Browsing by Author "ِِAlrezqy, Abdulrahman"

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Investigating Saudi Students' Receptive and Productive Knowledge of English Collocations and the Factors Influencing it,
(The University of New South Wales, 2024-09) ِِAlrezqy, Abdulrahman; Peters, Hugues; Amberber, Mengistu
This research aims to investigate the receptive and productive knowledge of English collocations by Saudi EFL learners with a focus on four secondary objectives. Firstly, the thesis investigates the difference in performance between receptive and productive collocations. Secondly, it examines whether there is a correlation between knowledge of single words and knowledge of collocations. Thirdly, it investigates the influence of L1 on L2 in learning collocations. Fourthly, it examines whether there is a correlation between L2 learners' exposure to English and their knowledge of collocations. The research comprises 59 Saudi EFL university students majoring in English. A quantitative research approach was deployed, and the instruments involved a demographic questionnaire, two multiple-choice tests, and two gap-filling tests for vocabulary and collocations, receptively and productively. Given the participants' level of proficiency and frequency of the examined items, the research demonstrates that: (a) receptive knowledge of collocations exceeds productive knowledge; (b) L1 exerts a significant influence on the participants' performance on lexical collocations; (c) vocabulary knowledge is strongly correlated with collocational knowledge; and (d) greater exposure to English as an L2 positively and closely correlates with learners' collocational knowledge. This research suggests that EFL learners and teachers should be aware of the important role of collocations in learning English. The research findings emphasize the important role of exposure to the English language outside the classroom in enhancing EFL learners’ knowledge and use of collocations. Moreover, the research underscores implicit and explicit teaching strategies of collocations. The thesis highlights the need for further systematic research on collocations, particularly in the Arab world, to gain a better understanding of the difficulties faced by Arab EFL/ESL learners.
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