CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Present Study
The important role of collocations has been increasingly recognized in the field of EFL teaching and acquisition researches in recent years. Some researches show that the use of native-like collocations, e.g. make a decision, face a problem, offer help, etc. has become one of the most problematic areas of L2 learners’ lexical difficulty (Laufer 2017). Among the great number of lexical collocations, a subclass of them that contains a delexical verb such as make, take, give, do, etc., is particularly difficult for EFL learners. Although the total number of delexical verbs is small, they include some of the most common words in English language. The number of delexical verb-noun collocations is of great amount, and they are used very frequently by native speakers, while L2 learners tend to use them freely without being aware of their restriction. Many studies show that learners fail to use these collocations adequately by making abundant errors, which reveal their great difficulty with delexical verbs (e.g. Yung Fan 1991; Alterberg & Granger 2017; Deng Yaochen 2017). However, learners as well as teachers seem to lack of awareness of delexical verb-noun collocations and tend to overlook them in the process of EFL teaching and learning. Many previous studies on the issue of collocations and delexical verbs are from the perspective of language learning and teaching, and studies focused on the lexicographic perspective are comparatively less. However, the highly polysemous and phraseological nature of delexical verbs makes them particularly difficult for dictionary compilers. And the treatment of delexical verb-noun collocations in current learners’ English dictionaries is far from satisfactory. It is found that dictionary use seemed not to have a significant effect on either the number or the validity of collocations produced, which indicates that learners are often not aware of their problems in collocations (Nesselhauf 2017). This situation could be improved by increasing teachers’ and learners’ awareness on delexical verb noun collocation, and a good learners’ dictionary that includes and shows great prominence of the importance of such collocations in a well-design layout can be helpful. As Laufer (2017) suggests that at least in writing, a good dictionary can contribute to learners’ use of collocations. In conclusion, it is of importance to investigate how delexical verb-noun collocations are presented in learners dictionaries, and give suggestions for improving them in future ECLDs.
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1.2 Research Objective and Research Issues ，英语论文，英语论文 |
