The treatment of lexical collocations in EFL coursebooks in the Estonian secondary school context

Abstract

The article investigates lexical collocations encountered in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) instruction in Estonian upper secondary schools. This is achieved through a statistical analysis of collocations featuring in three coursebooks where the collocations found are analysed in terms of their type, frequency and usefulness index by studying them through an online language corpus (Collins Wordbanks Online). The coursebooks are systematically compared and contrasted relying upon the data gathered. The results of the study reveal that the frequency and range of lexical collocations in a language corpus have not been regarded as an essential criterion for their selection and practice by any of the coursebook authors under discussion.

Keywords

• coursebook evaluation
• corpus analysis
• lexical collocation
• EFL instruction
• Estonian secondary school level