The Application of Projected Visuals in Teaching Collocations to Intermediate EFL Learners Zohre Asgari Rad ELT Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran Andisheh Saniei ELT Department, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran Abstract—The present study is an attempt to investigate the effective of using projected visuals, pictures in the form of slides displayed through projectors, in teaching English collocations on students’ learning. To this end, 60 Iranian EFL learners were selected out of 90 based on their performance on a language proficiency test, PET, and were assigned randomly into two homogeneous groups of control and experimental. Both groups took a 40-item researcher-made, validated pretest of collocations whose reliability was calculated as 0.74 through KR-21. 130 collocations were presented to each group in ten sessions through ten tables which consisted of 10 to 15 collocations with their L2 definitions and L1 (Persian) equivalents. The control group was required to make sentences, including the newly instructed collocations following the examples provided by the instructor, while the experimental group was shown a set of slides related to the newly-instructed collocations and was asked to determine the intended collocation related to each picture. After receiving ten treatment sessions, both groups took the posttest. The collected data were analyzed through ANCOVA and the results indicated that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group. Therefore, the use of visuals as instructional aids in teaching English collocations is proved helpful and recommended to those EFL instructors who are seeking for enhancing their students’ learning through more effective materials. Index Terms—English collocations, projected visuals, teaching aids, collocation teaching and learning I. INTRODUCTION Learning language has been occurred significantly through words and co-occurrence of words, namely collocations. In the existing literature, collocations are defined as the tendency of one word to co-occur with one or several other words in a particular domain so as to give a specific meaning (Hsu, 2007; Nation, 2001; Nesselhauf, 2003). The significance of collocations for communicative competence and the evolution of L2 vocabulary have been highlighted by a number of researchers (Benson, 1985; Cowie, 1994; Lewis, 1997) who commented on how to teach the non-native speakers English collocations. The collocation knowledge as an essential part of native speakers’ competence makes learner creative in producing or processing language fluently (Forquera, 2006; Hsu & Chiu, 2008; Nation, 2001; Schmitt, 2000) and helps them “think more quickly and communicate more efficiently” (Hill, 2000, p. 54). In fact, one central feature of language production which can make a difference between a native and a non-native speaker is the use of collocations (McCarty, 1990; Nation,2001; Wouden, 1997), and the improved knowledge of collocations could help learners be informed of language chunks and muli-word items used by native speakers (Narmvar, 2012). Despite the major role of collocations in second language learning and teaching, many researchers have specified that collocation learning/teaching is still one problematic area in second language acquisition (Bahns & Eldaw, 1993; Millar, 2005; Taiwo, 2004; Walsh, 2005). Similarly, Aghbar’s studies (1990) have shown that the lack of learners’ collocation knowledge causes their poor performances of the second language. With no exception, Iranian learners who learn English in an EFL context have similar problems in using collocations despite having the required knowledge of grammar and vocabulary. Although collocation learning might be a slow process, it can be enhanced by different strategies and techniques among which technological aids is an effective one. One of the most valuable and effective aids in language learning and teaching is the application of visuals, such as pictures, which attract learners’ attention and interest to the materials being taught in order to create “images of reality into the unnatural world of the language classroom” (Hill, 1990, p.1). This implies that using visuals holds the learners’ attention on meaning and helps them to make the language used in the class more refreshing. Although finding pictures for illustrating the meanings of words especially abstract ones is too difficult and somehow exhausting and time consuming for beginning teachers in particular, “the availability, variety, cheapness, and flexibility of visuals make teaching effective” (Hill, 1990, p.1). Moreover, using pictures in foreign language teaching for demonstration of words, expressions, idioms, and proverbs are always fresh and different (Hill, ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 7, No. 6, pp. 1136-1141, November 2016 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0706.11 © 2016 ACADEMY PUBLICATION