An Analysis of L1 Influence of Delexical Verbs Collocations on Turkish EFL Learners’ Performances

Abstract

Mainly involving congruent and non-congruent collocations across English and Turkish, this study aimed to examine EFL learners’ performances in associating the given delexical verbs collocations between English and Turkish. The study involved a corpus-based selection of delexical verbs collocations. Data were collected from 43 participants who were applied a translation test with 24 items. The findings were examined according to error analysis. Employing a mixed method design, the study involved descriptive analysis of learners' scores, sources of learners’ errors, and an evaluation of L1 influence on learners’ test results. The findings showed that EFL learners’ score was higher with congruent delexical verbs collocations compared to non-congruent collocations. The findings also elicited L1 transfer had influence on EFL learning and assumed similarity might cause errors in associating verb collocations with their target language equivalents. The study offers some significant implications for both the learners and language instructors.