Automatic Collocation Suggestion in Academic Writing

Abstract

In recent years, collocation has been widely acknowledged as an essential characteristic to distinguish native speak-ers from non-native speakers. Research on academic writing has also shown that collocations are not only common but serve a particularly important discourse function within the academic community. In our study, we propose a machine learning approach to implementing an online collocation writing assistant. We use a data-driven classifier to provide collocation suggestions to improve word choices, based on the result of classifica-tion. The system generates and ranks suggestions to assist learners ’ collocation usages in their academic writing with sat-isfactory results. * 1