Advanced EFL Learners' Knowledge of Different Collocation Types

Abstract

In order to be able to use language efficiently, L2 learners need to improve their knowledge of collocations. Collocational competence can lead to vocabulary knowledge and hence to language proficiency. The present paper intended to investigate whether Iranian advanced EFL learners’ knowledge of collocation differed in terms of the type of collocations including verb-noun (VN), verb-preposition (VP) and adjective-noun (AN) collocations or not. In so doing, from among the available MA students of TEFL studying at Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) branch, 50 were selected through an Oxford Placement Test (OPT). Three tests of collocations including a test of VN collocations, a test of AN collocations, and a test of VP collocations, were derived from the Oxford Collocation Dictionary (2002), and the Cambridge English Collocations in Use (2005), and they were administered to the participants. The results of one-way ANOVA and a post-hoc Scheffe test revealed that the advanced learners’ scores on the VN and VP collocation tests were significantly higher than their scores on the AN collocation test. This finding bears a number of implications, which are elaborated on in the paper.