Mehrdad Mohajeri/ Elixir Social Studies 67 (2014) 21763-21772 21763 Introduction Collocation has become one of the central concerns in EFL teaching and learning for years. Many researchers have understood the influence and importance of collocation and the need for collocation teaching in EFL courses (Brown 1974, Natinger 1980, Bahns and Eldaw.1983, Howarth 1988). Statement of the Problem One of the obscurities for EFL learners comes from the fact that some collocations are acceptable and some not or “collocational competence” (Hill, 1990). When we are dealing with collocation, some problems like negative transfer from L1 may happen; so learners may try to use overgeneralization for collocations. There is a wrong habit that students learn words by paying attentions to their definitions without taking a look at the appropriate collocations about that word. They are prone to learn them individually. Sometimes they even don’t care about pronunciation. That`s why they will have a lot of mistakes while using collocation. As a result, when they read a passage, they won`t notice collocations as meaningful phrases, which would stop them to understand the text. This study tries to the better understanding about collocation which is the principal step to deal with the above problems. EFL learners usually focus on the individual words and disregard other important information. EFL learners learn collocations as separate words rather than in a collocational context. Thus, it seems that native speakers use a top-down strategy whereas EFL learners adopt a bottom-up strategy, native speakers proceed from whole to parts and non- native speakers proceed from parts to wholes (Shokuhi 2010). Collocations are main part of language use and the only factor which separate native and non-native speakers is mastery over collocation .(Ellis,2001).The most challenging view pointed out so far is that collocation competence is a vital element in the process of second/foreign language acquisition (Lewis, 1997, 2000, Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992; Richards & Rogers, 2001). The importance of using collocation made researchers carry out some studies. Many studies investigated learners’ knowledge of collocation (Bahns & Eldaw, 1993; Biskup, 1992) or analyzed some collocation errors and collocation teaching. Collocation is considered in all languages. Bright ideas can be developed easily and simply by the use of collocation (Lewis, 2000). When learners facing collocational problems, they use shorter collocational expressions and utilizing grammar is one of the strategies. Therefore, lack of collocational knowledge forces foreign language learner to get help from grammar to express his /her opinion which consequently result in grammatical errors. Hence, cause of many grammatical errors is lexical deficiency (Lewis, 2000). Finally it’s so clear that unusual word combinations will be created. Collocations are the most essential yet tricky part of language. Recently many researchers have pointed out the significance of teaching and learning collocation in developing language fluency, increasing language and communicative competence (Bans&Eldaw.1993, channel, 1981, Howarth, 1998, Nattinger, 1988). collocational knowledge is a necessary tool in the language teaching and learning. Lack of collocational knowledge forces language learners to produce wrong collocation in their writing Purpose and Scope of the Study University students in Iran are currently required to pass an English proficiency test for studying abroad. Among various English proficiency tests available, IELTS&TOEFL are the most well-known among students. In fact speaking can noticeably change score of the examinees. Based on some studies that have been done, mastery over collocations can help language learners speak more fluently (Brown, 1974; Ellis & The knowledge and Use of collocations and their Relation with English Speaking Proficiency among Upper- intermediate to Advanced Iranian EFL Learners Mehrdad Mohajeri English Department, Islamic Azad University, Shahreza Branch. ABSTRACT The main purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge and use of English lexical collocations and their relation to the speaking proficiency among upper- intermediate to advanced Iranian EFL learner students at Sadr Institute of higher Education. It is worth mentioning that all of the students had already passed placement test and were preparing themselves for IELTS exam. Data for the study were collected from 20 students. The participants were asked to take 2 tests .The first one was a lexical collocational test for estimating the knowledge of lexical collocation. Another one was an IELTS speaking test, to collect the participants ‘use of lexical collocation and understanding their speaking fluency. Data analysis for correlations between the subjects’ knowledge of lexical collocations and their speaking proficiency showed that there was a significantly positive correlation between students ‘knowledge of lexical collocation and their speaking proficiency in IELTS success. Current study concluded that knowledge of lexical collocation play a significant role in develop speaking proficiency particularly in IELTS exam. © 2014 Elixir All rights reserved ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received: 3 August 2013; Received in revised form: 24 January 2014; Accepted: 15 February 2014; Keywords Collocations, Proficiency, Intermediate, EFL. Elixir Social Studies 67 (2014) 21763-21772 Social Studies Available online at www.elixirpublishers.com (Elixir International Journal) Tele: E-mail addresses: mehrdadmohajeri@yahoo.com © 2014 Elixir All rights reserved