Association strength of verb-noun combinations in experienced NS and less experienced NNS writing: Longitudinal and cross-sectional findings

This study combined longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches to examine the development of verb-noun combinations in English writing. Using a longitudinal approach, I explored the development of the association strength of verb-noun combinations in NNS writing followed by a cross-sectional comparison between the texts of less experienced NNS writers and those of more experienced NS writers to reveal different patterns of collocation use between the two groups. Fifty-one ESL learners composed six essays (three narrative and three argumentative essays) over one semester and 46 NS writers composed two essays (one for each genre). Using a reference corpus and corpus analysis tools, I extracted all verb-noun combinations from 398 essays, and calculated their mutual information and frequency. NNS writers showed no changes of association strength in either genre over time. A comparison between the NS and NNS groups revealed a significant difference of association strength in argumentative writing, but not in narrative writing. I examined these findings further with qualitative analyses. Both NS and NNS groups exhibited heavy reliance on high-frequency collocations, but NNS writers underused low-frequency collocations in their writing. Distinct features of frequent and infrequent collocations point to important pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research.