EXPLORING EFFECTS OF EXPLICIT VS. IMPLICIT TEACHING OF COLLOCATIONS ON THE WRITING PERFORMANCE OF IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS

The methods and the strategies employed in classrooms by English as foreign language teachers (EFL) to enhance EFL learnersʹ skills in L2 process is a disputable and controversial issue all over the world. In fact, it seems vital to employ a method which is simultaneously functional and effective in teaching and learning process. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two different methods of teaching collocations, namely explicit and implicit, on the Iranian EFL learnersʹ performance in using these collocations in paragraph writing. In order to conduct this study, 36 pre-university students were randomly selected, divided into two separate groups (namely explicit and implicit). In this study, the class following explicit method was called experimental group and the other group following implicit method was called control one. Both groups took a pre-test to evaluate their writing ability at the beginning of the term and after the class room treatment, the entire participants were given the same topics as post-test to write about them. This post-test was assumed as a summative evaluation. The participantsʹ performance in pre-test had almost the equal mean score, while the performances of the both groups in post-test were significantly different. The result of the study indicated that the group receiving explicit method of teaching collocations (experimental group) outperformed in using collocations in paragraph writing.