Palestinian EFL Learners' Use of English Lexical Collocations

Abstract

This study tries to make a comparative study between English and Arabic languages in terms of collocations. Also, the present study attempts to assess Palestinian students' comprehension and use of collocations.  To this end, the theoretical part of this study presents a discussion of lexical collocations in Arabic and English. Moreover, the practical part is aimed to statistically measure the Palestinian EFL learners' ability to use English lexical collocations accurately. The participants were 35 third year students from Islamic University of Gaza. Semi-structured interviews a paper-and-pencil test were used to collect data.   The results show a low level of performance on the Palestinian EFL learners' part.  Also, the findings revealed that the learners employ literal transfer from their mother tongue, and different strategies in order to compensate their deficiency in using the English lexical collocations. The paper concludes with some recommendations that could enhance the process of translation and as well as teaching/learning process.