A Study on the Chinese Students' Acquisition of Collocational Knowledge

In China the acquisition of collocations is considered as one of the most difficult points for the Chinese students in their foreign language learning. So far there are few empirical studies involving the Chinese students’ acquisition of collocational knowledge. The author of the present thesis attempts to examine the acquisition of collocational knowledge in the Chinese students from the productive aspect by investigating the acquisition of collocations in the students at three proficiency levels: elementary, intermediate and advanced. The present study aims at finding out whether there are any proficiency-related differences in the acquisition of collocations, and which collocation types are acquired in the early stage of foreign language learning and which are acquired in the later stage. Altogether 110 students have participated in this study. The results have shown that there are indeed proficiency-related differences in the acquisition of collocations and that there are specific types of collocation that are acquired in the early stages of language learning, and some types are acquired in the later stages of language learning. 〔