Vocabulary Teaching through Collocations Enhances Students Proficiency

Key words: collocations, noun phrases, verbs, aquisition, language proficiency ABSTRACT The main aim of this paper is to improve EFL learners’ language proficiency by building up their mental lexicon. The English Language Skills course aims to integrate the fours learning skills (reading, writing, speaking and listening) together, to raise students’ awareness of collocations and to advance their written English more effectively. This research study gives a special emphasis on classroom activities and strategies that assisted and facilitated the process of acquisition. The study was conducted over a period of one semester during the academic year 2012 and involving 22 participants. The learning outcome was measured based on a modified content analysis (Lewis, 2000). The participants involved had two exams: a midterm and a final one. The exam questions helped students understand that knowing a word definition is not enough in foreign language acquisition. In addition, the exam results showed that students became aware of the way the new vocabulary is used in L2. Therefore, introducing ‘collocations’ to first year English Department students at the Sout