Major sources of collocational errors made by EFL learners at Koya University

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to explore the main sources of collocational errors made by learners of English as Foreign Language (EFL). To address this issue, 40 Kurdish seniors studying EFL at Koya University’s College of Languages located in Northern Iraq participated in this study. Quantitative data were obtained from the collocation completion test used to explore the main sources of collocational errors made by the participants. Qualitative data were obtained from think-aloud protocols aimed to find out possible main source(s) of collocational errors. The results showed that the participants’ collocational errors resulted from two major sources, namely, low frequency of collocations and the influence of L1. Factors such as the frequency of collocation components and Mutual Information (MI) were found to be ineffective in the production of correct collocations because these factors did not cause errors in collocations. Finally, implications of these results for teaching are discussed. Additionally, suggestions were made for ways in which researchers and materials designers could provide better language teaching materials with respect to collocations taking into account major factors that often cause difficulty in collocations.