Investigation of relation between 5th grades' collocational knowledge and reading comprehension

Language acquisition takes place as a result of the processes of recording multi-word structures, analyzing, and generalizing these records as a result of accumulated experiences related to language. Collocations have a special place in language acquisition and education research. In this study, it is aimed to examine the relationship between 5th grade students' noun-verb collocation vocabulary and their reading comprehension skills in terms of reading frequency and gender variables. The study was conducted with a total of 929 students studying in the 5th grade. The Noun-Verb Collocation Vocabulary (AESB) Test was developed with 545 students, and then Ülper et al. (2017) analyzed the results in relation to the Reading Comprehension Test results. Reliability of the test: the Kr-20 value was calculated as 0.78. A one-way analysis of variance was performed for the construct validity of the AESB Test. There is a significant difference (p=.020) between the scores of the items in the transparent, semi-transparent, and opaque categories. There is a high level of positive and significant correlation between the Reading Comprehension Test and AESB Test scores. Both the noun-verb collocation vocabulary and reading comprehension scores increased as the reading frequency increased. According to gender, female students' noun-verb collocation vocabulary and reading comprehension skills were higher than those of males. The relationship between students' reading comprehension skills and noun-verb collocation word processing was examined through the Lexical Decision Task. A moderately negative correlation is found between the 5th grade students' Reading Comprehension Test scores and their reaction times. The study revealed that the semantic transparency and frequency of collocation words affect the processing time.