| The present study investigates the relationship between lexical competence and L2 proficiency at the deep word knowledge level (Zareva et al. 2005) and between both receptive and productive collocational competence and L2 proficiency (Gyllstad 2007, 2009; Keshavarz & Salami 2007; Eyckmans 2009; Gitsaki 1999; Bonk 2001; Eyckmans et al. 2004; Boers et al. 2006). Three different vocabulary/collocation tests and a proficiency measure were presented to participants in five different, but related studies.;Results show that L2 proficiency can be predicted on the basis of lexical competence, confirming Zareva et al.'s (2005) established relationship between lexical competence at the deep word knowledge level and overall proficiency, therefore extending the predictive relationship between lexical competence and L2 proficiency established at the vocabulary size level (Meara & Buxton 1987; Meara & Jones 1988; Meara 1996; Nation & Beglar 2007). Results also indicate that receptive collocational competence can predict L2 proficiency, which confirms earlier findings (Gyllstad 2007, 2009; Keshavarz & Salami 2007; Eyckmans 2009). Similarly, results indicate a strong relationship between controlled productive collocational competence and L2 proficiency, confirming and extending Gitsaki's (1999), Bonk's (2001), Eyckmans et al.'s (2004), and Boers et al.'s (2006) findings that productive knowledge of collocations is an indication of L2 proficiency. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that collocational knowledge growth can be quantified according to both proficiency and word frequency levels, which gives empirical support to and furthermore extends Nation's (1990) and Nation & Beglar's (2007) confirmed role of frequency in word knowledge, and Laufer's (1998) and Zhong & Hirsh's (2009) findings as regards the quantifiability of words gained as a result of change in proficiency.;The implications of the findings of this study are that the established relationship between L2 proficiency and lexical competence implies that L2 proficiency is narrowly definable, meaning that L2 proficiency testing can be simplified. Moreover, collocational competence growth is dependent on both proficiency and word frequency levels. Therefore, the teaching of collocations should take into account both learning stages and word frequency too, laying some basic groundwork for the development of a collocation based syllabus. |
