THE CONTRIBUTION OF COLLOCATION TOOLS TO COLLOCATION CORRECTION IN SECOND LANGUAGE WRITING

L2 writers of English (N = 45) in an intensive English program in the southwestern part of the USA were divided into three groups. Each group was provided with collocation training for a different collocation tool: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE), Macmillan Collocation Dictionary (MCD), and www.wordandphrase.info (WPI). After training, each group used the collocation tool to correct 16 miscollocations embedded in an essay-format collocation test. After each test, the participants completed a quality review checklist. The procedure was repeated three times so that each group used each tool but in a different order. The results indicated that online collocation tools (LDOCE and WPI) contributed more than a book collocation dictionary (MCD) to accurate collocation production in L2 writers' essays. In particular, L2 writers favored WPI because it was easier to navigate and it helped them locate the correct collocations.