Investigating Students’ Use of Computer Assisted Language Learning in Learning English Collocations Case of Study: EFL Learners in Algeria

Abstract

Teaching and learning collocations have received a great attention over the years, because of their importance in the field of learning languages. However, with the advance of technology, new ways of teaching collocations have emerged and made a great shift in the educational sphere. The present dissertation is intended to investigate the use of Computer Assisted Language Learning in learning collocations among EFL learners of Algeria. Hence, it is assumed that EFL students in the Algerian universities use some applications to develop their collocations. Therefore, to answer the research questions and test the assumption, quantitative and qualitative descriptive data, as mentioned in the methodology, were collected through a questionnaire submitted to 204 students of English from 26 universities. The obtained results revealed that EFL students of Algeria are using different kinds of Computer Assisted Language Learning applications; however, most of the students went for social media applications. These applications are not specialized in developing one’s collocations but rather are applications used by all of people and for different purposes. Besides, time constraints and the small number of representatives were the major limitations during the accomplishment of this work. Eventually, the research work provides recommendations for pedagogy and future research with the purpose of drawing more attention to learners’ and teachers’ awareness of using specialised CALL applications in order to develop collocations