THE EFFECT OF ERROR CORRECTION FEEDBACK ON THE COLLOCATION COMPETENCE OF IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS

Collocations are one of the most important elements in language proficiency but the effect of error correction feedback of collocations has not been thoroughly examined. Some researchers report the usefulness and importance of error correction (Hyland, 1990; Bartram & Walton, 1991; Ferris, 1999; Chandler, 2003), while others showed that error correction was of little or no use (Leki, 1990; Truscott, 1996). However, teachers use error correction feedback of collocations most of the time in teaching even though it has not been proven whether there was effect on the improvement of collocation competence of EFL students or not. The researcher tried to investigate the effect of error correction feedback on various categories of lexical collocations (V+N, Adj.+N, N+N), and grammatical collocations (Adj.+Prep.,V+Prep., N) in this study based on Benson, Benson and Ilson's (1986) collocations model. The results revealed that error correction feedback was significant and had a positive effect on the collocation competence at advanced and intermediate levels, but not at the elementary level.