Regarding the first question, common dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, divide the meaning into individual entries. Although common dictionaries explain the meaning of a word, their effect is limited when dealing with texts. Furthermore, although modern dictionaries pay more and more attention to collocations, their effect is hampered by the fact that they provide a whole range of information about any word in addition to its collocations. However, recent collocation dictionaries cover a word and its appropriate collocation. Furthermore, grammatical information is involved in collocation dictionaries by presenting collocations in their most typical forms in context. For example, in the voice baby, the collocation be toothing reflects the fact that this verb is always used in the progressive tenses (Oxford Collocations Dictionary, 2002: viii). Since dictionaries for general learners may not provide sufficient information about semi-fixed expressions, learners' errors in this case are expected to increase (Hunt, 1997:177). McCarthy (1990 in Hunt, 1997) argues that when students produce errors such as John saved my life, the entries in those dictionaries often do not clearly state that it is preferable to say or write John saved my life, to avoid students make this mistake. However, it may be unreasonable to expect general student dictionaries to comprehensively cover many student errors. Such information might be better placed in specialized learner dictionaries that focus on common errors for a special language group, as in the case of Japanese or Arabic learners. This would be effective especially when the error is due to literal translation. On the other hand, if some learners' errors like Rescued my l...... middle of paper ......1999:123) show some examples of Arabic collocational intervals to illustrate that a LP does not correspond to their counterparts English and vice versa: Table (12) examples of Arabic collocational intervals Arabic collocations (SL) قسمة و نصيب Destinyقضاء و قدر Fateحلال و حرام Legal and illegal زيت و زعتر Oil and thyme (zatar) English collocations (SL) Fish and chips سمك شرحات بطاطاBed and breakfast فطور و مبيتAlive and well حي يرزقBeautiful as a lark مثل القمرA school of whales سرب حيتانThe literal translation of some English collocations into Arabic or vice versa can produce unnatural and sometimes comical effects. For example, the literal translation of Alive and well حي و يرفس (hayun wa yarfus), Beautiful as a lark جميلة كالقبرة (jammilatun kalquburah), A school of whales مدرسة حيتان (maddarastu hittan), al and Shannaq, 1999:123).