Korean college students’ use of vocabulary and collocation according to writing proficiency

This study examined both lexical and collocational knowledge of Korean college students in relation to their writing proficiency measured by a diagnostic writing test. The study analyzed essays written in response to two topics by college students at three different proficiency levels (high, mid, low). In a comparison of vocabulary used in the essays, the study noted differences between the proficiency levels in terms of token and type frequencies. However, the lexical distribution patterns in reference to graded word-lists were similar across the proficiency levels. Regardless of the topic, approximately 90% of words used in the essays were from the first 2K words, and about 95% of words from the first 3K words. As to learner use of collocation, collocational expressions were more frequently used by advanced learners, compared to intermediate- or low-level learners. Despite the difference, collocational distribution patterns according to the graded collocation-list were also similar across the three proficiency levels. Regarding part-of-speech-tagged collocation, students tended to overuse a limited set of patterns, such as AJ-NN, NN-NN, and VP-AVP. Findings are discussed in more detail, along with pedagogical implications.