THE CURRENT STATE OF COLLOCATION ACQUISITION AND USAGE IN ACADEMIC WRITING OF FOURTH-YEAR ENGLISH MAJOR STUDENTS AT A UNIVERSITY IN HA NOI

Abstract

Academic writing is a compulsory subject for students of English major, in which the proficiency in
collocation usage is considered a marker of writing mastery as a native speaker. However, from
observation and teaching experience, the authors came to the conclusion that students often
underestimate the importance of collocation. In order to enhance the awareness in using collocation and
learners’ writing quality, the author surveyed students’ understanding about collocation and the
frequency of using collocation in writing skill through questionnaire and analyzed collocation errors
made by students in their writing papers. In the context of teaching and learning English being
inseparable, the authors proposed ChatGPT as an effective tool for collocation correction and
improvement in their collocation competence in writing essays.