Abstract

Collocations are a pervasive feature of many languages and English seems to be particularly rich in such multi-word lexemes. They have not been a major focus of teaching and research, however, despite the fact that learners have serious problems with the production of idiomatically correct language . The present study , therefore, aimed at finding out the problems of high proficiency level Iranian learners of English with English collocations. The study had two phases. In phase I, about 2400 pages of materials produced (in English) by 27 subjects were carefully studied and a list of collocational errors were extracted. The list was then analyzed and five patterns were found. In phase II, six cued production tasks were developed which were given to 64 subjects. Results showed that Iranian advanced learners of English do have serious problems with English collocations (about 55 percent of the time). The results of the present study can have theoretical and pedagogical implications for syllabus designers, teachers, and translators.

Introduction

During the 1990s, interest in vocabulary teaching and research increased. Nation’s (1990) ‘Teaching and Learning Vocabulary’ appeared at the beginning of the decade and proved influential in its  inclusive review of research on vocabulary while providing pedagogical guidance through interpreting the research in terms of classroom applications. According to Michael Lewis (2000), John Sinclair’s (1991) book, ‘Corpus. Concordance, Collocation’ and subsequent collocation studies have revealed new understandings of how English works leading to new descriptions of the language. (more…)