Collocation in Descriptive Texts of Mataram Muhammadiyah University Students

Abstract

This corpus-based study aims to analyse the use of collocations in handwritten descriptive texts of Muhammadiyah Mataram University students in the Intensive English Class course. The research focuses on the results of the IEC final exam, with the object of research in the form of students' handwriting. Data were collected from descriptive texts written by students during the final exam. The analysis method involves the identification and classification of collocation types based on the taxonomy of Benson, Ilson, and Benson (1997). The results revealed the existence of two kinds of collocations, namely lexical and grammatical. Significantly, the number of lexical collocations was more dominant than grammatical collocations. Analysis of collocation patterns showed that the verb (transitive)- noun pattern was the most frequent, while the adjective-that clause had the lowest frequency. Furthermore, the findings indicate that adjective-noun is the most frequent correct collocation, while the adjective-that clause is the collocation type with the highest error. This study provides important implications for teaching collocation in the context of English as a foreign language.