Translatability of Collocations: A Constant Challenge to EFL Learners

Abstract

Successful production of English collocations seems
to be a challenge to EFL learners at all levels. This paper
purports to be an assessment of the proficiency of advanced
university students in the area of English lexical collocations
as manifested in their translation from Arabic into English. A
number of varied and relatively sizeable texts translated by
nine MA students majoring in translation were subjected to
thorough scrutiny of deviant collocational clusters in their
written performance. The findings showed a relatively
inadequate proficiency level in this linguistic area as well as a
scale of acquisition difficulty in the different collocational
forms. Besides, the paper sketched eight distinct strategies
speculated to have been manipulated by the subjects while
engaged in the translation process. The results ushered into
the need to concentrate, formally and explicitly, on lexical
learning in general, and collocations in particular, at all
levels.