Investigating the Role of Language Proficiency in Acquiring Delexical Collocations of Do, Make and Get by Iranian EFL Learners

Delexical collocations are of the most error-prone types of collocations. Regarding the importance of these tiny words in L2 competency, the present study investigates the importance of proficiency level in detecting and producing delexical collocations Do, Make, and Get. To elicit the data, ninety male and female subjects were selected from among BA students of Arak and Shushtar Payam Noor University, Iran, majoring in translation English at 3 proficiency levels that is, low, intermediate, and high. The selection of the participants was based on their scores on a proficiency test (Nelson, general proficiency tests (Fowler & Coe, 1976). Participants’ knowledge of delexical collocation was examined through a conceptually judgment task (to detect their receptive knowledge) and a translation test (to estimate their productive knowledge). The results reveal that Persian L2 learners have been much better in receptive than productive tasks at all three levels. Analyzing the test items also revealed that delexical collocations of Do and Make were more salient to detect than delexical collocation Get, however, these collocations (Do and Make) were highly problematic in translation tests, especially for lower level learners. Accordingly, language proficiency plays a major role in receiving and producing delexical collocations of Do, Make, and Get.