Speaker
Description
Collocations, defined as the natural combination of words, play an important role in L2 learners’ fluent and idiomatic language production. However, due to differences in syntactic structures, word choice, and semantic relationships between English and Vietnamese, students often struggle with collocational accuracy, impacting the overall quality of their academic writing. This study investigates the interference of students' first language (L1) on their use of English collocations in academic writing at a university in Vietnam. This research adopts a corpus-based approach, analyzing students’ writing samples to identify common collocational errors caused by L1 interference. Errors are categorized into patterns of L1 transfer, such as literal translation, syntactic differences, and inappropriate word choices. The study also examines the frequency and contextual occurrences of these errors to understand their influence on students' writing processes. The findings highlight that L1 interference significantly affects students' collocational use, particularly in verb-noun and adjective-noun combinations. Additionally, the study reveals the limited exposure students have to authentic English academic texts and the insufficient emphasis on collocations in academic writing instruction. Based on these insights, the study provides pedagogical recommendations, including explicit teaching of collocational patterns, enhanced exposure to academic texts, and AI-assisted learning tools such as online corpora and concordance software to mitigate L1 interference and improve students’ academic writing proficiency.
Keywords: English collocation, academic writing, interference, L1, errors
Biography
My name is Nguyen Thi Minh, born on May 23, 1982, in Thanh Hoa, Vietnam. I am an experienced educator and researcher in the field of English language teaching. I currently serve as a full-time lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Phuong Dong University, Hanoi. My academic journey began with a Bachelor's degree in English Language Teaching from 2000 to 2004. I later pursued a Master's degree in English Teaching Methodology at Hanoi University from 2009 to 2010, where I completed a thesis on the use of group writing activities to enhance students' writing skills and motivation. My research was supervised by Dr. Lee Nicholls from Victoria University, Australia. I am currently pursuing a PhD in linguistics at VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
I started my teaching career as a visiting lecturer at the University of Technology and Business (2004–2005) before joining Phuong Dong University in 2006, where I continue to contribute to English language education and develop a strong interest in innovative teaching methods. In 2024, I presented a paper at the 19th International Conference on Socio-Economic and Environmental Issues in Development, focusing on the use of blended learning and the CDIO approach in teaching tourism English. Later in the same year, I and my PhD supervisor had our article titled “the current state of using collocation in students’ writing at a university in Vietnam published in the science journal by Hanoi Industry University. My dedication to pedagogy and applied research marks her as a committed professional in my field.
