Role of Collocation in Enhancing Sudanese UndergraduateStudents’ Reading Comprehension (A case Study of 3rd Year Students College of Education Sudan University of Science and Technology)

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the role of collocation in enhancing Sudanese undergraduate students’ reading comprehension. The general assumption is that English Language learners at university level need to improve their reading comprehension by enriching their vocabulary knowledge. This study aims to demonstrate that language use requires collocation knowledge, identifying the main causes behind the difficulties which students encounter in theirreading comprehensionsuggesting some devices that enrich vocabulary knowledge. Thestudy employed threetools to collect data; teachers’ questionnaire, students’ tests(pre and posttest) and a course of collocation. This accomplished through several steps: 1- Choosing 24 students at the English department, College of Education, at Sudan University of Science and Technology as subjects. 2- 50 instructors of English, who are all holders of different collegedegrees in English language, answered the teachers’ questionnaire. They all teach in different English departments at different Sudanese universities. The data collected via the questionnaire and the two tests were subjected to statistical analysis using the SPSS package program. The main findings show that Sudanese Undergraduate Students (SUS) find difficulties in understanding the use of collocation. They concentrate their language learning on grammar rather than other aspects of language learning. Most of the English Department (ED)at the Sudanese Colleges(SC) donot include collocation teaching in their syllabi.The study concluded that collocation knowledge brought about statistically significant change in the performance of the students in the posttest which means that the students got benefit from the collocation course applied from the middle of September to the first week of December), so, comprehending language in chunks(collocation) leads to enhancing and comprehending reading. The study recommended the implementation of teaching collocation for Sudanese students majoring English at their syllabi. It also recommended intensive and extensive reading from their first year at university.The study gives some suggestions on other further studies ininvestigating the role of collocation on enhancing writing, listening or communication. It also point out that more findings may be anticipated by exploring more other instruments e.g interview or group discussion.