Is Node-Word Frequency or Collocation Frequency a Stronger Predictor of University EFL Learners’ Receptive Knowledge of Collocations?

The present study aims to shed light on the factors which might affect university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners’ receptive knowledge of collocations. The participants were ۷۳ university EFL students whose Vocabulary Levels Test was analyzed. The findings showed that both node-word frequency and collocation frequency are moderate predictors of receptive knowledge of collocations. However, collocation frequency is a better predictor than node-word frequency. These findings can be attributed to the efficient way of learning collocations in comparison to single words and the learners’ proficiency levels.

Keywords:

collocations , Vocabulary Levels Test , node-word frequency , collocation frequency , university EFL students