Translatability of collocations : a constant challenge to EFL learners

Abstract EN

Successful production of English collocations seems to be a challenge to EFL learners at all levels.

This paper purports to be an assessment of the proficiency of advanced university students in the area of English lexical collocations as manifested in their translation from Arabic into English.

A number of varied and relatively sizeable texts translated by nine MA students majoring in translation were subjected to thorough scrutiny of deviant collocational clusters in their written performance.

The findings showed a relatively inadequate proficiency level in this linguistic area as well as a scale of acquisition difficulty in the different collocational forms.

Besides, the paper sketched eight distinct strategies speculated to have been manipulated by the subjects while engaged in the translation process.

The results ushered into the need to concentrate, formally and explicitly, on lexical learning in general, and collocations in particular, at all levels.