Business English Collocation use in ESL Learner Writing
Lyudmila Rokotyanskaya, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Russian Federation)
Liudmila Konovalova, National Research University Higher School of Economics (Russian Federation)
Abstract
The study examines the use of Business English collocations in written papers among non-English high school students of advanced level specializing in the world economics and international affairs. The aim of the study is to establish a correlation between the frequency and the quality of the use of different types of collocations and the range of significant socio-linguistic factors including the linguistic background of students, gender, language proficiency level, discipline of studies and several others. The data will be collected using a survey method and analyzing the project proposals of the respondents.
At the first stage the analysis will be conducted with the use of REALEC corpus in order to classify the collocations on the assumption of their structural type and then divide them in three major groups: verb+noun, adjective+noun and noun+noun to identify the frequency of use of each one. Then with the help of mathematical and statistic methods of analyzing the data received at previous stages it will be concluded which factors at play are the most influential and which of them contribute most to the use of collocations suitable for works of advanced-level students. Also it will be revealed, which type of collocations is used more frequently than the others. The methodology of the study will include field survey carried out with the use of questionnaires, multiple regression and factor analysis and interpretation of the results. The relevance of the study consists in the practical applicability of the received results in the education process in order to improve the methods of teaching English taking into consideration specific features influencing the quality of students’ knowledge.