Iraqi EFL learners' use of English lexical

Abstract EN

Collocation' refers to the habitual co-occurrence of words in a linguistic form.

The patterning of lexical collocations does not follow some particular rules.

It is highly subject to the native speakers' tendencies and to their cultures.

Thus, mastering lexical collocations of the English language is a major problem for the Iraqi EFL learners.

The incompatibility between collocations in the learners' mother tongue,(i.e.

Arabic language) and those of the target language, (i.e.

English language) may further complicate the problem.

In the light of this problem, this study aims at investigating the Iraqi EFL learners' use of the English lexical collocations.

The theoretical part of this study presents a discussion of lexical collocations in Arabic and English.

The practical part is intended to statistically measure the Iraqi EFL learners' ability to use English lexical collocations accurately.

The statistics shows a low level of performance on the Iraqi EFL learners' part.

It is also concluded that the learners employ literal transfer from their mother tongue, substitution, and generalization as communicative strategies to overcome their deficiency in using the English lexical collocations accurately (see 6).