun collocations were measured, and nouns were provided to limit the choice of collocations. The results of the statistical analysis of ANOVA for the research question indicated that there was a significant difference in the use of lexical verb-noun collocations in written discourse both between and within the four academic years. The results of a post hoc multiple comparison tests confirmed that the means are significantly different between the first year and the third and fourth years, between the second and the fourth, and between the third and the fourth academic year which indicate substantial development in verb-noun collocation proficiency. The vital implication is that the learners could use verb-noun collocations in productive skill of writing.
As English speakers speak, they utilize not only grammatical rules but also collocations. Colloca... more As English speakers speak, they utilize not only grammatical rules but also collocations. Collocations are ready-made prefabricated chunks thatare present in the memory of native speakers. Nonnative speakers who would like to attain native-like fluency should pay attention to collocations in speaking so that they might not produce sentences that seems odd to native speakers. The current study aims to discover the use of verb-noun collocations in spoken discourse of English among Iranian college students from one academic year to the next in Iran. To gauge the use of verb-noun collocations in spoken discourse, there was a task of 60-minutes of telling storiesbased on a series of sixpictures whereby for each picture, three verb-noun collocations were gauged. The results of the statistical analysis of ANOVA for the research question denoted that there was a significant difference in the use of lexical verb-noun collocations in spoken discourse both between and within the four academic ...
International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 2013
Generally vocabulary and collocations in particular have significant roles in language proficienc... more Generally vocabulary and collocations in particular have significant roles in language proficiency. A collocation includes two words that are frequently joined concurrently in the memory of native speakers. There have been many linguistic studies trying to define, to describe, and to categorise English collocations. It contains grammatical collocations and lexical collocations which include nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverb. In the context of a foreign language environment such as Iran, collocational proficiency can be useful because it helps the students improve their language proficiency. This paper investigates the possible relationship between verb-noun collocation proficiency among students from one academic year to the next. To reach this goal, a test of verb-noun collocations was administered to Iranian learners. The participants in the study were 212 Iranian students in an Iranian university. They were selected from the second term of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years. The students' age ranged from 18 to 35.The results of ANOVA showed there was variability in the verb-noun collocations proficiency within each academic year and between the four academic years. The results of a post hoc multiple comparison tests demonstrated that the means are significantly different between the first year and the third and fourth years, and between the third and the fourth academic year; however, students require at least two years to show significant development in verb-noun collocation proficiency. These findings provided a vital implication that lexical collocations are learnt and developed through four academic years of university, but requires at least two years showing significant development in the language proficiency.
International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 2016
Collocations or more specifically verb-noun collocations are an sophisticated part of learning a ... more Collocations or more specifically verb-noun collocations are an sophisticated part of learning a second language or a foreign language; however, it is a crucial element of communicative competence. Native speakers' communicative competence consists of collocational competence which includes co-occurred words that English native speakers are subconsciously aware of their use. Additionally, any speech community has a set of idiomatic ways of uttering concepts in definite complete expressions and many phrase-frames. Hence, learning formulaic language may cause a great deal of problems for non-native speakers with deficient communicative competence. Henceforth, the objective of this paper is to discern the effect of treatment in teaching verb-noun collocations to 60 Iranian learners who took part in a collocation test. To reach this aim, an Independent Samples T-Test was run and the result showed there was no significant difference in scores of groups. Subjects were randomly distributed into control and experimental groups. After ten weeks of intervention, a paired-samples t-test was conducted to assess the impact of the treatment on students' scores on the Collocation Test. There was a statistically significant increase in the Collocation Test scores in control group (M=49.87, SD=13.34) to experimental group [M=52.54, SD=12.12, t(29)=-20.26 , p<0.000]. The results of the statistical analyses validate that teaching collocations explicitly and purposefully can assist Iranian students to learn verb-noun collocations better to converse efficiently with native speakers. It can be concluded the results have immediate implications for language learners and EFL instructors to teach in a groundbreaking method.
English Language Teaching, 2011
An important aspect of native speakers' communicative competence is collocational competence whic... more An important aspect of native speakers' communicative competence is collocational competence which involves knowing which words usually come together and which do not. This paper investigates the possible relationship between knowledge of collocations and the use of verb noun collocation in writing stories because collocational knowledge distinguishes native speakers and foreign language learners and is a significant factor in productive skills especially writing. This study examined the correlation between knowledge of verb noun collocations and their use in written essays. The participants in the study were 27 PhD Iranian students in a Malaysian university. A specially constructed C-test measured the subjects' collocational knowledge and the use of collocations was measured by the number of collocations used in essays written by the subjects. For this purpose, participants wrote six different stories in six weeks based on a writing task designed to illicit verb noun collations. The statistical results demonstrate that there exists a strong positive relationship between knowledge of collocations and the use of verb noun collocation in the writing stories.
As English speakers speak, they utilize not only grammatical rules but also collocations. Colloca... more As English speakers speak, they utilize not only grammatical rules but also collocations. Collocations are ready-made prefabricated chunks that are present in the memory of native speakers. Non-native speakers who would like to attain native-like fluency should pay attention to collocations in speaking so that they might not produce sentences that seems odd to native speakers. The current study aims to discover the use of verb-noun collocations in spoken discourse of English among Iranian college students from one academic year to the next in Iran. To gauge the use of verb-noun collocations in spoken discourse, there was a task of 60-minutes of telling stories based on a series of six pictures whereby for each picture, three verb-noun collocations were gauged. The results of the statistical analysis of ANOVA for the research question denoted that there was a significant difference in the use of lexical verb-noun collocations in spoken discourse both between and within the four academic years. The results of a post hoc multiple comparison tests verified that the means are significantly different between the first year and the third and fourth years, between the second and the fourth, and between the third and the fourth academic year that designate considerable growth in the use of verb-noun collocations. The essential inference can be the college students are able to implement verb-noun collocations in productive skill of speaking.
When native speakers of English write, they employ both grammatical rules and collocations. Collo... more When native speakers of English write, they employ both grammatical rules and collocations. Collocations are words that are present in the memory of native speakers as ready-made prefabricated chunks. Non-native speakers who wish to acquire native-like fluency should give appropriate attention to collocations in writing in order not to produce sentences that native speakers may consider odd. The present study tries to explore the use of verb-noun collocations in written discourse of English as foreign language (EFL) among Iranian EFL learners from one academic year to the next in Iran. To measure the use of verb-noun collocations in written discourse, there was a 60-minute task of writing story based on a series of six pictures whereby for each picture, three verb-noun collocations were measured, and nouns were provided to limit the choice of collocations. The results of the statistical analysis of ANOVA for the research question indicated that there was a significant difference in the use of lexical verb-noun collocations in written discourse both between and within the four academic years. The results of a post hoc multiple comparison tests confirmed that the means are significantly different between the first year and the third and fourth years, between the second and the fourth, and between the third and the fourth academic year which indicate substantial development in verb-noun collocation proficiency. The vital implication is that the learners could use verb-noun collocations in productive skill of writing.
Generally vocabulary and collocations in particular have significant roles in language proficienc... more Generally vocabulary and collocations in particular have significant roles in language proficiency. A collocation includes two words that are frequently joined concurrently in the memory of native speakers. There have been many linguistic studies trying to define, to describe, and to categorise English collocations. It contains grammatical collocations and lexical collocations which include nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverb. In the context of a foreign language environment such as Iran, collocational proficiency can be useful because it helps the students improve their language proficiency. This paper investigates the possible relationship between verb-noun collocation proficiency among students from one academic year to the next. To reach this goal, a test of verb-noun collocations was administered to Iranian learners. The participants in the study were 212 Iranian students in an Iranian university. They were selected from the second term of freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior years. The students' age ranged from 18 to 35.The results of ANOVA showed there was variability in the verb-noun collocations proficiency within each academic year and between the four academic years. The results of a post hoc multiple comparison tests demonstrated that the means are significantly different between the first year and the third and fourth years, and between the third and the fourth academic year; however, students require at least two years to show significant development in verb-noun collocation proficiency. These findings provided a vital implication that lexical collocations are learnt and developed through four academic years of university, but requires at least two years showing significant development in the language proficiency.
An important aspect of native speakers' communicative competence is collocational competence whic... more An important aspect of native speakers' communicative competence is collocational competence which involves knowing which words usually come together and which do not. This paper investigates the possible relationship between knowledge of collocations and the use of verb noun collocation in writing stories because collocational knowledge distinguishes native speakers and foreign language learners and is a significant factor in productive skills especially writing. This study examined the correlation between knowledge of verb noun collocations and their use in written essays. The participants in the study were 27 PhD Iranian students in a Malaysian university. A specially constructed C-test measured the subjects' collocational knowledge and the use of collocations was measured by the number of collocations used in essays written by the subjects. For this purpose, participants wrote six different stories in six weeks based on a writing task designed to illicit verb noun collations. The statistical results demonstrate that there exists a strong positive relationship between knowledge of collocations and the use of verb noun collocation in the writing stories.
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Papers by Fatemeh ebrahimi bazzaz