AN ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH LEXICAL COLLOCATION IN TRANSACTIONAL SPEAKING AMONG STUDENTS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AT ALAUDDIN STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF MAKASSAR

Abstract

This study focused on the use of lexical collocations in transactional speaking

skills of final year students majoring in English. This study aimed to determine the

students ability in using lexical collocation and identifiy its type in their transactional

speaking. The study conducted in Alauddin State Islamic University of Makassar. The

subject of this study were the final year students of English Education Department.

These students can be categorized as the intermediate learners of English because they

took speaking lectures one to three. It was important for their collocational knowledge

to be native-like. This study used a qualitative method. Researcher used interview as

the data collection tool. Then, the researcher analysed the transcript of the interview.

In analysing, researcher determined the collocation words and the types too, used

Oxford online collocation dictionary to check whether the collocation were true or

not. The findings showed that the students used English lexical collocations in their

transactional speaking. Researcher found 179 English lexical collocations are used by

the students. 81 of those collocations are correct. Researcher also found that they used

four types from total 6 types (based on Benson&Ilson) of English lexical collocation

which they tend to use the type 1 than the other types. The study therefore suggested

that the teacher and students should more concerned about the collocational

knowledge in this case lexical collocation.