The Impact of Decision-making Tasks and Production Tasks on the Collocational Knowledge of Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners

Abstract

The current study is an attempt to investigate the impact of decision-making (selecting and matching) tasks and production (creation of sentences and completion of sentences) tasks on the collocational knowledge of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To this end, sixty EFL learners were divided into two experimental (decision-making and production) groups. To determine the effects of the tasks, the participants in the two groups were given the collocation pre-test aiming at examining their existing knowledge of collocation. After being exposed to the treatment, they were given the collocation post-test to measure the learners' gained knowledge. The results of the paired-samples t-test revealed that both groups had manifested significant enhancement in their knowledge of collocation after the treatment. Furthermore the results of the independent-samples t-test indicated that the production group performed better than decision-making group. In other words, production tasks were more effective in increasing the collocational knowledge of the participants.