This study aims at examining the receptive vocabulary size and verb-noun
collocational knowledge of Saudi EFL university learners. It also aims to investigate
the relationship between their vocabulary size and their knowledge of collocations.
The participants were 65 students who were enrolled in the first and final years of
study at the English Department, College of Languages and Translation, AL-Imam
Muhammad Ibn Saud Islamic University. Data was collected through a vocabulary size
test and a receptive collocational knowledge test. The results showed that the average
vocabulary size was 2,451 word families for first year students and 4,220 word families
for fourth year students. It was also found that the receptive collocational knowledge of
fourth year students was significantly higher than that of first-year students. Furthermore,
the results showed a significant positive relationship between the learners' vocabulary
size and their receptive knowledge of collocations.