An Analysis of the Use of Collocations in English Essay Writing at Undergraduate Level

Abstract

This study aims to examine the use of Collocation in English Essay Writing at Undergraduate Level. Collocations in language acquisition is important moreover, learning a second language is not just a matter of learning, its grammar and vocabulary only but also the proper use of it. The researcher focused in on examining the utilization of lexical collocation, blunders and syntactic collocation mistakes by the students of B.S. English at KFUEIT. Cluster random sampling technique was used. 250 students were selected out of 700 students of BS 1st semester, Fourth semester and 7th semester. Selected sample wrote an easy on the topic “My Experience as a Student at KFUEIT”. After the collection of data, it was analyzed by using "Antcoc" software. The results showed that the frequency of lexical collocation errors were greater than the frequency of grammatical collocation errors. In these results, the researcher found that Lexical 1 (Verb + Noun) and Lexical 2 (Adjective + Noun) collocation errors were mostly found.