INITIAL PROPOSAL FINAL PROJECT

(Master in Teaching English as a Foreign

Language)
User code
ECFPMTFL904229

0. General instructions
Documents should be no longer than 4-5 pages. Documents longer or shorter than this will not
be accepted.
You must follow these instructions to name the file:
GroupNamesinitialSurnames_InitialProp
For instance, a student named Jan Torres Ruiz from group 2012-02 would give the following
name to his file:
2012-02JTorresRuiz_InitialProp
Those proposals which do not follow these instructions will not be accepted. Only after the
Initial Proposal receives the approval from the teacher supervisor the student will be allowed
to submit the next document, according to the deadlines established in the academic calendar.

1. Study program:
Master in Teaching English as a Foreign Language

2. Personal and academic information:

Student Name:
Reina Maritza Becerra Lpez

Group:
2014-02

Email address:

Date:

reina.becerra.lopez@gmail.com

30/06/2015

3. Final Project Supervisor:

Vanessa Anaya, PhD

4. Title and topic of the Final Project:

Research the level of collocational ability of the EFL students at the Catholic University of
Cuenca through the analysis of their collocation errors.

[When choosing a topic for this Project it is very important that you bear in mind the following
recommendations:
I. Carrying out a Project of this kind is not an easy task, particularly when conducted through
distance learning; moments of apathy and frustration are frequent. For this reason, it is essential
that the student selects a topic which is particularly motivating for him/her and which is among
his/her professional and/or academic interests. This will help him/her to face critical moments
and the risk of giving up will decrease.
II. It is also important to choose a topic about which the student can easily find reference
material. Any academic work worth its name must be based on a sound theoretical background
and, therefore, the student should be able to consult all the necessary bibliography on the
matter.
III. Another important aspect when preparing a project is to focus on a topic which is sufficiently
specific and well-defined. Students should bear in mind that they are carrying out a Masters
Final Project, not a PhD thesis, and that they are different in scope. Usually, learners are not
aware of the amount of work a project of this nature involves and, led by their motivation and
initial enthusiasm, they try to cover too broad a field when they start, instead of concentrating
on one specific aspect. Experience tells us that this is one of the main reasons why students give
up. They feel overcome by the huge task they have to accomplish and cannot keep working.
The vast majority of students who succeed in completing their Project are those who have taken
into consideration all these aspects from the very beginning].

5. Type of Final Project:

[Choose an option and tick the corresponding box. The Final Project can be classroom-oriented
or research-oriented. It can also combine both approaches, as in Action Research Projects].

x Research
Action Research
Material Analysis
Material Design
Material Analysis and Design
Action Research and Material Design
Course Design
Syllabus Design
6. Aims of the study:
Main goal of the Project:
To research the level of collocational ability of the EFL students at the Catholic University of
Cuenca through the analysis of their collocation errors.
Specific objectives:
-

To study the ability of the EFL English students at the Catholic University of
Cuenca about English collocations.
To examine the patterns of collocation utilized by the students.
To explain the students errors about English collocations.

7. Theoretical background:

Definitions of Collocation
Characteristics and Classification of Collocation
How to teach Collocations
How to be aware of Collocations
Problems that learners present when studying Collocations

8. Justifying academic and personal interest of the topic:

One of the main problems in the realm of Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Ecuadorian
students is collocation. Lewis (1993) coined the work into the lexical approach. He claimed that
vocabulary should be the outstanding aspect in teaching English. However, the students are not
conscious about this issue, and even they are unaware about it. Instead, they pay more attention
to grammar and thus, to the grammar translation approach and its long stay in the teaching
English in Ecuador. In addition, the indiscriminate use of online translators and L1 interference
concern a huge problem in the students communicative competence and collocation errors make
worse the situation.
Students who want to become competent English speakers or to be native-speaker like, should
know about English collocations. That is the reason why EFL/ESL university students should be
aware of collocations since primary school. Collocations may have been assimilated because
some chunks suddenly appear, such as fall in love or run a risk. Therefore, it is necessary to
research the level of collocational ability of the B1 English students at the Catholic University of
Cuenca through the analysis of their collocation errors. Besides, it consists in an important
strategy to encourage university students and future researchers to realize the existence of
collocations and its use.
Finishing this project would be self-inspiring because the action of teaching English would have a
base towards improvement. Also, other teachers may do their planning considering the findings
and students, in the end, comprehend how English works.
9. Context for the Project and methodology to be applied:
The Catholic University of Cuenca (UCACUE) has a branch in Morona. It is a location with a
population of 45000, where the 48% represents to indigenous people from the Shuar ethnic
group, which implies two L1 into the class: Spanish and Shuar. In relation to the Academic
Regulations of the UCACUE students must fulfill five English levels before they major.
Subsequently, for this study it have been considered a 25 students class, named Level 3-A.
According to the Common European Framework of Reference (for Languages), CEFR, this class
has an English competence level of B1. They are students majoring in Business Administration,
Accountancy and Economy. They are under their twenty-fives.
The students will write an essay of 1500 to 2500 words long for an oral presentation as a final.
The essay topic will be Around Town and its intention is to give the students the opportunity to
talk about the country and the place they live as a tourist destination. They may consider the
geography, culture and custom for writing the essay. Finally, the students will perform a 15minutes presentation that works as a cover story to safeguard the findings.
After the presentation collocation errors and successful collocations will be identified,
categorized and classified according the review of literature and similar research, followed by an
interpretative collocation error analysis. In the final stage, explanations about the collocation
errors and some alternative proposals will be done.
10. Feasibility of the work:
UCACUE teachers have free access to the library and to scientific databases, and since the author
is a member of the UCACUE academic staff, to carry out the research is promising.
11. Work planning:
1.
2.
3.

Review of Literature: Aug, 3rd 14th, 2015

Students training in writing essays: Aug, 17th 21st, 2015
Students presentation: Sep 4th, 2015

4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

Identification of collocation errors and successful collocations in the students

essays: Sep, 7th 18th, 2015
Categorization and classification of students collocation errors: Sep, 21st 30th,
2015
Interpretative analysis of students collocation errors: Oct, 1st 9th, 2015
Explanation of the students collocation errors: Oct, 12th 16th, 2015
Correction of collocation errors: Oct, 19th 23rd, 2015
Drawing conclusions: Oct, 26th 30th, 2015

12. Bibliography
Bonk, W. J. (2000). Testing ESL Learners' Knowledge of Collocations.
Corder, S. P., & Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage (Vol. 112). Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Gardner, D. (2007). Validating the construct of word in applied corpus-based vocabulary
research: A critical survey. Applied Linguistics, 28(2), 241-265.
Hanssen, R. F. (2001). Radar interferometry: data interpretation and error analysis (Vol. 2).
Springer Science & Business Media.
Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.
Lewis, M. (Ed.). (2000). Teaching collocation: Further development in the lexical approach.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
12. Student compliance:
Reina Maritza Becerra Lpez, enrolled in the academic program Master in Teaching English as a
Foreign Language, agrees with the proposal which has been detailed to complete the Final
Project and is committed to carrying out a personal, original work.
In Ecuador, June 30th, 2015