Collocation errors made by students of English Education Study Program

Vocabulary is an important part in learning language and it is better to learn words in chunks rather than in isolation. Collocation is part of vocabulary that is important to be learned because it helps students to use natural words combination in communication. However, teacher candidates in English Education Study Program still make mistakes in collocation, resulting in unnaturalness or awkward expressions used. Through this study, the researcher aims to find the common collocation problems made by students and to find the possible causes of errors made by students. The instruments used in this study are collocation test and interview protocol. After trying out the test to 59 students of English Education Study Program of Academic Years 2014 and 2015, the answers are computed into table and being analyzed based on the types, frequency, and strength of collocations. The interview result is also computed into table to classify the possible causes of errors. From this study, based on types, frequency, and strength of collocations, it is found that verb + noun, high frequency level, and strong collocation receive the most errors respectively. The possible causes of errors found are misconception, lack of knowledge, and interference of other language. Based on the findings, the researcher hopes that collocation awareness to be raised in the English Education Study Program by allocating more part of collocation in vocabulary class and by exposing students to collocation through reading and effective teaching methods