Examining Turkish ESL Learners’ Receptive Collocational Knowledge

Abstract

Native speakers have extensive knowledge of how words combine in their language. This knowledge and systematic use of the combinations is considered an important element of native speaker competence. In the linguistics literature, 'formulaic speech' or 'collocations' are the terms used for describing the recurrent combinations of lexical items. In this research, the researcher has developed a tool with a 5-degree system in accordance with the related research in literature; the purpose being to find out to what extent its target population has developed an intuitive knowledge of recognizing possible collocations of the target items and has been effected by their L1 while making their choices. According to the data that has been obtained from the present collocations study, it can be argued that most of the third-grade students of The English Language and Literature Department in a state university in Turkey have an intuitive knowledge of recognizing suitable collocation formations. When the cut point for success is determined as 50, only two students scored under this point (33 and 48). The rest of the students' total grades were above this point.