EFL 학습자의 연어 사용과 오류

The use of collocations by EFL learners and their errors

  This study explores collocation competence of Korean EFL learners at the college level and their problem-solving processes by analysing their responses to a collocation test and their common errors in performing the test. 157 university freshmen participated in the study and they were divided into three different groups based on their TOEIC test scores. The collocation test consisted of 20 items of four categories: verb+noun, adjective+noun, noun+verb and adverb+verb. Each item required the learners to judge the appropriateness of the collocational phrases given in the context. The results showed that there was no significant difference among the three groups in the performance of the collocation test. In addition, the most difficult items were related to the adjective+noun type and the verb+noun type. Lastly, most students depended on guessing strategies to cope with the collocation task. The findings suggest that acceptable and frequent collocational expressions should be included in a syllabus for EFL college students and more explicit collocation teaching and learning is required to improve their collocation competence.