On The Use of English Collocations by Iranian Postgraduate Learners of ESP

Abstract

Collocation is usually defined as two or more words which co-occur and must be learned as an integral whole. L2 learners should have a rich collocational competence to communicate effectively and fluently. Despite the importance of collocations in second language learning and teaching, no study has yet been carried out to investigate the Iranian postgraduate students` collocation knowledge of English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Therefore, this study explored the impact of type of test (receptive vs. productive) on the students` performance in collocation tests. Also, the collocation knowledge of the students was investigated across different fields of study and different collocation categories. For the purposes of this study, 100 ESP master students majoring in different fields of study were selected randomly from three national universities located in Yasouj and Isfahan provinces. The participants took a collocation test including a receptive multiple-choice test and a productive translation test. Both grammatical and lexical collocations were examined in the study. The results indicated that the participants had more difficulty with the productive test rather than the receptive test. Furthermore, the overall collocation knowledge of the students was significantly different across different fields of study and various collocation categories. It could be concluded that increasing knowledge of accurate collocational patterns, especially the productive collocation knowledge, is necessary for Iranian ESP postgraduate students.