EXPLORING TOOLS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERB-NOUN COLLOCATION INSTRUCTION: DIGITAL AID VERSUS PAPER EXERCISES

This study investigated the effectiveness of a specially designed online collocation assistant in comparison to traditional paper-based exercises for improving verb-noun collocation skills among Turkish university students learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Grounded in the lexical approach, which emphasizes the importance of learning word combinations in authentic contexts rather than isolated vocabulary items, a quasi-experimental research design was employed. The study included 24 participants who were randomly assigned to two equal groups: one using the online collocation tool and the other working with printed materials. To evaluate learners' collocational development, multiple data collection instruments were used, including pre-tests and post-tests measuring receptive knowledge of target verb-noun collocations, paragraph writing tasks to assess productive use, a quality review checklist to gather students’ feedback on the digital tool, and a background information questionnaire to collect demographic data. Both groups studied the same target collocations over the same period, albeit through different instructional formats. Statistical analysis of the test scores indicated no significant difference between the online and paper-based groups in either receptive or productive collocational knowledge. Similarly, no notable variation was found in the frequency of errors related to the target collocations. However, a closer examination of the paragraph writing tasks revealed that non-target collocation errors differed depending on the instructional method. The online group tended to produce more systematic, form-based errors, while the paper group exhibited more varied but contextually influenced mistakes. These findings suggest that while both instructional methods can lead to comparable outcomes in learning target collocations, the type and pattern of errors may vary based on how learners engage with the materials. The results highlight the importance of exploring how instructional design influences incidental learning and underscore the need for further studies on integrating digital tools into collocation instruction in EFL contexts.