Abstract
The need for integrating collocations into English language syllabuses in order to enhance EFL/ESL learners’ language accuracy and fluency has been emphasized by a great number of researchers and scholars. Given this, finding viable collocation teaching methods has become the focal center of some specialists’ interest. This has led into the emergence of various pedagogical suggestions some of which have aroused controversy. One of the most significant points of disagreement between these specialists concerns the effectiveness of implicit versus explicit collocation teaching methods. This article reviews the pedagogical potential of these two teaching approaches as well as the issues limiting generalizability of findings in the related literature. The review reveals that the scarcity of empirical studies which have compared the efficacy of these two controversial methods, lack of consistency in the reported findings, and neglect of some determining factors, such as learners’ individual differences, have caused a great deal of confusion in the literature regarding the most effective pedagogical intervention. Further research is, therefore, required to address these gaps in the realm of collocation and help teachers, instructional designers and material developers effectively support learners in the learning process. Some suggestions for future research are provided.
Highlights
Collocations, which refer to word combinations such as to make a mistake or rancid butter that co-occur habitually at the syntagmatic level, are of great significance for L2 learners attempting to gain a high degree of competence (Boers, Demecheleer, He, Deconinck, Stengers, & Eyckmans, 2017; Nation, 2001; Szudarski & Carter, 2016)
A close review of research exploring the effectiveness of input flood and visual/textual enhancement as implicit attention drawing techniques indicates that input flood has provoked more controversy in the realm of collocation
Research has shown that textual enhancement is generally more effective than input flood
Summary
Collocations, which refer to word combinations such as to make a mistake or rancid butter that co-occur habitually at the syntagmatic level, are of great significance for L2 learners attempting to gain a high degree of competence (Boers, Demecheleer, He, Deconinck, Stengers, & Eyckmans, 2017; Nation, 2001; Szudarski & Carter, 2016). According to Schmidt and Frota (1986), one of the essential steps in learning a language is to pay attention to specific features of target input since it is believed that the more learners notice, the more they learn This view is reflected in Schmidt’s ‘noticing hypothesis’ (1990) which identifies conscious attention or ‘noticing’ as the prominent initial step in L2 learning. While advocates of explicit instruction believe that this can be accomplished through some explicit teaching methods such as negative evidence and explicit awareness-raising approaches, implicit instruction proponents suggest implicit focus on form techniques: for example, input-flood treatment and textual/visual enhancement Such disagreement has caused many researchers to conduct classroom-based research on pedagogical potential of both methods. It was attempted to determine the main causes of such inconclusiveness in the existing literature
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
