Thai efl learners' collocational competence and their perceptions of collocational difficulty

Abstract

The collocational competence of undergraduate students of English at a university in northeastern Thailand and their perceptions of collocational difficulty were investigated in this study. The participants were 153 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-year students of English selected through a convenient sampling method and via their consents to take part in the study. The participants who were enrolled in the second term of academic year 2017 were administered a collocational competence test which comprised 35 fill-in-the-blank items with optional alternatives. They were to answer a Likert's type questionnaire of 5 rating scales (Reliability coefficient = 0.96) probing their perceptions of the difficulty of collocations in parallel with each test item. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and One-Way ANOVA was computed to test the hypothesis. The results indicated that on the whole the participants had a 'moderate level' of collocational competence. They were not significantly different in terms of their collocational competence when it comes to their different years of studies. The participants perceived collocations as fairly difficult with the idiomatic collocations reported as being the most difficult category. The findings were discussed in relation to the theoretical difficulty of collocations and suggestions for pedagogy and further research were offered.