FACTORS AFFECTING THE IRAQI EFL LEARNERS’ COLLOCATION APPLICATION

Abstract

The primary goal of this research is to study Iraqi EFL learners’ collocation performance at Al-Iraqya University/ College of Arts/ English Department. Those learners encounter barriers using collocations in their English texts (written and spoken contexts) on the two phases; recognition phase and production phase. Not being aware of the sufficient skill to use collocations in a context when their existence is necessary to deliver the exact meaning could cause misunderstanding of some or even whole material. Thus, the study utilizes the Bandura’s theory (1986) ‘theory of planned behavior’. The survey is of the type of a self-administered questionnaire, which is the major method for the data collection. The questionnaire has two parts; the demographic part that supports a general background of the students.. t, and the other part is subdivided into two parts: the first branch asks questions that investigate the theoretical part of the study like their interest in observing English contexts and the time they consume per week on such practice. The other branch contains 40 multiple-choice questions (MCQ) of English collocations. The participants of the study were 48 Iraqi students at the fourth stage at the English Department. The findings exposed that the learners who show more efficiency English collocations appear to have longer experience in surfing the net and watching English texts whether visual, audio, written, or a combination of two or more of such aspects. In addition to the importance of the current study to the literature, it grants a pedagogical contribution to the academic fields.