Use of verb-noun collocations in spoken and written discourse of foreign learners in Iran (original) (raw)

The present study tries to explore the knowledge and the use of verb-noun collocations in spoken and written discourse of English as foreign language (EFL) learners in Iran. In addition, the current study aims at examining and describing possible correlation and the differences in knowledge and use of verb-noun collocations among four groups of Iranian EFL learners representing four academic years (freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior). The study also qualitatively examines the factors that influence Iranian EFL students’ use of verb-noun collocations. The participants in this study comprised of four groups of 212 male and female English students according to their academic years in the Department of English Translation, at the Islamic Azad University, Tehran North Branch (IAUTNB) in Tehran, Iran. Data was collected by two tests: a Cloze Test, and a collocation test, and a series of six pictures for writing and speaking. The Test of Collocation was a C-Test in which there were 50...