Masoud Rahimi Domakani - Shahrekord University
Ali Roohani - Shahrekord University
Adeleh Zare - Shahrekord University

Learning collocations as one of the most important kinds of formulaic expressions (FEs) are a challenging task for second/foreign language (L2) learners. Therefore, new and effective methods should be employed in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms to develop EFL learners' collocational competence. This study was an attempt to investigate the effects of three attentional conditions in the attainment of L2 collocations. To this end, 73 pre-university EFL students were randomly selected and then divided into 2 groups: experimental (n = 46) and control (n = 27)groups. Also, the participants in the experimental group were randomly divided into 3 groups (meaning-based, memorization-based and rule-based). To assess their collocational knowledge, a pretest was given to the 4 groups. to evaluate their collocational knowledge. During the treatment, 14 reading passages were presented to participants who had to read them and do 3 tasks. Two of the tasks were similar for all the three groups and one was different, based on the attentional condition. In the meaning-based group, there was no focal attention to the collocations and in the other two groups, the participants’ focal attention was drawn towards the collocational patterns. After the treatment, a collocation test was given to the EFL participantsto assess their collocational achievement. The results is demonstrated that the treatments with focal attention to the collocations were more successful (memorization-based group and rule-based group) than the treatment in which there was a peripheral attention to the collocations (meaning-based group). Also, the rule-based group had the highest collocation attainment. The findings imply that, drawing learners' focal attention towards collocational combinations through memorizing the patterns and also rule understanding can help learners in acquiring the collocational knowledge

Formulaic expression, Collocation, Focal attention, Peripheral attention