The Effects Of Task Types On The Form And Meaning Of Verb-Noun Collocations

Collocation is significant for second language learning and teaching. Meanwhile, it is also an area of particular difficulty for many L2 learners. Therefore, collocation deserves a prominent position within academic curriculums. Learning collocations with different types of tasks can produce different learning gains, since different types of tasks have their own task characteristics which make them more effective than others. Research on learning word pairs has shown that the type of learning (receptive or productive) can determine the amount of knowledge gained, with receptive tasks more likely to result in gains in receptive knowledge and productive tasks likely to foster productive gains. Webb (2005) found that when time on task was the same, the receptive task was more effective than the productive task. However, when time on task was not controlled, the latter was more effective. Little is known, however, of how such differences in task types affect ultimate learning gains on collocations. Therefore, the present study is to investigate the effects of receptive and productive vocabulary tasks on learning the form and meaning of collocations in the language classroom.This empirical study has employed the instruments of tests and interviews. 69 sophomores of non-English major from a vocational college in Suzhou participated in this study. The following research questions are addressed in this study:1. Are there any differences between the learning gains in receptive knowledge and in productive knowledge of the form and meaning of collocations under the two types of learning tasks (reading task and cloze task)? If yes, to what extent?2. What are the qualitative changes in learning the meaning of collocations within each group and between the two groups?The major findings can be summarized as follows:Firstly, both reading task and cloze task led to significant gains in the receptive knowledge and productive knowledge of form and meaning of collocations. However, when compared with the effects of the two tasks, the cloze task was found to be superior to the reading task in the receptive knowledge of form, productive knowledge of form and productive knowledge of meaning, with no significant difference in the receptive knowledge of meaning. Secondly, in terms of the meaning of collocations, both groups showed shifts from unknown categories to known categories (receptive and productive knowledge), that is, after the treatment, both groups showed the patterns of decrease in unknown collocations and increase in receptive and productive knowledge of meaning of collocations. Similarly, the cloze task still showed its superiority in learning of the meaning of collocation.The findings of the study can help us understand how collocations are learned and some implications for effective methods of teaching collocations in the L2 classroom are provided.