Profiling a microeconomics noun collocation list: A corpus-based approach

Abstract

Collocations are essential for language learning because using collocations naturally and accurately constitutes a key indicator of academic writing success. Past studies have examined collocations in academic genres and created lists of collocations for pedagogical use. However, studies that compile collocation lists often use a wide-angle approach to identify general collocations. There have been concerns about using general academic multiword constructions (MWCs) in English for specific purposes (ESP) courses as there are formalities and conventions in academic texts which are characterised by discipline-specific MWCs. This corpus-based study proposes a common and pedagogically useful microeconomics noun collocation list (MNCL). The MNCL is based on a corpus of microeconomics research articles comprising 1.6 million words. The MNCL is the result of an innovative procedure that involves a four-step selection method. This study produces: (1) a list of the 1 125 most common noun collocations (noun + noun, noun + verb, verb + noun, adjective + noun) in microeconomics research articles identified and classified using the most commonly used nouns, and (2) new findings regarding the types of noun collocations. The findings of this study have pedagogical implications on how collocations should be perceived and approached in ESP classrooms.