Practical aspects of teaching collocation
Ministry of Science and Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan
Taraz State Pedagogical University
Department of Foreign language
Course paper
Theme: _____________________________________________________
Course: 2
Group:
Student: ________________
Supervisor: Nurmanalieva L.Sh.
Taraz 2018
Contents
Introduction………………………………………………………..3
1.Theoretical aspects of teaching collocation…………………….5
1.1 The importance of teaching collocation…………………………5
1.2Types of collocation……………………………………………..9
2. Practical aspects of teaching collocation………………………11
2.1 Textual analysis activities …………………..............................11
2.2 Tips for making learning collocations .…………………….…..16
2.3 Lesson plan …………………………………………………….19
Conclusion ………………………………………………………..24
Bibliography ………………………………………………………25
Appendix ………………………………………………………….26
Introduction
Topicality
Collocations are wonderful chunks of language that native speakers of English use naturally and frequently. As teachers, it is our responsibility to show our students ways in which they not only understand meaning of these special language groupings, but ensure that they use them in the appropriate contexts.
Collocations are extremely useful for the language learner to be aware of and begin using when developing their second language. English-native speakers are already aware of which verbs co-occur with particular nouns, which adjectives frequently latch on to certain nouns, and frequent and current idioms. Examples include stand down, get over, and catch phrases such as, keep smiling and chin up. An advantage of teaching collocations in the language classroom can assist learners with fluency. According to James Nattinger, instruction of chunks of language helps learners avoid incongruity.
So , the theme of our course paper is “Teaching collocation”.
The aim of research is to find an effective way to learn collocation at different levels.
Objectives:
-To distinguish the types of collocations
- To consider collocation methods.
- To develop strategies to improve learners’ vocabulary skill.
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Subject is the process of teaching vocabulary in foreign language
Object is the teaching collocation to young learners.
Hypothesis: if the teacher wants to teach learners of collocation, teacher will know different methods of teaching collocation and his approaches should be rise interest of young learners.
Methods of the experiment are
· theoretical research and analysis of methodological literature: textbooks
· observation
· generalization
The theoretical methodological basis of our research work is analysis of scientific, methodological literature on the problem of methodologists such as James Scrivener, Jeremy Harmer, Lewis Michael and etc.
The theoretical aspects of this work is following: the given work can be useful for teaching English at each level.
The practical aspects is determined be the facts that the developed material and proper tasks and exercises make available the use of this work as a manual in teaching language or a successful material to develop speaking and vocabulary skills.
The basis of investigation is literature on the subject, web sites.
The structure of our course paper consists of two chapters followed by conclusion. The first chapter is about theoretical aspects of teaching collocation . The second chapter consist of materials which help teachers to obtain results in teaching language.
The theoretical part includes the role of collocations on a foreign language teaching.
The practical part includes the activities for collocation in approach of foreign language.
The conclusionof the research is written, it is summarized the results of studied theme and gives ideas of how to use proverbs and idioms at the lesson.
The bibliography consists of 13 sources which we have used in our work.
Theoretical aspects of teaching collocation
The importance of collocations to language learning
Traditional teaching has often adopted a structuralist view of language, placing a greater value to syntax than to lexicon. The recent development of corpus linguistics, however, has brought forth the awareness of language as a predominantly lexical phenomenon. Grammar and vocabulary are not considered isolated parts of English as they once were. Grammar now assumes a subordinate role as various methods and approaches such as Michael Lewis’ Lexical Approach put vocabulary in the center of language discussions. Hill (writes about the dynamics of language learning and what role collocations play in that regard:
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Language has proven to be mixture of the totally novel, the absolutely fixed, the relatively fixed, and all held together with fairly simple structures which we call grammar. The largest learning load and the one which is never complete – even for native speakers – is mastering the lexicon. Within the lexicon, collocation is one of the biggest definable areas to which all learners need to be introduced from lesson oneх[1].
Collocations are not easily defined. The term is used in a variety of senses in the fields of linguistics and language teaching. They can appear more often than expected or not. Because it occurs repeatedly, a collocation can be identified through corpus analysis. The phraseological view considers collocations a type of word combination, distinct from idioms on one side and free word combinations on the other, as McKeown and Radev assert:
Idiomatic expressions are those in which the semantics of the whole cannot be deduced from the meanings of the individual constituents. Free word combinations have the properties that each of the words can be replaced by another without seriously modifying the overall meaning of the composite unit and if one of the words is omitted, a reader cannot easily infer it from the remaining ones. Unlike free word combinations, a collocation is a group of words that occur together more often than by chance. On the other hand, unlike idioms, individual words in a collocation can contribute to the overall semantics of the compound.
Woolard attempts to define the term in a simpler, more pedagogical way. He considers collocations as groups of words that language students do not usually expect to find together. From that perspective, the expression heavy furniture/loads would not be considered a collocation, whereas heavy seas/smoker would. He also restricts the use of the term to relations between nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs only. In that view, guilty of, dependent on and reason for would not be called collocations[2].
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A hundred different authors could come up with a hundred different ways to describe the term. Regardless of the definition, collocation acquisition is a major step in the English learning process and should be given greater attention in class. Hill (2000) points out several reasons why it is important to teach collocations, three of which are mentioned bellow. Further, he proposes a new approach to teaching the subject.
One reason why collocations should play a central role in ELT has to do with the predictability of vocabulary use. When a speaker thinks of drinking, s/he might say have. Automatically, the listener conjures up a list of possible continuations – coffee, water, tea, whisky, but not oil or shampoo. Similarly, when someone says do, the listener might expect something like the right thing or his best, but never a mistake. The way words combine in collocations is fundamental to language use.
Another reason to teach collocations is the fact that they improve thought processing and lead to effective communication. Native speakers read, talk and listen to quick-paced discourses because they have a vast repertoire of chunks of language in storage, ready to be produced and recognized. Having these ready-made pieces of speech makes it easier for us to express complex ideas and think faster, since all our brainspace is not occupied searching for words[3].
Thirdly, collocations facilitate the acquisition of correct pronunciation. Producing speech from individual words often results in bad stress and intonation because the speaker cannot utter correct chunks of language. On the other hand, fixed expressions provide the students with the stress pattern of the phrase as a whole, allowing for a better pronunciation. Besides, students cannot recognize and store chunks if they do not know them correctly.
In addition to what has been said, Hill emphasizes that collocations should be given the same emphasis in class as individual words. In fact, students cannot really learn a new word unless they learn how to use it. That is why teachers should teach new words along with their most common collocates. If the word is ferry, the teacher must also mention go on the car ferry, a roll-on roll-off ferry, take the ferry from_____ to _____. To higher level students it is interesting to mention that less common vocabulary – like impetuous and initiative – is used in very few collocations – impetuous behavior, take the initiative.
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Syntax and lexicon together are two central aspects of language learning. Through collocation acquisition a student is able to enhance vocabulary skills as well as gain knowledge on how English is structured. Slowly but steadily, collocations are proving to be a major facilitator to ELT and should be further explored inside the classroom[3].
The development of word lists based on frequency counts for English directed the attention of teachers, ELT practitioners and curriculum specialists alike to the upper ends of these lists at the expense of the lower ends on the premise that mastering the upper ends would be adequate for the development of a good measure of proficiency in the language, and the upper end can be efficiently exploited for learning the phonology and syntax of the language. This view of the vocabulary, beside its notional inaccuracy from a statistical point of view as will be shown in the next section, has led to learners' lexical deficiency and inability to function in real-life situations. Judd ( rightly states that "upon leaving the sheltered atmosphere of the classroom, students often find themselves at a literal loss for words in the uncontrolled English speaking environment which they encounter in the normal American university. He suggests that more emphasis should be given to direct vocabulary teaching. This view is strongly supported by Wilkins who firmly asserts that "...there is not much value either in being able to produce grammatical sentences if one has not got the vocabulary that is needed to convey what one wishes to say.
It seems that difficulty level of collocations depends largely on the use of primary and non-primary sense of the component words. Collocations in which the words are used in their primary sense are easily understood and translated. Many authors do not even consider them collocations. Understanding and translating collocations becomes more and more problematic when one or both of the component words depart from their primary sense. The word which is used in its primary sense acts as a clue for the translator to guess the meaning of the unknown or less transparent element, and consequently plays a major role in helping the translator retrieve the TL word. In fact, the word in the primary sense helps a translator form a mental image, and this works as a context in which the less transparent word must be used. As a result, the number of possible candidates to fill the slot or to be used as a collocate is limited. Thus it may be claimed that the type of collocations in which no SL element is expressed in its primary sense will cause more problem for the translator than other types of collocations in which the expected TL equivalent for one of the elements is missing or is considered redundant, the translator will unconsciously be inclined to include a word for the missing element. In processing collocations, grammatical competence will not be of considerable help. Relations between lexical items in a collocation, and also between SL collocations and their TL equivalents are independent of grammatical considerations[4].
In the absence of bilingual dictionaries tailored to the needs of translator, and without proper exercises on dealing with collocations, the learner/translator can only rely on contextual clues and his TL competence to solve problems.
Types of collocation
1. Adjective + noun
There are many adjective which can gather with noun, but I will write some adjectives to give you obvious example. Here are the examples of collocation adjective + noun
He has been a heavy smoker and drinker all his adult life.
She speaks English quite well but with strong French accent.
They have a hard life and worked through a hard time. We don’t have hard evidence that they had used hard drugs.
The doctor ordered him to take regular exercise.
The Titanic sank on itsmaiden voyage.
2. Noun + noun (such as collective noun)
I would like to buy twobars of soaps
There is a glass of water on the table.
Would you like to have a cup of coffee?
He will give a bar of chocolate to his girlfriend on Valentine ’s Day.
Her bouquet of flower is the best of all
3. Verb + noun
I always try to do my homework in the morning after making my bed
Do you think the bank would forgive a debt?
We are going to have lunch together, would you like to join??
Every day, I take a shower at 6 o’clock
4. Adverb + adjective
This test is ridiculously easy! I didn’t even study, but I will get high score.
Janet is a highly successfulbusinesswoman. She owns several restaurants and hotels around the country.
That is utterly ridiculous. She didn’t steal your favorite book. She wasn’t even in the office yesterday.
Roger is strongly opposedto anything bad for health. He doesn’t eat junk food at all.
Are you okay? I am deeply concerned about you. You have been desperate since you lost your job.
5. Verbs+ prepositional phrase (phrasal verb)
Their behavior was enough to drive anybody to crime
We had to return home because we had run out of money
I am going to look up the meaning in the dictionary
She is going to dress up for her first date with him.
You have to make up your mind before doing something.
6. Verb +adverb
Mary whispered softly in John’s ear.
The boy speaks politely, and is very well-behaved.
The accident happened because he was driving dangerously.
After 2 years in London, he speaks English fluently.
I waited patiently, but she never came.
Practical aspects of teaching collocation
Textual analysis activities
Students frequently have problems with collocations for a number of reasons; the most common being direct translations from their native tongue. An example I come across regularly while teaching in Spain is problems with do/make collocations due to the fact that, in Spanish, the verb ‘hacer’ is used for both. However, if you were to ask anyone teaching English as a foreign language, the most common mistake they hear while teaching Spanish speakers, I’d bet my house it’d be this one: ‘I have sixteen years old.’ Even though use of the verb ‘to be’ when referring to age is standard English stuff, you’ll find students up to proficiency level still have the odd lapse with this particular collocation. But never fear, there is a smorgasbord of fun and memorable ways to learn and revise these types of collocation both in the classroom and at home[5].
Online flashcard sets
I am an unashamed Quizlet fan boy. Many is the time I have espoused its virtues to all in the staffroom who care to listen. For the uninitiated, Quizlet is a web tool where you can make flashcard sets, which can be used in a variety of ways both in the classroom and by students at home. It’s free, easy and will save you valuable classroom and preparation time. Simply go to quizlet.com, open an account, and start creating flashcard sets of whatever collocations you’re studying. If you don’t have time to make your own sets, simply use the search function to pore over the ever-growing database. Who knows… you might find one of mine or my colleagues’, e.g., make/do collocations or catch/make/do/have.
There are several ways you can use these flashcard sets: Quizlet has two games that can be played with any flashcard set: Scatter and Space Race are great for revising vocabulary. The former involves matching corresponding words/definitions in the quickest time possible. Split the class into small groups and have them compete against each other to see who can top the leader board, this is especially fun if you have a digital whiteboard, as it gets very energetic and physical.
Space Race is more difficult as it involves typing. Sentences move horizontally across the screen and students must type the word that completes the sentence before it reaches the far side[6].
Teachers can create class groups on the site and have students join so that they can study the sets at home. Teachers can then track student’s use, checking which sets they’ve studied and for how long. I find it especially useful for exam groups. Say you want to go over the answers to a mock FCE (First Certificate in English) exam paper. Simply copy in the questions that most students had problems with and easily highlight and revise them as many times as you like.
Collocation Casino
Another great way to introduce specific collocations or go over use of English exercises is betting games. Take a Quizlet set on make/do collocations, put students in pairs and tell them they have €100 each to bet, they can bet €5, €10 or €20 depending on how sure they are. For each correct guess they double their money, the winning team is the one with the most money at the end. Make sure they place their bets using complete sentences ‘We bet €10 on….’. You can also teach them nice phrases to express doubt/certainty:I’m absolutely certain it’s….
• It’s … . without a shadow of a doubt.
• There’s no way it’s …
• I’m torn between … and …
• We’re going to take a risk.
• There’s a slim/strong chance it’s …
• … rings a bell
Post-it Warmers
These are great, active warmers that require minimal preparation and get students talking, focused and on their feet. All you need is a pack of post-its.
Post-it partners
Use this game to revise any type of collocations; I used it most recently for adjective-noun collocations for CAE (Cambridge English: Advanced), e.g., ‘a resounding success’, ‘an abject failure’. Write one half of the collocation (resounding) and the other on another (success). Stick one post-it to the back of one student and one to another. Students are not allowed to look at their post-it, instead they must ask someone, in ridiculously formal English, to tell them what it says. Write the following on the board:
• I was wondering, if it isn’t too much trouble, if you could possibly tell me what it says on my back.
• Would it be at all possible if you could let me know what it says on my back?
• I’m awfully sorry, but is there any way you could possibly tell me what it says on my back?
Students must first ask someone to tell them which word they have. They must then find the person with the corresponding noun/adjective, sit down and write a sentence. The first pair to do so wins. Pairs can then work together for the next section of the class[6].
Post-it corners
Say that in the last class you studied collocations with ‘catch’, ‘make’, ‘have’ and ‘do’. Stick a post-it with each verb in each corner of the classroom and then stick the nouns to the backs of the students. They must use the formal English phrases to discover which noun they have, then race to their corner and come up with a sentence for each of the collocations their team has. Whichever team finishes first wins. You then have students arranged into teams for the next part of the class.
Post-it hunt
Before the class, write the two parts of the collocations on individual post-its and stick them in different parts of the classroom: under tables/chairs, on the door, on your back, on the back of the TV etc. Then, when students enter, put them in pairs and assign them a section of the board each. Students must find as many matching collocations as they can and stick them on their part of the board. Monitor carefully as this can get raucous. Pre-teach some expressions for doing deals:
• We’ll swap you your ‘have’ for our ‘do’
• Do you want to trade?
• Let’s make a deal.
• Ok, you’ve got a deal.
• Shake on it.
Collocation Pictionary
Put students into teams of three or four, write a load of collocations on scraps of paper, and give them 90 seconds to draw as many as they can for their team to guess. The team with the most correct guesses wins.
Collocation Articulate
Articulate is a staple Christmas board game in the Warre household. Use the same papers with collocations on them as in the game before, but this time students must describe the action without using the word. This is a great way to practise relative clauses: ‘It’s an action (that) you do after eating dinner.’ (do the washing-up)
Dictogloss
Tell students that you are going to read them a story; while they are listening, they must write down the most important words. You could instruct them to focus on the collocations in the story, or any other language point you may be focusing on. After listening twice, students must reconstruct the story in pairs. Then give students the original story with part of the collocation missing. Below is an example:
I met my ex-husband in 1995; we fell in love at first sight. We had a fantastic relationship for three happy years. Then, on our third anniversary, he proposed and we got married six months later. At first, everything was perfect; we both did the housework together; I did the washing-up and made the beds and he did the cooking and the shopping. He always made a mess when he did the cooking, but I didn’t mind because the dinners were always delicious[7].
Everything changed after a few years when he got a new job in Manchester; we made the decision to move there, so he wouldn’t have to take the train to work every day. He started working later and paying less attention to me. He stopped doing the housework, so I had to do everything. He made a lot of promises but then he would break them. He was very stressed and he started to go bald, he got very depressed about this and started getting drunk after work. I was getting very worried about him. He would always come home drunk and make a mess. Then, one day, while I was cleaning his clothes, something caught my attention. It was a lipstick stain on his shirt. I got very angry; he was keeping a secret from me! That night when he came home, I confronted him and he broke the news to me: he had been having an affair. It broke my heart. I kicked him out of the house and we got divorced two weeks later[8].
Text with gaps:
I met my ex-husband in 1995; we ____ in love at first sight. We ___ a fantastic relationship for three happy years. Then, on our third anniversary, he proposed and we ___ married six months later. At first, everything was perfect; we both ___ the housework together; I ___ the washing-up and ____ the beds and he ___ the cooking and the _______. He always ____ a mess when he ___ the cooking, but I didn’t mind because the dinners were always delicious.
Everything changed after a few years when he ___ a new job in Manchester; we ____ the decision to move there, so he wouldn’t have to ____ the train to work every day. He started working later and ______ less attention to me. He stopped _____ the housework, so I had to __ everything. He ____ a lot of ______ but then he would _____ them. He was very stressed and he started to ___ bald, he ___ very depressed about this and started ______ drunk after work. I was ______ very worried about him. He would always come home drunk and ____ a mess. Then, one day, while I was cleaning his clothes, something ______ my attention. It was a lipstick stain on his shirt. I ___ very angry; he was _____ a secret from me! That night when he ____ home, I confronted him and he _____ the news to me: he had been ______ an affair. It _____ my heart. I kicked him out of the house and we ___ divorced two weeks later.
Videos
Videos are a fantastic way of teaching and revising verb-noun collocations as they contain natural everyday actions. They are especially good for teaching common phrasal verbs like ‘take out’, ‘pick up’, ‘put down’ etc. Below are a few suggestions for short videos to use for video dictation exercises similar to my Mr Bean activity. Watch one of the videos before class and jot down any specific language to teach before watching. Put students in pairs facing each other with one facing the screen and the other with their back to the screen.
Silent comedy
Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton videos can be great for this type of activity, but be aware that their actions come thick and fast, so either pause frequently or only use them for higher levels.
Charlie Chaplin – The Kid
Charlie Chaplin – The Lion’s Cage
Charles Chaplin – The Bank
Buster Keaton – Seven Chances
Animations
Old animations like Tom and Jerry or Roadrunner can be great for this type of exercise.
Mr. Bean
Everybody loves him and YouTube is full of short excerpts that can easily be related to units from a course book.
Textual analysis activities
• Students can analyse texts to heighten their awareness of collocations. Depending on the text, you might ask the students to find, for example, five useful collocations that occur around a certain topic. Or you could give students a list of words or phrases and ask them to find what collocates with them in the text. You could also go further than the text and ask them to find further possible collocations with certain items in the text using a collocation dictionary.
• Make up gap-fills based on authentic texts, particularly deleting verbs from verb + noun collocations.
• Get the students to carry out prediction exercises, using a kind of word association technique. You could reveal a text gradually (using an overhead projector) and get the students to predict the next word or phrase.
• Asking the students to reconstruct the content of a text from a few words only serves to highlight the central importance of collocations as against individual words. (There are software programmes which are good for this but you can also do the activity using an overhead projector: put a dash for each word you want to blank out and a number against each dash. Get the students to suggest words and phrases that are missing and write in the correct answers as they come up.)[9].
Preparation activities
• Ask the students to brainstorm nouns on a particular subject, perhaps for a writing task. Then get them to suggest verbs and adjectives that collocate with those nouns, then adverbs with the verbs, thus building up a number of lexically dense collocational fields.
Speaking activities
• Get the students to do creative drills. For example, devise a 'Find somebody who...' activity for them to practise collocations. For example,
Find someone who
.....has been on a strict diet
.....has found themselves in an embarrassing position
...has made an inspired choice etc.
The students themselves could make up similar activities.
• Get the students to repeat the same activity, for example giving a short talk or telling a story, perhaps three of four times. This has been shown to boost fluency by activating collocations.
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