Collocation is one of the most problematic areas in second language learning and it seems that if one wants to improve his or her communication in another language should improve his or her collocation competence. This study attempts to determine the effect of applying three different kinds of collocation on collocation learning and retention of Iranian EFL university students. In this study collocations were presented in highlighted (bold), non highlighted and L1 glossed forms and these three groups of collocations were distributed among three 20 member groups of Iranian TEFL university students in Jahad daneshgahi university in Isfahan. Participants were upper intermediate sophomores and juniors. Participants read three passages under three different conditions (bold collocations, L1 glossed collocations, and non highlighted (text only) collocations). Afterwards, participants answered two collocation tests, one administered immediately after reading the texts and another two weeks later. One way repeated measures of ANOVA and follow up Scheffe post hoc tests (p<0.05) showed that the students in L1 glossed group outperformed the students in the other two groups and participants in highlighted group out performed non highlighted (text only) group.