Abstract
This study aims at exploring the Libyan undergraduates’ capability in comprehending English collocations and phrasal verbs and translating them into Arabic. It also targets investigating thetypes of obstacles that these students encounter when they translate English collocational expressions. The methodology used in this study was based on quantitative and qualitative methods where a translation test consists of two main parts was given to sixty two (62) female undergraduates from English department, Faculty of Education, University of Tripoli. In-depth analysis of participants’ answers was performed and the results were reported. The study concluded that the participants faced difficulties in translating English collocations and phrasal verbs. In addition, the translation production reveals that grammatical, lexical, and cultural problems were the main problematic areas identified in students’ answers. These problems are related to the influence of LI (Arabic), lack of appropriate vocabulary, difficulty inunderstanding vocabulary use, lack of translation practice, the misuse of literal translation and translation teaching methods. However, though the cultural gap between L1 (Arabic) and L2 (English) is huge, it could be minimized and bridged by using new techniques in teaching collocations and translation as well as frequent practice in translation.