On the learnability of various patterns of lexical collocations by Iranian upper intermediate learners of English

To investigate the effect of different patterns of lexical collocations on the recognition and production of Iranian upper-intermediate learners of English, thirty four participants at Imam Khomeini International University (IKIU) in Qazvin were presented with receptive and productive tests of English collocations. To compare the participants' recognition of various patterns of lexical collocations, a one-way ANOVA procedure was used. Results indicated that the 'adjective + noun' pattern of lexical collocations was less problematic than the other patterns, although the differences among the scores of the participants on the different patterns were not statistically significant. Another one-way ANOVA procedure was used to compare the participants' production of the same patterns. Analysis showed that Iranian learners of English experience significantly greater problems with the 'noun + verb' pattern of lexical collocations in comparison with the other patterns.

patterns, lexical collocations