The present study focuses on investigating the problems and
difficulties facing EFL learners regarding English collocations. It
reports the various factors influencing the process of reception and
production of English collocations. To achieve the
purposes of the
study, two tests were given to 25 students majoring in English
Language and Literature at the Department of English at Al-Baath
University: a gap-filling productive test and a multiple-choice
receptive test. There was also a translation productive test (from
Arabic into English), and it was given to 25 students majoring in
translation in the open learning program at the same department.
The three tests were analyzed and then results and findings were
presented. The results showed that the participants had poor
collocational knowledge and their reception and production of
collocations was unsatisfactory, but they performed better in the
receptive test. The study also concluded that they sometimes
resorted to their first language or to paraphrasing the collocational
expression. They made other types of error like general errors
(completely irrelevant answers) and leaving blank answers.
Moreover, it was found that the students majoring in translation
performed slightly better than the students majoring in English
Language and Literature. Finally, the study concluded with
implications for pedagogy.
Although research about the use of collocations is growing, there seems
to be no single study, to the best of my knowledge, which addresses how
electronic dictionaries impact users’ collocational thresholds. This
empirical study has been carried o
ut to bridge this gap in the research
literature and assess the collocational competence of Arabic-speaking
learners of English. The main focus is on their ability to judge the
acceptability of verb-noun collocations using electronic dictionaries on
CD-ROMs which are claimed to be much more than an ‘ordinary’
reference work.
