This paper assesses the relationship between EFL proficiency, lexical competence, and collocational competence (cf. Meara 1996; Pawley & Syder 1983; Read 1993, 1997, 2000; Bonk 2001). Two paper-based tests, a proficiency test and a vocabulary test, were presented to English majors at the University of Burundi. Scores on both tests significantly correlate and distinguish between levels. This confirms that lexical competence is a reliable predictor of L2 proficiency, which strengthens and extends earlier findings (Meara 1996; Bonk 2001; Gyllstad 2005, 2007; Zareva et al. 2005). Furthermore, mastery of collocations is found to be related to frequency and to predict lexical competence. Thus, the findings of this study underline earlier indications that proficiency testing may be simplified.

The present study explores the relationship between controlled productive knowledge of collocations and L2 proficiency, the role of frequency in controlled productive knowledge of collocations, and the quantifiability of controlled productive collocational knowledge growth alongside L2 proficiency and word frequency levels.A proficiency measure and a productive collocation test modelled on Laufer and Nation (1999) were presented to Belgian and Burundian English majors. The results show that scores on both tests distinguish between proficiency levels and, furthermore, highly correlate. This suggests that controlled productive knowledge of collocations develops as proficiency increases, supporting earlier studies (Boers,

The present study investigates (i) English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' receptive collocational knowledge growth in relation to their linguistic proficiency level; (ii) how much receptive collocational knowledge is acquired as linguistic proficiency develops; and (iii) the extent to which receptive knowledge of collocations of EFL learners varies across word frequency bands. A proficiency measure and a collocation test were administered to English majors at the University of Burundi. The results of the study suggest that receptive collocational competence develops alongside EFL learners' linguistic proficiency, which lends empirical support to Gyllstad (2007Gyllstad ( , 2009 and Nizonkiza (2011), among others, who reported similar findings. Furthermore, EFL learners' collocational knowledge growth seems to be quantifiable, where both linguistic proficiency level and word frequency occupy crucial roles. While more collocational gains that EFL learners could potentially add as a result of change in proficiency are found at lower levels of proficiency, collocations of words from more frequent word bands seem to be mastered first, and more gains are found at more frequent word bands. These results confirm earlier findings on the non-linear nature of vocabulary growth (cf. Meara 1996) and the fundamental role played by frequency in word knowledge for vocabulary in general (Nation 1983(Nation , 1990Nation and Beglar 2007), which are extended here to include collocational knowledge.Keywords: receptive knowledge of collocations, English as Foreign Language, linguistic proficiency, word frequency IntroductionCollocations are lexical combinations preferred by native speakers of a language -in this case English -e.g. say a prayer, draw a conclusion, make a mistake, do justice, and lose count rather than *tell a prayer, *pull a conclusion, *do a mistake, *make justice and *drop count 1 , respectively. Collocations have increasingly attracted research attention over the past few years (Barfield and Gyllstad 2009). Scholars such as Pawley and Syder (1983) and Wray (2002), among 1 These examples were taken from Gyllstad (2007: 1-2 others, have convincingly demonstrated that collocations are important in second language (L2) and foreign language (FL) contexts as they help users to achieve fluency and thus sound nativelike. Pawley and Syder (1983: 192), for instance, state that " [t]he stock of lexicalized sentence stems known to the ordinary mature speaker of English amounts to hundreds of thousands". For them, these lexicalised and semi-lexicalised sentences, which are retrieved as wholes, facilitate fluency. This view is supported by empirical evidence from scholars who have attempted to examine the relationship between collocations and L2/FL proficiency, among other things. Boers, Eyckmans, Kappel, Stengers and Demecheleer (2006), for instance, have established a relationship between collocational competence and oral proficiency among EFL learners. Many other studies have also revealed that collocations can ...

This paper assesses the extent to which L2 learners' controlled productive collocational knowledge increases with proficiency level, and the extent to which controlled produc-tive collocational knowledge of L2 learners changes across word frequency levels. A proficiency test and a collocation test modelled after Laufer & Nation (1999) were administered to English majors at the University of Burundi. The results of the study suggest that controlled productive collocational knowledge develops alongside L2 proficiency without significant gains at low levels. This empirically supports Laufer's (1998) observation that productive vocabulary growth is slow in the first years and gains momentum later and strengthens the established relationship between productive collocation knowledge and L2 proficiency (Gitsaki, 1999; Bonk, 2001). Moreover, the study highlights the crucial role played by frequency in knowing words (cf. Nation & Beglar, 2007).

The present study examines productive knowledge of collocations of tertiary-level secondlanguage (L2) learners of English in an attempt to make estimates of the size of their knowledge. Participants involved first-year students at North-West University who sat a collocation test modelled on that developed by Laufer and Nation (1999), with words selected from the 2000-, 3000-, and 5000-word bands (Nation 2006) and the Academic Word List (Coxhead 2000). The achieved scores were analysed in light of Schmitt's (2003, in Xing andFulcher 2007) cut-off point for an acquired word-frequency band (80%), as well as Nation's (1990) suggested threshold of productive knowledge at tertiary level (at least the 3,000 most frequently used words). Results indicate that the participants do not master the 3000-word band and therefore fall slightly short of expectations. Only the 2000-word band is mastered by most of these firstyear student participants, with some of them not entirely mastering this band. On the basis of these results, pedagogical consequences are discussed in terms of how to help students reach the minimum threshold of productive knowledge that is needed to cope with the academic challenges at tertiary level.