The development of productive knowledge of collocations and overall English proficiency

Research Project

Project/Area Number	21K00757
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
Research Institution	Kanazawa University
Principal Investigator	Brown Dale 金沢大学, 外国語教育系, 准教授 (50781168)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	D・G Coulson 立命館大学, 言語教育情報研究科, 教授 (50341988)
Project Period (FY)	2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
Project Status	Granted (Fiscal Year 2022)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000) Fiscal Year 2023: ¥780,000 (Direct Cost: ¥600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥180,000) Fiscal Year 2022: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000) Fiscal Year 2021: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000)
Keywords	collocations / productive knowledge / English proficiency
Outline of Research at the Start	Collocations, pairs of words that frequently co-occur, are common in language use and crucial for fluency and accuracy. However, using collocations (in speech or writing) is challenging for language learners due to their unpredictability. This project will employ a new measurement tool, LexCombi 2 to explore how productive knowledge of collocations develops as overall English proficiency develops. By providing a better understanding of how collocation knowledge develops, this project may in turn enable more effective facilitation of its development by teachers and teaching materials.
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	In Year 2, good progress has been made with the four studies that comprise the project. Study 1 (longitudinal): Two further rounds of data collection were completed (2022年7月; 2023年3月). Data collection is now complete, data processing is also complete and data analysis is under way. Study 2 (pre- and post-study abroad): Post-study abroad data data collection was completed (2023年3月) and data processing is under way. Study 3 (the four skills): Using an online version of our data collection instrument, data collection was completed (2022年9~12月). Data processing is complete and data analysis is under way. Study 4 (cross-sectional): Data processing of data collected in Year 1 is complete and data analysis is under way.
Current Status of Research Progress	Current Status of Research Progress 2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned. Reason Data collection is complete for all four of the studies that comprise the project and a considerable amount of data has been collected. Processing of the data is also complete for three of the studies and is under way for the fourth study. Basic, initial analyses of the data have been conducted for three of the studies and further, more sophisticated analyses are planned.
Strategy for Future Research Activity	For the pre- and post-study abroad study, processing of data will be completed and then learners' responses will be scored, using an existing database of "good" responses". Statistical analyses will then be conducted to assess whether the learners' have made progress during their year abroad. For the other three studies, basic analyses having already been conducted, more sophisticated analyses of the learners' scores will be carried out, looking at the range of words they were able to use and the frequency level of the words they used.