Integrating text memorisation and concordance-enriched instruction : teaching English lexical chunks and collocations to Hong Kong upper secondary students for their argumentative writing

Abstract

Numerous researchers have investigated the patterns of multiword units, among which are lexical chunks and collocations (LCCs). However, LCCs are often problematic for learners in essay writing, especially for those of low English proficiency. Some scholars have called for an increased pedagogical focus on these multiword units, with some suggesting text memorisation as a way to acquire them, while others recommending using concordances to help learners gain a better understanding of their functions in texts. So far, limited research has been conducted to investigate the effects of text memorisation and/or using concordances in teaching LCCs to secondary school students of low English proficiency on their use of these multiword units in free writing. The present study aims to explore the effectiveness of integrating these two learning strategies, or the ‘Integrated Approach’, in increasing these students’ awareness of and accuracy in using LCCs, whether they are motivated to learn essay writing through this approach, and their perceptions of learning LCCs and essay writing through it. The present one-year study adopts an action research approach, with a total of 89 upper secondary students of low English proficiency from different schools in Hong Kong taking a ten-week English writing intervention course conducted by me in the classrooms of a local tutorial school chain. Three rounds of data collection were conducted, with each round consisting of about 30 students being treated with one of the three methods: text memorisation and using concordances (the Integrated Approach), using concordances only, and without either. During the course, two model essays of the argument genre with target LCCs embedded were taught; the participants took pre-/post-tests, wrote pre-/post-course compositions, and filled in pre-/post-course questionnaires. The quantitative data obtained from these instruments were put to statistical tests. Participants’ behaviour and attitudes in class were recorded in journals as part of the qualitative data. At the end of the course, ten randomly selected participants taught with the Integrated Approach attended one-on-one semi-structured interviews to provide qualitative data for analysis to explore their perceptions of the approach. The present study found significant differences in almost all rounds of post-tests between groups, indicating that the three teaching methods produced significantly different effects on participants’ retention and recall of LCCs. Results from both descriptive and inferential statistics combined revealed that the Integrated Approach prevailed over the other two methods, probably because the approach enhanced the participants’ noticing and memory of the newly learnt LCCs. Regarding the results from post-course compositions, the participants taking the Integrated Approach notably produced more LCCs and used them more accurately than the other two groups, only that such outperformance was too small to produce a statistically significant difference. Also, the Integrated Approach showed a small but visible positive effect on motivating the participants in learning LCCs and argumentative essay writing. Lastly, the participants taught with the Integrated Approach regarded it as effective in teaching and learning LCCs for argumentative writing; they thought that memorising texts and learning multiword units with concordance lines were complementary. The present study contributes to the field of vocabulary teaching and to the field of research on pre-tertiary learners’ written knowledge of multiword units. It provides practical implications for teachers to rethink text memorisation as a means to improve the lexical performance of upper secondary students with low English proficiency in composition writing, and to consider incorporating concordancers into classroom teaching of vocabulary.