Lexical Collocation, Writing, Listening, Reading, Grammar and Their Relation to Speaking Proficiency

Abstract

The current research investigated the students’ knowledge of lexical collocation, writing, listening, reading and grammar toward speaking ability. An ex-post facto analysis was adopted to find a relation between the students’ knowledge of lexical collocation, writing, listening, reading, grammar and their speaking ability, as well as the dominated contribution between the subjects’ knowledge of lexical collocation, writing, listening, reading, grammar and their speaking performance. The research was conducted in Institute of Teacher Training and Education (IKIP Mataram), involving 30 participants out of total population. They were tested using paper-based IBT test that measured their writing, listening, reading and grammar. The knowledge of lexical collocation was tested using written test, and their speaking ability was tested using an interview test. It was found that the students’ knowledge of lexical collocation, writing, listening, reading and grammar ability have positive contribution to the increase of students’ speaking ability. Yet, the most dominant factor that contributes to the students’ speaking performance is the students’ knowledge of lexical collocation. The findings implied that EFL teachers should develop learners’ proficiency to particular linguistic features by using lexically-based approach. Grammaticalized words, sources of lexis, corpus, concordance, and dictionaries of collocations should be promoted, guiding learners to have direct exposure to chunks of English and learn to extract and use patterns of lexical collocations effortlessly.