A Comparative Study on the Effect of Contrived vs. Authentic Texts on Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’ Lexical Collocations Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of two models of texts (contrived versus authentic texts) on Iranian intermediate EFL learners’ lexical collocation learning. The participants were sixty students majoring in English. They were students in the second semester of academic year 2015 who were selected through a proficiency test titled Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT), administered at the commencement of the study, the result of which showed that the two groups were homogeneous in terms of their language proficiency. They were divided into two equal comparison groups: The Authentic Text group (AT) and Contrived Text group (CT), either of which included thirty ones.  The quantitative data on the participants’ knowledge on lexical collocations were collected using a pre-planned pretest on lexical collocation, comprising forty multiple-choice-items. The pretest on lexical collocation went through a pilot study. The same version of the test of lexical collocation, with the rearrangement of some items, was administered to the both comparison groups after the completion of the treatment period for the AT group and placebo for the CT group. The analysis of the quantitative data was done using Independent Samples T-test and paired-samples T-test. The results of the Paired-samples T-test and Independent Samples T-test indicated that the AT group was significantly different from the control group; in other words, the AT group outperformed the CT group.  Pedagogical implications and suggestions for further research were included as well.