COLLOCATIONAL COMPETENCE IN L2 ENGLISH: ORIGIN, DEFINITIONS, EMPIRICAL RESEARCH AND PEDAGOGICAL IMPLICATIONS

<p>This review article examines the concept of collocational competence in learning English as a foreign language, considering its theoretical foundations, definitional development, empirical research, and pedagogical implications. Drawing on Firth’s principle that word meaning is shaped through its typical co-occurrence patterns and Halliday’s concept of lexicogrammar, collocational competence is situated within contemporary theories of phraseology. The paper synthesizes findings from corpus-based studies and classroom research, which demonstrate that collocational knowledge plays a crucial role in the development of idiomaticity, fluency, and overall communicative competence across diverse educational contexts. Existing research consistently shows that collocational competence develops more slowly than vocabulary size, and that even advanced learners experience difficulties in the productive use of conventionalized word combinations. Verb–noun collocations, low-frequency and semantically opaque combinations, as well as collocations that are incongruent with learners’ first-language patterns, are particularly problematic. These findings confirm that collocational knowledge does not emerge spontaneously through exposure to language alone but requires targeted and systematic pedagogical intervention. The paper further highlights the importance of explicit, corpus-informed, and strategy-based instruction, which has proven significantly more effective than implicit learning. Successful approaches include working with authentic corpora, developing noticing and memory strategies, and integrating collocations into tasks focused on real-life language use. At the same time, key methodological and conceptual challenges are identified, including inconsistent definitions, a limited number of longitudinal studies, and insufficiently contextualized assessment models. The study concludes by emphasizing the need for integrated curricular frameworks and mixed-method assessment approaches that link collocational competence to communicative outcomes across different proficiency levels.</p>