Reinforcing Students’ Collocational Competence in EFL Classrooms

Abstract

Relevant research studies show an outstanding effect of the collocational competence on reinforcing the language proficiency of students learning a foreign or second language (Ellis, 2001). Students’ awareness of word combinations enables them to produce language with native-like accuracy and increases their ability to use different levels of formulaic language, idioms, and fixed expressions. The argument of Firth (1957) that “a word is known by the company it keeps” implies that knowing how words are combined facilitates using them efficiently. This entails dedicating more time and effort to increase students’ awareness and acquisition of collocations. However, as argued by Chan and Liou (2005), explicit teaching of collocations is not given the deserved attention in language classes possibly because of the difficulty of teaching them in a way that facilitates their storage and retrieval. It is also due to the shortage of user-friendly materials that could be utilised for teaching collocates. In addition, it could be rendered to native language interference and the nature of interlanguage. This study explores how apt undergraduate Arab students are in using collocation in written works. It also analyses the very common errors they make in written activities. This study concludes that students’ ill-formed expressions are a shared responsibility between them and language teachers. It proposes a tri-polar model for enhancing students’ use of collocation. They are elicitation, fixation, and creation. This study eventually provides pedagogical implications that facilitate addressing collocation in language classes.