Tracing the Growth of Collocational Competence in Indonesian Non-English Major EFL Learners

Abstrak

Collocational competence plays a critical role in shaping the fluency and naturalness of second language use, yet it remains a persistent challenge for learners in foreign language contexts. This study examined the development of collocational knowledge among Indonesian university students from non-English majors through a six-week instructional intervention combining noticing tasks, matching exercises, and productive writing activities. Using a quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design with 20 participants, results revealed significant gains in collocational competence, with the group mean rising from 43.2 to 79.6 and a very large effect size (d = 4.36). Learners with the weakest initial performance showed the greatest improvements, and overall variance decreased, indicating the equalizing impact of explicit collocational instruction. These findings suggest that collocational competence is highly responsive to focused and contextualized learning, even in contexts with limited exposure to authentic input. The study contributes empirical support for integrating collocational instruction into EFL programs for non-English majors and highlights the pedagogical potential of phraseological approaches to vocabulary teaching in higher education.