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Concordancesprovide much dcher sources of co-textual information than dictionaries,and they can lead to a more efficient exploration of the collocates of a word. As with the dictionary, studentswill need time and training in how to do this constructively.Simple exerciseswhich familiarise the studentswith the material and format are essential.For example, I presentedmy students with this frame and askedthem to suggestways of completing it: I got grade E for Mathematics. The result was a . . . disappointment.Next"I asked them to explore the concordanceextract above, and they were able to extract big, deep and greot as appropriatecollocates for disappointment. As students work through more and more exercises on collocation, they become more and more sensitive as to whether two words are possible collocates or not. Such sensitivity is particularly important for their own production. For example, one student of mine had written the sentence:I think there's a big possibility of rain today, but expresseddoubt about the collocation big possibility.Ratherthanjust answerhis questionwe ran a concordancefor the phrase big + possibility and found no examples, suggesting that this combinationif not impossible,is at leastunlikely. It is importantto recognise that it is not useful or appropriateto say it is a wrong collocation. We only searcheda corpusof 2 million words,consistingmainly of newspaperarticles, and a searchof a larger and more varied corpus might well reveal an example of big possibility. The purpose of the searchis to uncover probable language,and my role as teacheris to show studentshow to find this for themselves,so that they will have the confidenceto decide on their own, not 'whether somethingexists' or not, but whether it is probable. Decisions about collocation are about degrees of likelihood.not cerlainty.
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Collocation - encouraging learner independence agenc a e s ^i uf
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This parlicular student then ran a concordancefor possibility and noted a number of examplesof strongpossibility in the readout.As a result, he edited his own writing to I think there's a strong possibility of rain today. A rarge number of occurrenceswere taken as an indication of a common and therefore useful collocation. What is important to recognise in this processis that the studentcan searchthis type of data and make informed decisions,and that all this can take place without a teacheron hand. Resourceswork best when their use is integrated,and concordancescan and should be used intelligently with dictionaries. An example of the interplay betweenthesetwo resourcesis exemplified by the samestudent.Below is an extract from the concordanceoutput for possibilie rhat the studentexplored. the fiefd'
possibility.
The
d make good progress.Anocher
possibility
is
to
they
possibility
of
supporting
possib-Lljty
that
these
possibility
that
learning
be no
possibility
of
an early
breakthrough.
obvious
possibility
is
that
waning
Beta-one
possibility
advanced
the
possibility
of
efimination
possibility
in
England,
even a remote
possibility.
Money fell
is
possibility
that
the
nation than e collocates ning in how udents with n)' students I got grade {ext I asked le to extract
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From theselines the studentnoted a number of instancesof remotepossibility and became interestedin the word remote. After encouraging him ro try to work out some of the word's sensefrom the concordancelines, I referred him to his dictionary, from which he was able to understandremotepossibility as a contextual opposite for strongpossibility. concordancing is a useful tool to employ in correction.There are times when directing the student to a concordancer is more constructive than simply making alterationsto the student'stext. I pointed out to the studentwho wrote the following: we will have to increase our prices becauseof the increasing cost of advertising our products that it contained increase andincreasing and that i1 could be improved by changing one of these words. In response,the student ran a concordanceon cost + of and, from the lines below, quickly found an alternative in growing and rising. Subsequentuse of a dictionary would also allow the studentto seepossibilities in mounting and,spiralling.
Collocation - encouraging learner independence
42
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The increasing availability of vast banks of English stored on computef, coupled with a simple but powerful searchtool like a concordancerempowers today's student.In particular, as we have noted, theseresourcesale ideal for exploring collocation.It would seemessential,then, that all studentsshould be trained to use a concordancerand given accessto the wealth of English text that technology has made so easily available. Many teachersshy away from technology in the classroom,many also labour undel the misconceptionthat this kind of activity is an expensiveand unnecessalyluxury. I would argue that concordancingis an essentialtool for effective independentleaming, and add that the software and hardware requilements are relatively cheap.At the time of writing, concordancerslike Wordsmith ale available for well under f100 and they run on relatively small desktop computers.The programs are not complex and it only takes one short induction lesson to train studentsto use them for collocationsearches. It is worth adding here that a concordancercan be used to searchany bank of electronic text. This means that it is possible to provide mole efficient collocation sealchesby building up banks of text which match your students' needs.This is particulally useful for subject-specificcourseslike Business English, where teacherscan build up a relevant bank of material by storing businessletters, memos etc, on the hard disk of a computer. This is a fairly simple operationif the material is availableas computer files, from CD-ROM' or downloads from relevant sites on the World Wide Web. If all of this is not possible,you can build up a lessambitiousbank by the more laboriousmeans of scanningtext into the computer.Banks of material can also be graded for level to allow the less advanced student to concordance to good effect. Recently, I have started building up banks of material for elementary and intermediate students of English. Graded IeadeIS and General English coursebookmatelials are becoming increasingly available on CD-ROM and provide ideal sourcesfor the creation of appropriately graded banks of text. Even the very elementary studentcan develop a degreeof learner autonomy.
2.9 L " There is
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r-ption that ,a,,1.-1 4.^,.a Lrulu 4r5uu
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'r,'el1under .oEramsale siudentsto :,nr-bank of fi efficient Lxrsrudents' i- Business 1 L.. I Li-\ :
; n]
-+^--i-^ StUI[rB ^ 4
f^:*1., td[r]
I CD-ROM, r- this is not ntr|is means r sraded for Irrild effect. nentarY and I r iI
43
2.9 Lexical notebooks
- ^ i , . ^
hrhhl/
-
- encouraging leanter independence
E*-li^L Lll_gllDll
f,-R.O\I and n-ts of text. r ixltonomy.
There is more to the successfullearning of vocabulary than simply noticing. It is important to record what is noticed in some way. We also know that a >ilgle encounterwith a word is not enough to ensureits acquisition, and that subsequentencounters- researchsuggestsa minimum of perhapsseven- are essential.Furthermore, it is now acceptedthat acquisition is facilitated by revisiting an item and recreating it in the production of language.A11this points to the need to train our studentsto record, revisit and re-activate the significant vocabulary they meet. One simple tool for this purpose is the vocabulary notebook. A traditional way of recording vocabulary is in small notebooks.If these are to be helpful they need to be organisedin some way. Many of my studentskeep notebooks organiseda$habetically, devoting two or three pages to each letter. Some pages are also devoted to situations - al the bank; functions - complaining; andtopics - occwpatior?s. I have modified the framework which I previously encouraged learners to use to record information about a word by adding two extra lines, as theseexamplesshow: Previous format CRITICISM (pronunciation + translation) to expressdisapprovalof something or somebody The governmenthas received a lot of criticism for increasingtaxes. Revised format CRITICISM (pronunciation + translation) to expressdisapprovalof something or somebody The govemment has received a lot of criticism for increasingtaxes. V: receive,come in for, ... A: heavy.severe.fierce.... Verb and adjective collocates are recorded in a clear and compact format which has the advantageof taking up little extra spacein the notebook. It is important for both teachers and students to recognise that learning vocabulary is an ongoing and organic process.Items in the notebook are not just listed and left. They are revisited and extendedin the light of the leamers' increasedexposureto the language.As such,I expectmy studentsto,add to their lists of collocates for criticism through subsequentencounterswith the word. As their proficiency increases,their personalrecords incorporate more of the collocates listed under the entry criticism, cited earlier from the LTP Dictionary of SelectedCollocations. In a very real sense, a lexical notebook mirrors an individual's uniquely developing mental lexicon. More importantly, the notebook is not just a decoding tool, but a resource which individuals can use as an encoding
44
Collocation - encouraging learner independence
instrument to guide their own ploduction of language.Encouragementto use a notebook in this way should lead to fewer errors in their production. It is now cleal that we need to give vocabulary notebooks a far greaterpriority in languageteaching, and raise our students'awalenessof the dynamic role they have to play in the process of learning a language. In order to give the expandedfunction and format of the notebook more pfominence, it seemed appropriateto re-name it, and I now refer to vocabulary notebooks as lexical notebooks.
2.L0 Word grammar The definition of collocation that I have adoptedin the classroomhas a clear but fairly nalrow focus. In the examplesI cited earlier, the explorationsof the words views andcriticism were confined mainly to searchesof the left co-text of occurrencesof thesewords, and to relations betweennouns, adjectivesand verbs. However, as noted earlier, students can and do notice more, and we need to encouragefurther exploration of co-text. When I askedmy studentsto look at the right co-text of criticism in the sentenceThe government has receiyed heavy criticism for increasing taxes, Ihey noted that criticism was followed by the prepositionpr and the -ing form of the verb. We summarised this information as . . . criticism fut raising /axes. Subsequentencounters would obviously enrich the students' knowledge of other prepositions and verb patterns which occur with criticism. These patteffIs are traditionally associatedwith, and taught as, grammar,and I think it is appropriateto retain that association.However, I think there is a useful pedagogicdistinction to be 'grammat'and what I havecometo term 'word grammar'' The madebetween difference lies in the way we approachgrammar pattems. Traditional grammal teaching tends to operate on a slot-and-filler approach, with broad syntacticpatternssuch as the tensesas the primary focus. Lexis is a secondaryconsiderationand fills the slots in the syntacticframes that define such patterns.A word grammar approach,on the other hand, begins with the word. Our orientation is one of moving out from the word to uncover the particular syntactic patterns associated with it. Consider the following combinations: The governmenthas receiveda lot of criticism for its decision to raise taxes. Thegovernmenthas receiveda lot of criticism over its decisionto raise taxes. The government has received a lot of criticism for deciding to raise taxes. ?Thegovernmenthas receiveda lot of criticism over deciding to raise taxes. follow the broadpatternof nown+ preposition+ ...ing The last two sentences speakersare uneasywith the final combination. most native form. However, Furthermore, I was unable to find a single example of this pattern in any of the large corpora I consulted.All this suggeststhat this particular pattern is improbable and therefore of no value to the learner.
Traditio of gramr asnoted which is produce gramma directing It direct language compete
I now fu words ar collocate The smal neatly su
Prac wori
It is prec establish presentm
As with recorded thesenotr to record particular all have personal i this: Curre
CRITI (pronu to expl The -ec V: recr A: hea G:
F:
... T]
Collocation - encouraging learner independence
nent to use rctiont It is priority in Licrole theY to give the e. it seemed ks as lexical
has a cTeat ilons of the leii co-text ecti\-esand re. and we -irudentsto ttirtent has ii:'lSl/7 WaS
,rmmarised arcounters sr:ionsand 'lirinnollrr
L-- t0 letaln
r.tronto be rmar'. The a
:nntnach
iis.Lexis is .hat define ns uith the :ncover the inl oo _ _ ' 'I-orvin ___ i'tlt5€ tClX€|.
i'Jtse taxes. t'..lse taxes. t'.';i5etaxes. ;li:ti + ...Ln8 ,-.n-LLrination. r in rnrr nf 1f pallern ls
45
Traditional grammar teaching allows the student to generatea large amount of grammatically accuratelanguage,which is extremely important. However, as noted earlier, a lot of languagewhich is grammatically accurateis not used, which is one reasonfor the large amount of improbable languageour students produce. Grammar not only generalises,it often over-generalises.A word grammar approach complements the traditional approach to grammar by directing the students'attentionto the syntacticconstraintson the use of lexis. It directs the student towards probable language rather than possible language.Both approaches,then, are essentialcomponentsof grammatical competence. I now find it helpful to extendmy own and my students'perceptionof what words are. I think it useful to see them as having, not just meaning, not just collocates,but also as having their own particular grammaticalsignatures. The small but significant changesthis brings to my approachto teaching are neatly summarisedby Michael Lewis when he suggests: Practiceshouldbe directedtowardshelping studentscollocate words and grammaticalisefrom words ro sentences. It is precisely this kind of practice that we need to prioritise and add to the establishedpracticeswe employ in the classroom.It is very much a caseof presentingour studentswith a richer picture of languagepatteming. As with collocation, it is important that elements of word grammar are recorded in lexical notebooks.I suggesttwo further categoriesfor entries in thesenotebooks,one (G) to record significant grammar patterns;the other (F) to record 'favourites', that is, pattems or expressionswhich the individual particularly likes and will probably use. This last categoryis important as we all have our own particular affinities for certain chunks of language. A personal entry for criticism in a lexical notebook might look something like this: Current format for a learner notebook entrv CRITICISM (pronunciation + translation) to expressdisapprovalof somethingor somebody The govemment has received a lot of criticism for increasins taxes. V: receive,come in for ... A: heavy.severe.fierce... G: ... criticism for raising taxes ... criticism for its plan (to build ...) ... criticism over the decision(to spend...) F: ... come under heavy criticism for not providing ... The samecriticism has been levelledat ...
46
Collocation - encouraging learner independence
z.lL Summary The growing awarenessof the rich contextual relationships in spoken and written discoursemeansthat collocation and word grammar need to become established categories of description for both the teaching and learning of languages.A greaterfocus needsto be placed on developing the independent language leaming skills that will help students develop their proficiency in theseareas.In particular, training needsto be given in the constructiveuse of dictionaries and the vast and varied sources of English that modern technology has made available. Finally, guidance in managing this learning through frameworks such as lexical notebooksneedsto be provided. It is probably true that the role of the languageteachertoday is moving more and more towards that of learning manager,and as such, a primary aim of teaching must be to raise the students' awarenessof their increasing responsibility for, and power over, their own leaming.
DiscussionQuestions Do you have learners who would use computer-based corpora and concordancingsoftware with confidence? Do you think it is useful to give all your studentsthis confidence?If not, in what ways can you provide them with similar information? What sort of information do you encourageyour studentsto record in their vocabularynotebooks?
References: Brown, P. R. (1994) Lexical Collocation: a strategy for advancedlearners,in Modem English Teacher.Vol. 3. No. 2 Lewis, M. (1997) Implementing the Lexical Approach, LTP HilI, J. and Lewis, M. Eds. (1997) mP Dictionary of SelectedCollocations, LIP Crowther, J. Ed. (1997) Oxford Advanced Leamers Dictionary, Oxford University Press Swan, M (1996) Language teaching is teaching language,Plenary IATEFL Concordancedata generatedby MicroConcord, OUP fContact Oxford University Pressfor details of Wordsmith, ref'erredto on p 42.]
Cha
Revis colloc Jimmie l
In this ch the centr revolutior intermedi of langual number c teacher to so that thr they mee emphasisi from the i
3.1 Lan
Devotion study and acculacy. developm ideaswhir still assoc of doing t most inhit bring to te
When I I grammar added.We of lexis. cupboard. yearsofm the past 1 thinkin-eal alone. Th McCarthl'. teacherstc
The more phenomen
ililnniltrnnnrnur(ruBruuil$ilnililililntuilt[MilIHil{ildll
Revisingpriorities
47
Chapter3 spok6n and C to become leaming of independent :oficiency in uctiveuse of hat modern this learning ded. noving more mary aim of .r increasing
corpora and
Revising priorities: from grammatical failure to collocational success Jimmie Hill In this chapter, Jimmie Hill suggeststhat putting lexis rather than grammar at the centre of language teaching is more than just a modest change, it is a revolution. He stresses the size of the mental lexicon needed by even an intermediate learner, and suggeststhat this means greatly increasing the amount of language input provided in language courses. He draws attention to the sheer number of collocations to be found in texts, and emphasises the need for the teacher to choosethe right kinds oftext for their learners, then to guide learners so that they can become independent collectors of collocations from input which they meet outside the classroom. ControversiallS he suggests that overemphasising grammar is a major factor in preventing learners from moving on from the intermediate plateau.
rce?If not, in
3.1,Language and lexis
ecord in their
Devotion to a structural syllabus has dominated ELI for too long, with the study and practice of grammar seen as synonymous with the teaching of accuracy. We are at present in one of those awkward stages in the developmentof ELT methodology when teachersare still putting into practice ideas which most theoreticianshave long abandoned.All manner of ideas are still associatedwith the obsessionwith grammar: standards,traditional ways of doing things, how textbooks are written, how tests are consffucted, and most inhibitingly of all, perhaps,the expectationsboth teachersand students bring to textbooks and courses.
Modem English
. LTP versity Press
nl
When I first started teaching English, we were encouraged to think of grammar as the bones of the language, and vocabulary as the flesh to be added.We now know that languageconsists largely of prefabricatedchunks of lexis. That 'skeleton' image has been consigned proverbially to the cupboard.A central feature of lexis is collocation, an idea that for the first 15 yearsof my careerin ELT I hardly gave a moment's thought to, but which for the past 10 years, has come to play a more and more central part in my thinking about English, the classroom,materials, and methodology.I am not alone. The work of John Sinclair, Dave Willis, Ron Carter, Michael McCarthy, Michael Lewis, and many others, has all contributed to the way teacherstoday think about lexis and what it meansfor their teaching. The more we have become aware of language as a predominantly lexical phenomenon, the more we know that many of our previously cherished
48
Revisingpriorities
structuralistideas are false. This is one of the most exciting tumaroundsin our thinking for a very long time.In one sense,it is a recognition of ways of thinking which we all knew, but which many teachershave denied.
3.2 Language and learning All languageteachersknow that the way they teach, and expect their students to learn a secondlanguage,is very different from the way they learned their L1. We acquire our Ll efficiently without any explicit knowledge of grammar rules, parts of speech, or knowing what collocation is. During our Ll acquisition we are happy with the idea of making 'mistakes'. We wait for the natural process of acquisition to take its course. We know that our children learn huge chunks of lexis, expressions,idioms, proverbs,nursery rhymes, songs,poems,bedtime storieswithout necessarilyunderstandingeachword. We now realise that in learning such chunks they are also acquiring the pronunciation, stress,and intonation pattems which will remain with them throughout their lives. They are also leaming the grammatical system of the Ll. No young native speakerof English exposedto Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water is awareof conceptssuchas simplepasttenseand irregular verbs. And for many children the illustrated 'pail' in the nursery rhyme book willbe the closestthey everget to one in their lives, asmetalpails have now been largely replaced by plastic buckets. A lexical approach to language and to leaming does not break everything down into individual words and structures,but seeslanguagein larger units. It could be seenas a sensiblereturn to traditional ways of learning after a rather futile trip down the dead-endroad of structuralism.
into insig expresslo the typica must dor grammar knou, tha summans assumedi compiete lexiconoI leamedpf collocatio all narural
For teache ,:b-.enerio
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3.3 What is collocation?
Even if the problem ol often do str can, but v'e and It's ttic open air? A restaurant? or the studt conceptof collocation
Many yearsago, J.R. Firth definedcollocationas 'the companywords keep' - their relationships with other words. Another definition might be 'the way words combinein predictableways'. When we think of the number of words in English,the numberof potentialcombinationsruns into many millions. So, the first and most important fact about the nature of collocation is the sheer numberof individual collocationswhich exist in English.Pastassessments of the number of individual words known by an educatednative speakerpale
Any analys competenc mistakesbe collocations then focus c make no dil but a lack r cumbersom
It is true that leaming anL2 is not the sameas leaming your L1, but it is also true that the human activity closestin nature toL2leaming is L1 learning. To deny the many similarities seemsperverse.It seemssensibleto take on board what lessonswe can from the lexical nature of languageand the lexical ways in which natives learn their mother tongue. In particular, that huge area of language commonly referred to as idiomatic usage, is clearly learned lexically. One of the most important areas of idiomatic languageis collocation.
iiuxnintinMu!iiiuultuliltl
Revisingpriorities
Csin our u'ays of
students ed their remmal our Ll t ior the :hildren rhrmes, hLri'ord. ing the m them n of the i un
49
into insignificance when compared with the total number of items - words, expressions,idioms, and collocations- which exist in the mental lexicon of the typical educatednative speaker.This fact of the size of the mental lexicon must dominate all our methodological thinking. when we believed that grammar was the basis of all language learning, it was quite comforting to know that we had discovered all the English tenses and they could be summarised on half a dozen pages of a gtammar book. Grammar - in its assumedfiniteness- was a superficially attractivebasis for our syllabus.The complete lexicon of English, on the other hand, is enormous. The mental
tltp
:nseand nursery t:l neil s
'r-rach to dir idual i-n as a ip dou'n
3.4 Collocational competence
lt is also rino
Tn
ln board -.t .-.^..^ _Jt \\dyS
ar"'a of ieamed :u30e 1s
conceptof communicativecompetence,but we need to add the concept of collocational competence to our thinking. ,l< L-een'
:r u'ords i , - r n< S n
he sheer mentsof fter pale
Any analysisof students'speechor writing showsa-lackof this collocational
50
iI i
ij
Revisingpriorities
verb + adjective + noun collocation He has a permanent disability. Even if learners successfullynavigate the grammar, what they produce often sounds 'intermediate'. Analysis of students' essay writing often awkward and very 'de-lexicalised' verbs shows a seriouslack of collocational competencewith such as get, put, make, do, bring, take. For example, I make exerciseevery morning in the gym. Studentswith good ideas often lose marks becausethey do not know the four or five most important collocates of a key word that is central to what they are writing about. In this respect, collocation is an old problem. Only now, however, are we beginning to see it might be a new solution to many of our leamers' problems.
3.5 Collocations,idioms and phrasal verbs Even during the height of structuralism, we knew that the lexicon was complicated.Apart from individual words, we were keenly aware that multiword expressionswere important. We identified phrasal verbs and idioms as 'idiomatic usage'.It is two importantareasfor students.The rest we labelled only recently through the rise of corpus linguistics that the extent of the fixednessof much languagehas been more widely recognised.We know that fixed expressionsrange from the totally ftxed (An apple a day keeps the doctor away), through the semi-fixed (What I'm saying/swggesting/proposing is . . .), to the fairly loose yet still predictable (go on holiday). In one senseall collocation is idiomatic and all idioms and phrasal verbs are collocations predictable combinations of different kinds. So, how can we use thesetetms most usefully? It seemssensibleto continue using thoseterms and categorieswhich language teachershave found useful in the past - idioms and phrasal verbs - while introducing the term collocation to name and categorisethat languagewhich has previously been ignored or undervalued.Let us look more closely at each of thesethreecategories. L.Idioms An idiom is an expressionwhich is relatively fixed and allows little or no change.It is often metaphorical:He pwt the cat among the pigeons; Don't cowntyour chickens.Not all idioms are aspictorial as thesetwo examples.We as idioms becauseof the could think of catch the bus or fired with enthwsiasm inherently metaphorical use of catch and fire. The native speaker has no problem with the idea that bolh fish and buses can be caught or that nonphysicalthings can be on fire.If the sameverbs are not usedin the learners' L1, it is probablethat they will havea problemwith the English idiomatic use. We need to broadenour conceptof idiom to include much more metaphorical usage, which is frequently hardly even recognised as idiomatic by native soeakers.
2.Phra
Phrasai the ligh words.r camot l on the b distincti phrase categon identify 3. Collo
As ment verbs an spending methodo help thei always rr clear - i< more catl
A colloca time, spe from one mind. So shoulders common have lunc becausea leamer. B a more ob
Teachersr different I
adjeoi, noun + verb + verb + adverb adverb verb + I
Collocatio afticle + ad situation ir of languag
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,'.Even if :n sounds ing often ;ed'verbs :tseevery ausethey rrd that is is an old be a new
5l
2. Phrasal verbs Phrasalverbs contain a verb plus one or more pafticles: make up a story,put the light out' The meaning may or may not be obvious from the individual words. Again, learnersmay have no trouble with the riterarput the cat outbtt cannot relate that to put the right out. some teachers get on (in get on the bus) as a phrasal verb. others think of it as verb"onrid". plus preposition. The distinction is not helpfur for the classroom where ttre emprrasisis on the phrase as a whole rather than any analysis of it. Arguments aside, the category of phrasal verb is a useful one for both teachlrs and leamers to identify certain items which they are tryrng to teach and learn. 3. Collocations
:1COn WaS
hat multiidioms as sage'.It is :nt of the know that I'eenr
the
'proposing e senseall ocatlonsICSC TCITNS
r language rs - whiie aeewhich e11'at each
little or no otts;Don't rmples.We auseof the ier has no r that nonLelearners' )matlc use. :taphorical by native
As mentioned above,in a sense,all colrocations are idiomatic and all phrasar verbs and idioms are collocations or contain collocations, but rather than spendingall our time describing and sorting expressions, the real issuefor the methodologist is to try to help teachersto make simple categorieswhich will help their studentssee some order and organisation in the lexicon. ELr has always recognisedtwo types of multi-wo.Jit"where the patternshave been clear - idioms and phrasal verbs. It is time to introduce our studentsto one more category of languageas it really is _ collocation. A collocation is a predictablecombination of words: get rost,make upfor rost time, speak your mind. Some combinations may be very highly predictable from one of the component words foot the b,r, minirat ior"r, spring to mind. some 'sfong' collocations have the status of idioms - shrug your shoulders - they are not guessableand are non-generative. Some may be so common that they hardly seemworth remarking upon - a big Jtat, a nice catl have lunch. (As just mentioned, however, native speakersmust be careful, becausean item which seemsunremarkableto them might be a problem to a leamer. Becauseof their Ll, some learners may find eat runch or take runch a more obviouschoice thanhave tunch.) Teacherswill find it useful to draw their learners,attention to collocations of different kinds. I suggestthat the following, in particular, wilr be of interest: adjective + noun a hugeprofit noun + noun a pocket calculator verb+adjective+noun learn a foreign language verb + adverb live dangerously adverb + verb half understand adverb + adjective completely soaked verb + preposition + noun speak through an interpreter collocations can, in fact, be much ronger. For example: adverb + verb + article + adjective+ noun + prepositioni.roun = seriousryaffecttheporiticat situation in Bosnia. The term 'collocation' shourd nerp oring ail thesechunks of languageto students'attention as single choices.
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3.6 Collocations and grammar
3.7Wh
It is always an oversimplification to divide languageup rnto categorieswhen all the elementsof natural languageuse are interdependent.So, idioms have a grammar and can be minimally variable to fit the speaker'spurpose:
Collocati I suggest
Don't He She'sjust If only you hadn't Why did you
let the cat owt of the bag.
Collocations, too, cannot be divorced from the grammatical context in which they occur. There are two important pedagogicalconsiderationshere. Firstly, it is important that teachersare aware of this. The simple collocation brush your teeth is for native speakerspredominantly used in the dentist's surgery and in the home when speakingto children or other family members. One of the most common structures in which it will occur is Have you brushedyowrteethyet?- a parentteachinga child habitsofpersonal hygiene usually at bedtime.One can imaginea husbandsayingto his wife: I'll be with you in a minute. I'm .just going to brush my teeth. I imagine few husbands would ask their wives the question that they would ask their young children. We can speculatethat sentencessuch as the following will be rarer than the presentperfect and going to usesabove: I brwshedmy teeth. . . I'm brushingmy teeth. . . I'd brwshedmy teeth. . . Secondly, when the child hears the parent asking Have yow brushed yowr teeth?somethingelse is going on. The child is hearingthe presentperfectin a natural context. For perhaps ten years of childhood a parent may ask the question. Children may never use the question themselves until they are parentsthemselves.What the children have been exposedto is an archetypical example of the present perfect without knowing anything explicit about English tensenames.It is clear that the acquisitionof generalisablegrammar rules must be partly related to the acquisition of lexical chunks containing the gramma.rin question. Perhapsthe inability of our studentsto acquire some important grammatical areas is based on the implausibility of many of the examples to which we expose them in current EFL grammar books and textbooks [See also pp 163-167]. When we know that native speakerslearn language in lexical chunks, it is not unreasonableto assumethat learning certain chunks containing these structures will help learners in their acquisition of English grammar pattems as well. [This is another plea to teachersto encouragelearners to notice and record language in a linguistic environment in which it naturally occurs. Ed.l
1. The ler
The first z way worc lexicon is substituti structures speakertl listener'sr mineral y expectatto drunk by a former are to a relatir standing a limited, e1 definition we cannot
2. Predictr
The very p givesus an The preser to an exte collocation which are where lear teachers ar pattemin-e
3. The size
Collocatior seen,enorl huge perce vary, but it I is to be fou 4. The role
We know c< our mentai memory.
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3.7 Why is collocation important? rrieswhen iL1mshave -t5c.
it in which ctrllocation le dentist's , rnembers. trIate you ral hl,giene ['ll be with husbands le children. rer than the
collocation is important from a pedagogicalpoint of view for many reasons. I suggestat least thesenine are important for teachers: 1. The lexicon is not arbitrary The first and most obvious reasonwhy collocation is important is becausethe way words combine in collocations is fundamental to all languageuse. The lexicon is not arbitrary.we do not speakor write as if languagewere one huge substitution table with vocabulary items merely filling slots in grammatical structures.To an important extent vocabulary choice is predictable. when a speakerthinks of drinking, he may use a common verb such as have. The listener'sexpectationspredicta largenumberof possibilities:tea, coffee,milk, mineral water orange jwice, even teqwila sunrise, but there would be no expectationsof engine oil, shampoo, sulphuric acid. The latter liquids are drunk by accident,but linguisticallythey arenot 'probable'in the way that the former are.Looking at arater verb - enhance- the choice of objectsis limited to a relatively small number of nouns or noun patterns,eg his reputation, the standing of the company.lf the verb is do, the choice is far greater,but still limited, eg his best, the honourable thing, but not a mistake. So, the very definition of collocation - the way words combine - gives it a statuswhich we cannot deny. 2. Predictability
u:;ltedyour nt perfectin -nal ask the LtLX they are archetl,pical phcit about rXegrammar Intairdngthe u-t]Uile SOille
nirnv of the - t'ooks and n:akersleam h:t learning :rs rn their ,ther plea to La trn-euistic
The very predictability of the collocation examplesin the previous paragraph givesus anotherclue as to why collocationis an importantpedagogicalissue. The presentsimple is irnportantin classroomsbecausewe can predict its use to an extent which helps learners. In a similar way, there are patterns to collocations which can make learning easier.There are parts of the lexicon which are organisedand patterned,and classroomsare, by definition, places where learning is encouragedby using the most efficient means known to teachers and where leamers need to be encouraged to notice predictable patterning. 3. The size of the phrasal mental lexicon collocation is important becausethis area of predictability is, as we have seen,enormous. Two, three, four and even five-word collocations make up a huge percentageof all naturally-occurring text, spoken or written. Estimates vary, but it is possiblethat up to 70voof everything we say,hear,read, or write is to be found in some form of fixed expressron. 4. The role of memory we know collocations becausewe have met them. we then retrieve them from our mental lexicon just as we pull a telephonenumber or addressfrom our memory.
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ELT has not given sufficient thought to this idea. Linguists now give a much greater importance to memorised, familiar, and idiomatic language. There was a leaction against these ideas during the sixties and seventieswhen methodologistsreactedagainst any suggestionthat leaming by heart had any place in L}leaming. Phrase-books,which had played an important part in language learning for centuries, were scol'nedin favour of the all-powerful grammatical model of languageleaming. Every native speakerparent knows how children love to hear the samerhymes and storiesnight after night to the extent that they can say the rhymes and tell the stories themselves.As adults we all have a huge store of memorised text in our heads, ranging from poetry, addresses,telephone numbets, proverbs, adverlisingslogansandjokes. Most idioms, sayings,clich6s,to catchphrases, often we have made no attempt to learn theseitems; knowing them is simply part of what we mean by being a native speaker.How do I know lead on Macduff, coughs and sneezesspread diseases,flavowr of the month, free gratis andfor nothing, each and everyone of us, Don't forget thefruit gums Mum, and evenThat's the way the cookie crwmbles?I may never use them. Indeed,I may be allergic to anyonewho doesuse them! The fact of the matter (itself a good exampleof a fixed phrase)is that every native speakerhas a vast store of these obviously fixed expressions.We have a much bigger store of collocations, ready for use when required. As language teachers,it is obvious that we have underestimatedthe role of memory in language learning. Not enough research is available to us at presentto make useful statementsabout how memory can be influenced. We do know. however, that the most crucial element in a leamer's acquisition of a lexical item is the number of times it is heard or read in a context where it is at least partially understood.We also know it is more important to hear or read an item than to use it. Communicativemethodology mistakenly assumed that early production was all important. What is obvious is that what the language learners are exposed to from the earliest stagesis crucial. Good quality input should lead to good quality retrieval. Impoverished input will lead to impoverishedretrieval. 5. Fluency Collocation allows us to think more quickly and communicate more efficiently. Native speakerscan only speakat the speedthey do becausethey are calling on a vast repertoire of ready-made language, immediately availablefrom their mental lexicons. Similarly, they can listen at the speedof speechand read quickly becausethey are constantly recognising multi-word units rather than processing everything word-by-word' One of the main reasonsthe leamer finds listening or reading difficult is not becauseof the density of new words, but the density of unrecognised collocations. The main difference between native and non-native speakersis that the former
have met i made chur much faste
6. Comple
Typical int time, and ideas. Thir expresslon language;1 complexifl complex n more expo they develc and eventu
The traditi< orthodoxy, 'present'a
practiceis I by speakin5 we needto I input at lov 7. Collocat
Paradoxica thought is t allows us manipulate words. Try recognisedI that colloca EFL methor worked in S this to be fal lots of oppot more chunli pointedout. 8. Pronunci
I wiil alwal Michael Su. similar in st vocabulary t readthe poel
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\ give a much rguagg.There :r,entieswhen heart had any rortant part m e all-powerful 3 samerhymes hvmesand tell remorisedtext rers,proverbs, rd jokes.Most .hemis simply kstow lead on ie ntonth,free ,,itefrwit gums :i er use them. :r of the matter 'ekerhas a vast ligger store of ted the role of Llableto us at i:rt-luenced.We , acquisitionof tntext where it :tantto hear or ikenly assumed , that what the , crucial. Good =hedinput will
runlcate more 1o becausethey e. immediately r at the speedof 'ing multi-word re of the main becauseof the rllocations.The that the former
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have met far more English and so can recogniseand producethese 'readymade chunks', which enable them to process and produce languageat a much faster rate. 6. Complex ideas are often expressedlexically Typical intermediate student speech,for example, is laboured, one word at a time, and uses simple vocabulary to express both simple and complicated ideas. This inevitably causes problems. Simple language is ideal for the expressionof simple ideas.Complexideasare difficult to expressin complex language;they are even more difficult to expressin simple language.But the complexity needed here is not convoluted grammar; it is usually lexical complex noun phrases,frequently made of supposedly'easy' words. The more exposure studentshave to good quality input and the more awareness they develop of the lexical nature of language,the more they will recognise and eventually produce longer chunks themselves. The traditional Present-Practise-Produceparadigm, for so long the accepted orthodoxy,tends to over-emphasise the 'practise' stage,when in reality the 'present'and 'produce'stagesarethe most important.This doesnot meanthat practiceis unimportant.While it is true that you do not 'learn'new language by speaking,it is only by speakingthat you can developconfidence.However, we needto place a much greateremphasison good-quality written and spoken input at lower and intermediatelevels than is currently the case. 7. Collocation makes thinking easier Paradoxically,the reasonwe can think new things and speak at the speedof thought is becausewe are not using new languageall the time. Collocation allows us to name complex ideas quickly so that we can continue to manipulate the ideas without using all our brainspaceto focus on the form of words. Try to say manipulate ideas or brainspace more efficientlyl Both are recognisedverb + noun andnown+ nown collocations.It is a safeconclusion that collocation is an important key to fluency. It is one of the sacredcows of EFL methodology that fluency comes with practice. Any teacher who has worked in Scandinaviaor Holland, where English is widely spoken,knows this to be false. Advanced studentsdo not becomemore fluent by being given lots of opportunitiesto be fluent. They becomemore fluent when they acquire more chunks of language for instant retrieval. As Stephen Krashen has pointedout, acquisitioncrucially dependson the quantityandquality of input. 8. Pronunciation is integral I will always remember a lecture at TESOL France some years ago when Michael Swan askedme to read a poem to his audiencein Scots- a language similar in structureto English, but with enough significant differencesin vocabularyto make it only pafiially comprehensible.BecauseI was able to read the poem meaningfully, ie chunking it correctly, the audienceall laughed
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in the coffect places. In one sensethey 'understood'the poem while not understandinga large proportion of the individual words. Most teacherswill have had the experienceof watching and enjoying a Shakespeareplay. Few will understand fully the nuances of Shakespeare'slanguage. The actors, however, speakthe lines meaningfully, correctly chunked for us. Becauseleamers createmuch of what they say from individual words, their pronunciation, stress, and intonation, can be difficult for the listener. The great addedbonus to knowing a large number of collocations and other longer expressionsis that if learnersleam the stresspattern of a phrase as a whole, their stressand intonation will be better. 9. Recognising chunks is essential for acquisition There are immediate methodological implications. Teachersshould read texts aloud in class so that studentshear the text correctly chunked. In class we should do no unseen reading aloud and less silent reading. The reason studentsfind unseenreading so difficult is becausethey don't recognise the chunks - they read every word as if it were separatefrom every other word, so during silent reading studentsmay be chunking totally wrongly. And mischunking matters. Correctly understood and stored, lexical items should be available for immediate use. Students cannot store items correctly in their mental lexicon if they have not identified them correctly; incorrectly chunked, the input will either not be stored at all or will be wrongly stored. In either caseit cannot be available for retrieval and use - put simply, studentscannot learn from input which they mis-chunk.
3.8 Collocation in texts It is interesting to examine written texts from different genres from a collocationalpoint of view. It soon emergesthat collocationis an important feature of all such texts, although different kinds of texts do exhibit different collocational characteristics,making some texts more suitable than others for the EFL classroom.Let us comparefiction, a financial report, a newspaper article and finally, a typical EFL text. Collocations which are of interest are underlined. 1. George Eliot's Middlemarch The following short extract shows that collocation is nothing new, but is important even in a literary text considereda classic: Overworked Mrs Dagley - a thin, worn woman, from whose life pleasurehad so entirely vanishedthat shehad not even any Sundalz clothes which could give her satisfactionin Ueparug_fql_Ehulqhhad already had a misunderstandingwith her husbandsince he had come home, and was in low spirits,expectingtheworst. The temptationis to think that 'good writers' do not use such 'ready-made,
off-the-s
There ar would a6 their owr it is in th partly rer physicali own. 2. Frank
The stuff and 1 whic
Here a mc lines of te McCourt argumentl hold here of express suggeststJ precisely r
3. Financir
Share yester marke The sl difficu
Financial I severalof r, shat"ply,shd
Any course collocationa leamers for trend which 4. Newspap
The wc of a bal Juli", u El Juli.
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'mldle not uhers.will plev. Few he actors, ,ords.their tener. The :herlonger s a whole,
i readtexts n classwe he reason :ognisethe )ther word, ,. And mis; should be t1r' in their 11'chunked, *n.In either ents cannot
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off-the-shelf'tricks such as collocation,but they do. There are argumentsfor more collocations in this extract, but most readers would agreewith those underlined.A novelist, by definition, is free to make their own word combinations- in other words, to break our expectations.And it is in the breaking of the conventional that the greatnessof great literature partly resides.So, to describeMrs Dagley as a 'worn woman' evokesher physicaland mentalstate,but could not be guessed.The phraseis Eliot's very own. 2. f,'rank McCourt's Angela's Ashes The new rich people go home after Mass on Sundaysall airs and stuff themselveswith meat and polatoes,sweetsand cakesgalore, and they think nothing of drinking their tea from delicate little cuos which stand in saucersto catch the tea that overflows. Here a modern novelist usessix identifiable collocations in the spaceof a few lines of text. while writing something original and creative both Eliot and McCourt rely on their store of ready-for-use expressions. My previous argumentthat we use collocations in speechto give us thinking time doesnot hold here since the writer has lots of time to think of new and original ways of expression.The fact that Eliot and McCourt use collocations so readily suggeststhat the other reason they are common is because they express precisely what we wish to express with or without time constraints. 3. Financial report
nes from a n important bit different ur othersfor Lne\\.spapef lnterestare
1.1911,, but is rse life Sunday rurch -
Sharesin IndependentInsurancerecoveredby more than 5 per cent yesterday after the company bucked the trend in the insurance market by reporting a 22 per cent increasein underwriting profit. The shares,which fell sharply last year after the company spoke of difficult tradingrose l4p to 263.5p. Financial English is dominated by a number of predictable collocations, severalof which are used in this short extract: shares recovered,sharesfell sharply, shares rose, buck the trend, the insurance market, dfficult trading. Any coursein Financial English would need to identify some of the common collocational patterns,verbs which combine with share, while also preparing learners for the large number of metaphorical expressionssuch as buck the trend which are common in such texts. 4. Newspaper article
he had
The world of bullfighting has discovereda new legend in the form of a bablu-faced16-)'ear-oldcalled Julian Lopez, but known as "El Juli", who has becomethe youngestfully-fledged matadorever.
ready-made,
El Juli, a shy and introverted teenager,has been booked up for the
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b[g bullfighting toumaments of the forthcoming season and is expectedto kill more than 200 bulls in his first full seasonin Spain. The teenagerhas spent most of his time in Latin America since he qualified as a matadorlast Octoberwhen he was still just 15. His skill and couragehas seenhim awardedthe ultimate accolade in bullfighting - being carried out of the bullring on the fans' shoulders- in more than a dozen Latin American cities in recent weeks. Quite a lot of this languageis worthy of comment. Notice thesepatterns: a) the world of sport/art/opera/ballroom dancing etc. b) he re-appearedin the form of a creature half-human, half-bird. c) the (superlative adjective) . . . ever: the youngestfully-fledged matador ever the best holiday eve4 the most expensivemotorbike ever d) There seemto be two collocations combined in: A baby-faced16-yearold called, namely a baby-facedl6-year-old anda 16-year-oldcalled . . . e) Finally, awarded the ultimate accolade is a very strong collocation typical of such newspapertexts. The first and most obvious point to make about factual texts like this is the high percentageof words which occur in fixed phrasesand collocations.This is completely typical of such texts. Collocation is either so commonplacethat it is unremarkableor so inherent in text that it should have a central place in all teaching.Thesetexts are clearly more suitedto the EFL classroomthan the extractstaken from fiction. Looking at the bullfighting text from a teaching point of view, it would be madnessto try to bring all the collocations to the attention of students.We choosetexts for classuse for different reasons:becausewe think studentswill be interested in the topic; because there is language which might be immediately useful; becausethe language is of a quality to which students should be exposed. Over-exploitation of any one aspect will kill students' interest.Class time should be spent on a few useful collocations.Students should then be encouragedto study the rest themselvesat home. A collocation will be worth drawing to students' attention if it satisfiestwo conditions - it is suitable for their level and it has some common culrency, such as the phrasequalify as a . .. .The 'level' of an item will always be a subjective issue, but I suggestthe following rough divisions from the text above: Elementary: spendtime, still just 15,in recentweeks Intermediate: the world of . . ., knownas . . ., theyoungest.. . ever, qualifuas a. . . Advanced: a shy and introverted teenager theforthcoming season, awarded the ultimate accolade.
The remai those whir them. In grammattc 'milk'ever
5. EFL cor In some lr inclusionil dealingwir from the pr identify at I to leamers'
plan aft have a p shareint a lovell, went to J a teenag I told he) And the foll
have the it mighr ) have a sa I seeher This meansr ones contain in a text of r chosencours get the most and density c There are irn should be as identifying ar underline u: notebooksiri I collocation. . words; it is in
3.9 Teach
In order to tea methodology i stress,and gr
Revising priorities . . - J llr flrliL
: 15
rni5Fatn. $irJe he i,i
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The remaining collocations fall into the most important teaching category those which are not worth spending class time on unless studentsask about them. In a structuralist approach teachers did not comment on every grammaticalpoint in a text; so in a lexical approachit would be misguided to 'milk' every text for the last drop of lexis.
a[coiade he t'ans' m recent
l patterns: ird. :,1 tnatador f
'ti I6-t'ear'.'ridcalled... !i atl0n rk; this is the ocations.This rnonplacethat rntral place in ;room than the ,,. it r,r,ouldbe i srudents.We L,studentswill r"-h might be rhich students kltr1students' lons. Students ie"
it satisfiestwo mon culTency, ilLtr alu,aysbe a ttom the text
?€5t...eve\ tftlfitg season,
5. EFL coursebook texts In some ways, the most interesting texts to consider are those chosen for inclusion in popular EFL coursebooks- texts of the type teachersare used to dealing with every day in class.Examining a single two-hundred-word extract from the popular Headway series(Upper Intermediate p 77) it was easy to identify at least the following collocations which teacherscould usefully draw to learners' attention: plan afamily have a problem share interests a lovely agefor (a child) went to school a teenzgedaughter/son I told her off
my best.friend have the samesenseof humour completelyobsessed with grow up suddenly grow away from (your family) an endlessstream of(people) in front of (my) friends
And the following are arguablyjust as useful: have the one child by the time I'd it might have beennice to . . . we were closest have a son they'd gone away Iseeheras... for days afterwards This meansover twenty useful collocations - including some relatively long ones containing important grammatical features as part of the lexical item in a text of only 200 words. The conclusion one must come to is that wellchosencoursebooktexts are full of collocational expressions.For studentsto get the most out of such texts, their attention has to be drawn to that wealth and densityof collocation. There are immediate classroomimplications for how we deal with texts. We should be asking students to predict collocations which are in the text by identifying and gapping them. We should be asking studentsto notice and underline useful ones, and encouraging them to store them in their notebooksin someretrievableway, along with the L1 equivalentof the whole collocation. Making sense of text involves not only understanding new words; it is intimately bound up with the ability to identify collocations.
3.9 Teaching collocation In order to teach collocation we have to give it the samekind of statusin our methodology as other aspectsof language such as pronunciation, intonation, stress, and grammar. We have to see it as being as central to language
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acquisitionasthoseotheraspectsof languagewhich we havelong recognised. 50 years ago nobody in the medical world had heard of DNA. Today it is central to much medical research.The same is true of lexis in general and collocation in particular. Collocation is not an added bonus which we pay attention to once students have become sufficiently advanced.Collocation should play an important part in our teaching from lesson one.
Tns
wh
autl 1.
1. Teaching individual collocations In the same way that we teach individual words * vocabulary - we need to teachcollocations.Rather than wait for studentsto meet common collocations for themselves,we need to presentthem in contextjust as we would present individual words. Here are some examples'.have a bath, makefriends, fall in love. At a higher level, when students are leaming less common vocabulary, we must be aware that some words ale used in a very restricted number of collocations. There is no point in knowing the meaning of the words impetuowsor initiative unless you also know the collocations'.impetuous behaviour;take the initiative.
8. q
10. 1 1
When teaching a new word, teach some of its most common collocations at the sametime. If the word is ferryt, teach: go on the carferry a roll-on roll-off ferry take theferry from (Liverpool) to (Belfost). If the word is belief teach',strong beliefs, have a belief, belief in God / the power of medicine/ yourself.But you might want to choosewhich classyou 'strongest'collocations of teach beggar belief to - even if it is one of the belief. Strong collocations tend to be rare, and we do not want to replace teaching obscure words with teaching obscure collocations.A good rule, however,is never to teach a new word - particularly a noun - without giving a few common collocates. This idea that knowing the meaning of a word is uselessunlessyou also know something of how the word is used is relatively new in ELT. Until very recently, dictionaries were seen only as decoding devices, designed to help studentsunderstandthe meaning of words they were not sure of. They were not seenas encodingor 'productive'- helping studentsto composetheir own text. It is probably asking too much of any one dictionary that it does both. It 'know'or is definitely worth emphasisingto studentsthat they do not really 'own' a word unlessthey also know how that word is used, which means knowing something about its collocational field. There are many pairs or groups of words such as date/appointment/meetingor broad/wide where the differencebetweenthe words is onlv clear from a knowledse of their different collocationalfields.
Theseexa clearly sh difference 2. Makinl
As mentic number ol limited cl: methodolc lesson,gir, only add vocabulan individual collocation
What teacl languagelr think big-e expresslon underline i Taking a cc can will be with a com
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cognised. oday jt is rneral and h we pay rllocation
6l
Tnsr Which of the verbs speak,say, tell fit best into the gaps in these authentic examples? 1. I can't . . . for the rest of the staff, though. 2. As I . . ., they've alreadyappointedsomebody. 3. You'd better do exactly what the doctor . . .
e need to llocations ld present ds,fall in
4. Don't wolry. Everything you . . . me is confidential.
rulary,we umber of he words mpetuous
previousone. 8. To . . . you the truth, I was half expecting it.
catrons at
God / the classyou ;ations of lo replace rood rule, )ut giving alsoknow -Intil very :d to help lhey were their own es both. It "know'or Lchmeans I parrs or where the r different
5. These figures don't . . . us what will happennext month. 6. It's too soon to . . . whether an agreementcan be reached. 7. UN sources. . . the agreementgoes much further than any
9. It may be that actions will . . . louder than words. 10. Can L . . to Mr Harrison,please? 11. Shall we . . . two o'clock? 12....meaboutit! These examples- and they are only a small selection of these three verbs clearly show that it is not possible to give a simple explanation of the difference of meaning with words of this kind. 2. Making students aware of collocation As mentioned above, the most significant feature of collocation is the sheer number of individual collocations needed for a mature adult lexicon. With limited class time teacherscan only teach some of the most common. If, as methodologists tell us, we should teach no more than 10 new words per lesson,given that half might be learned, a normal school year of lessonswill only add 500 words to a student's vocabulary. This strongly suggests vocabulary learning techniques are more important than the teaching of individual words. The same is true for idioms, fixed expressions and collocations. What teachersmust do is make studentsaware of collocation as a vital key to languageleaming. On the simplestlevel, teacherscould encouragestudentsto think bigger than the word - always to look for the two- or three-word expression.Noticing is an important stage in learning. Asking students to underline all verb + noun collocations in a text will be a typical exercise. Taking a common word and asking studentsto find asmany collocatesas they can will be another typical activity in awareness-raising.As we saw above, with a common verb like speak we cannot say that studentsreally know the
62
Revising priorities
word unless they know at least the following possibilities: speakaforeign language speak(French) speakfluently speakwith a (welsh) accent speakclearly speakyour mind sPeakvolumes speakopenly speakin public Sgch a verb would have receivedscant attentionin the past and such attention 'explaining'the difference as it did receive would be likely to concentrateon betweenspeak,talk artdtell. As we saw in the task above' however,exploring the collocational field is far more helpful than any explanation of the supposeddifferences. 3. Extending what students already know Extend students'collocational competencewith words they already know as well as teaching new words. A studentwith a vocabulary of 2,000 words will only be able to function in a fairly limited way. A different studentwith 2,000 words, but collocationally competent with thosewords, will also be far more communicatively competent. Many native speakersfunction perfectly well using a limited vocabulary with which they are collocationally competent. The messagefor ELI is that more class time needsto be spent with some of 'de-lexicalised'verbs' qet, put, the more common words, in particular the take, do, make etc.Studentswho know 2,000 words and six collocations with each,know 12,000expressions.For example: make: makea mistake/ a meal / trowble/ a complaint/ friends / spacefor end: at the end of / in the end / come to an end / to the bitter end / at a loose end / at the end of the daY at: at once/ at first / at work / at school/ at college/ not at all As the last example shows, the words with least content are closest to traditional grammaf. The discriminating exploration of word-grammar is more likely to help learners than either the more exotic parts of traditional grammaror teaching'difficuit' words. 4. Storing collocations An organisedlexical notebook is essentialfor all students.Deciding where to put an item, writing it down, and looking at iL againalong with other similar items is all part of the constant revisiting of language which is part of the learning process. Students' lexical notebooks do not need to be glossy professionally-producedproducts. The simplest looseleaf binder with blank pagescan be turned into an organisedlexicon very easily.We need to manage students'notebooksin the sameway we manageother areasof their learning' It is easy to imagine a collocation section arrangedin the following ways: 1. Grammatically:sectionssuch as noun + noun, adiective+ noun, verb + noun, adverb + adjective 2. By common key word: collocations with do, make, get, up, speak eic' 3. By topic: collocations to talk about holidays, travel, work etc'
We do not that we sl instantly. revised ar listing ner that this countries r UK-produ
3.10cr
Justas imp to teach.A class.If cc your pastti of all kind: and let thel rare and collocation involves ut lmportant collocation
1. Unique i
It is useful are probabl commentat collocation coffee. Stmt 2. Strong c
A large nu strong. Prel although thi We often hi even moved that any knc would be s collocates. 3. Weak col
Many things can make ct coloursin Et is not as sim
Revisingpriorities
: ,:iccent
r!tentlon
1,fierence :rploring rn of the
63
We do not know how we store languagein our mental lexicons. We do know that we store it in patterns of different kinds which allow us to retrieve it instantly. Storing lexis in an organisedway in a notebook so that it can be revised and retrieved quickly must be better than not storing it, or simply listing new items without organising them. one of the advantagesof this is that this makes learning less 'materials-dependent'. In resource-poor countriesmost studentsoften have accessto a simple notebookwhen glossy UK-producedcoursebooksare financially beyondthem.
3.10 Choosing which collocations to teach ,. know as r,ordswill ',rth 2,000 3 rar more :t:tiy well :n someof ,. Set,pWt, rii.onswith for l1.t,ce
1. Unique collocations
i.1! o
closestto :IAITIMAT
Justasimportantas choosingwhich collocationsto teachis decidingwhat not to teach.Avoid the temptation to teach every collocation which comes up in class.If collocationis an idea you may not have been very consciousof in your pastteaching,it is very easyto go overboard.They areeverywhere.Texts of all kinds are packed with them. Draw students'attention to irnportant ones and let them find and record others for themselves.Do not, however,confuse rare and obscure collocations with important ones. Choosing which collocationsto teachand which onesto ignore,given limited classroomtime, involves understanding collocational strength. As we shall see, the most important for the classroom are what we may call medium-strength collocations.
13
'raditional
It is useful to think of collocations on a cline or spectrum from those which are probably uniquefixed/strong to those which are flexible/weak. Several commentatorshave pointed out the uniquenessof foot used as a verb in the collocation/ootthe bill. We cannotimaginefooting the invoice,or footing the coffee.Similarly, we shrug our shoulders,but no other part of our anatomy. 2. Strong collocations
r-q rvhereto ,thersimilar part of the r be glossy ' ,,r,ithblank J to manage eir learning. Ing ways: t10L{n,
. speaketc. 3t C .
A large number of collocations, although not unique, are strong or very strong. Predictably,we may talk of trenchant criticism or rancid butter although tlris does not mean that other things cannot be trenchant or rancid. We often have ulterior motivesor harbowr grwdgeswhile being redwcedor evenmovedto tears. Such strong collocationsare not unique, but it is clear ihat any knowledge of the words trenchant, rancid, motive, grwdge, or tears u'ould be seriously incomplete without some knowledge of these strong collocates. 3. Weak collocations \{any things can be long or short, cheap or expensive,good or bad. Students can make combinations such as blue shirt, red car elc; they can apply the coiours in English in a similar way to their own language.In fact, the picture is not as simple as that, but for most teaching purposeswe pretend that it is.
l',rili ,
6-+
Reisirtgpriorities
However,there is something'more predictable',and so more collocational, about these examples:a white shirt, white wine, red wine, red hair a black mood, a blue film. Similarly, most teacherswould agree that the adjective good is not very interesting from a teaching point of view. It can be applied to anything - a meal, a joumey, a government. But notice what happenswith some slightly larger multi -word expressions containinggood : It'll takeyou a good hour Oh, he's a good age. He'll do it in his own good time. we need to recognisethat easy words have many uses;they are part of many weak collocations, but may also be a componentof many fixed or semi-fixed expressions. students need to be made aware of their more predictable collocations. 4. Medium-strength collocations The main leaming load for all languageusersis not at the sffong or weak ends of the collocational spectrum,but in the middle - those many thousandsof collocations which make up a large parl of what we say and write. Most intermediatestudentswill know the words hold andconversation,but may not know that you can hold a conversation They know the words make and mistake, but have not stored make a mistake in their mental lexicons as a single item. [Remember the key point about lexical items is precisely that they representsingle choices of meaning, and are recognised and stored as single items.Ed.l This, then, explains why learnerswith even 'good vocabularies'still have problems. They may know a lot of words, but their collocational competence with those words is very limited. I have come to the view that the main thrust of classroomvocabulary teaching at intermediate level and above should be to increasestudents'collocationalcompetencewith their basic vocabulary, while stressingto them the need to acquire more new words on their own through independentreading. A nomadic tribe is a sftong collocation becausenomadic collocateswith a very limited number of nouns; a big .flat is a weak collocation and of little interest to teachers,but He's recoveringfrom a major operation is a complex medium-strength collocation. Each individual word may be known to students,but they probably do not know the whole collocation. They are more likely to build the idea phraseby phrase:My father - he's getting better- he had a big operation. Full marks for communicating meaning, but more of an effort for both speaker and listener. It is this area of medium-strength collocations which is of prime importance in expanding leamers' mental lexicons.
3.11 I
Althou_u into therr and collc langua-re
Theories linked. Ir which -ei also have
In classir are also a learnin-etr listenin-e on radio i interact n internet.L elementin l. Revien
It is clear syllabus" i sentence-q on gramm emphasis r vocabularr than teache
The sheeri the learnin greater) me teachagree
a. Frequel rmpofiant. i may be hi_e highly freqr
b. Suitabilil rmportant p natlve-spea Such items i context. If misundersto intend.
c. Level: the
Revising priorities
cational, a black not very hing - a r slightly
65
3.11 Pedagogicalimplications Although I meet many teacherswho are trying to incorporate lexical ideas into their teaching,it seemsthat what we now know about the nature of lexis, and collocation in particular, raisesimportant issuesfor everyone involved in languageteaching. Theories of language and theories of language learning are inextricably linked. In ELT we now have a more comprehensivemodel of language,one which gives at least equal importance to the lexicon as to the grammar. we also have a more horistic view of how secondlanguagesare learned.
of many :mi-frxed edictable
'eak ends rsandsof ite. Most r may not ,mke and ons as a sely that stored as ;till have npetence dn thrust hould be cabulary, heir own :s with a I of little complex nown to are more ztter- he ore of an strength ;' mental
In class we may adhereloosely to a present-practise-produce model, but we are also acutely aware of its limitations. We are readier to accept that the best leaming probably happensoutside the crassroomwhen studenis are reading, listening, watching and interacting with the languagein a book, newspaper, on radio or TV or with a native speaker.Increasingly, too, many leamers interact with the language,with both native und non-native speakers,on the intemet. In this environment,recognising and adopting collocation as a major element in our teaching has severalimportant implicaiions: l. Review the language content of courses It is clear that lexis should be one of the central organising principres of our syllabus. unfortunately, in classrooms, gtammar still tends to rule, and sentencegrammar atthat! Greateremphasison lexis must mean less emphasis on grammar. Accuracy must be rreated as a late-acquired skill. Greater emphasis on 'larger chunks' of ranguage also means that grammar and vocabulary merge into one another.The dividing line is muchless clear_cut than teachersand textbooks often pretend. The sheer size of the learning road makes change inevitable. Accepting that the learning load is not 40,000 items but nearer 400,000 (and probably greater) means that the sylrabus must be reviewed, and criteria for what to teachagreed,basedon four parameters: a' Frequency of occurrence in spoken and written text. Although very important, frequency arone should not be the over-riding parameter.An item may be highly frequent in one genre,but not in another. Another item may be highly frequent in native-speakerEnglish but may be unsuitablefbr learners. b. suitability for foreign and secondranguageuse. This is a subjective, but important parameter. Experienced teachers are aware that some common native-speakeritems will sound silly or inappropriate if used by learners. Such items often depend on subtle features of intonation, pronunciation and context. If learners have not mastered these features,'they risk being misunderstood,giving offence or at least giving an impression,t"y do not intend. c. Level: the lexical learning needs of elementary students are very different
66
Revisingpriorities
from those of the advanced student. Different kinds of item and different learning strategiesare appropriateat different stages" d. Type of course:it is clearthat items typical in businessEnglish or any form of ESP may have little or no place in a generalEnglish course,while for general English it may be possible to predict a certain number of basic collocationsfor someof the commonestwords of the lansuase. 2. Increase language input If languagesare to an extent learned lexically, this should be reflected in our methodology. The main implication is that learners need a great deal more input than they received in most traditional languagecourses.The quantity, type, and quality of input need to be reviewed.One of the major failings of the communicative approachwas that one leamer's deficient output became another'sdeficient intake. Modem task-basedapproachesare in danger of falling into the sameffap. While recognisingthe need for expert direction and monitoring by the teacher,they focus very much on student output, student performance. Nobody would deny the importanceof output, but the main thrust of language teaching must be to create opportunities for students to acquire more and more language. This means maximising the amount of appropriate quality input available to the learners. The role of the teacher, the classroom, and materials a1l need to be changed. Instead of being a language practice facilitator, the teacher should be first and foremost a languageprovider and the expert who helps studentsnotice useful and interesting language. This might even - horror of horrors - mean increased teacher talking time, providing the talk is controlled to provide good quality, appropriate input. Languagepractice,while important,is secondary.The classroomshouldbe a language-richenvironmentwith interestingEnglish on the walls, a library of graded readers,and internet-accessif possible.Publishedmaterials should contain more natural languagewith more activities focussedon the language and on individual learning.In short,the emphasisshouldbe on activitiesand strategieswhich aid acquisition. 3. Review strategies at different levels Again, the sheer size of the mental lexicon has implications for vocabulary teachingstrategiesat all levels.At elementarylevel the priority is to increase the number of individual words learners know. These are best learned along with a small number of collocates.For example,there is no point in learners knowing the word holiday unless they also know that you go on holiday, but they will probably be intermediate before they learn a package/ beach/adventureholiday. Intermediate studentsneed more new words with more collocateswhile also increasingtheir collocational competencewith words they already know.
At leve imposs studen new w( inefficii colloca advanc but hou a co) a bu: We also ways revision advance systema At prese difficult colrespo work in compete
4. Transl
There ar discarded English a A colloca unique sk 5. Langui
This rais< throughou students r collocatio collocatior othersare everycollc usual,the r shouldbe t
3.12 Su
It is accept changeour many of ou
Revisingpriorities
i different r SnVforrn o,ihile for r of basic
:ted in our deal more : quantity, lailings of lut became danger of rectronand rut. student rf language rnore and ate quality ;room, and rp :!
nronti^o yr 4L trLU
olider and ua_se. This krn_etime, nate input. ihouldbe a r Libraryof iatrsshould ; language tllitigt .ta
r ocabulary tro lncrease med along in learners ,ti holiday, package/ ,i'ords with tence with
67
At levels above intermediate,studentsneed to read widely and it is virtually impossible to predict what items a student 'should, rearn. By this stage studentsshould be autonomousleamers and have understood that learning a new word without some of its collocatesis a waste of time, or at least very inefficient. Advanced students will always be adding to their store of collocatesevenof words they learnedaselementarystudents. For example,all advancedstudentsare familiar with the words book, farnity, holiday andright but how many would be familiar with the following collocations: a coffee-tablebook the nuclearfamily a bwsman'sholiday a blinding light we also need to develop techniquesto help studentsto record lexis in helpful waIS. - ways which reveal patterns and which are easily accessible for
correspondingly of limited use to the learner.The main thrust of vocabulary work in most classes should be to make students more collocationally competentwith the words with which they are already partly familiar. 4. Translation
5. Language model
every collocation mistake than they should correct every grammar mistake.As usual, the communication of meaning and the learner's current intergrammar shouldbe the decisivefactors.
3.12 Summary - Iessgrammar, more lexis It is acceptedthat recentdevelopmentsin corpuslinguistics haveforced us to change our view of language.This means it is time for a re-evaluationof many of our acceptedideasaboutlearningand teaching.corpus hnguisticsis
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Revisingpriorities
going to change the content of what we teach radically. These ideas on collocation are only the first rumblings. In ELT we have grown accustomedto the idea that language- the content of what we teach- is a rule-govemedsystemand if we couldjust leam the rules, we would acquire the language.We now know that this idea is so at odds with the way both first, and subsequent,languagesare learnedthat there is no point in hanging on to it as any kind of model for leaming. To be efficient, learning must reflect the nature of what it is we are leaming. Languageis proven to be a mixture of the totally novel, the absolutelyfixed, the relatively fixed, and all held togetherwith fairly simple structureswhich we call grammar.The largest learning load and the one which is never complete - even for native speakers - is masteringthe lexicon. Within the lexicon, collocation is one of the biggest definable areasto which all learnersneed to be introduced from lesson one. Insistenceon accuracyinhibits production and makes studentsconcentrateon language at or below sentencelevel. Competencedependson being able to decodeand take part in discourse,whether spokenor written. Similarly, there is little point in spendinga lot of class time presentingindividual items of vocabulary,practising them, and trying to set up situationsfor studentsto use them.The acquisitionof individual items dependsnot on students'usingthem 20 times in one lesson,but on meeting them, perhaps10 times, in different conlexls,at differenttimes. The fact is, language courses are finite - time is limited. If we are to start teachingcollocation, we must stop teaching somethingelse to make room. The answermust be to spendless time on formal grammar work, restricted to a small rangeof traditionalEFL 'structures',regularlyrevisited.A secondfact is that most students are intermediate. Spending a lot of class time on traditional EFL grammar condemns learners to remaining on the intermediate plateau. Helping learnersto become 'advanced'needsa huge injection of lexis. It is lexis in general, and collocational competencein particular, which allows students to read more widely, understand more quickly, and speakmore fluently. By taking a finite list of grammatical structuresas their basis, many current coursebooksand ministry syllabusesare seriouslyflawed.Progressin English for all post-elementaryleamers dependson sufficient lexical input, of which collocationis the singlemost importantelement. [Parts of this article ffust appeared in Issue 11 of English Teaching Professional.l
DiscussionQuestions Different texts contain different kinds of collocations. What kinds of texts do you think will be of most use to your learners?Are there kinds of texts which you think will not be particularly useful? How doesyour choice comparewith
the tex How n single really r
How r, advanc learner
Do you from de
Revisingpriorities
)se ideas on :recontent of arn the rules, at odds with re is no point ient,learning proven to be fixed, and all r. The largest rtive speakers of the biggest t lessonone. oncentrateon being able to rnilarly, there dual items of tudentsto use ts'using them s. in different i,e are to start l make room. k. restricted to A secondfact :lass time on ining on the 'needs a huge :ompetencein ierstand more ,many curTent ressin English nput, of which ,lish Teaching
nds of texts do ; of texts which e comparewith
69
the texts you find in coursebooks? How many items do you think you should presentin a singre lesson,or on a single day of teaching? How many of those do you expect your learners to really master so that they can use them themselves? How would you explain the difference between an intermediate and an advancedleamer? Is it, as Jimmie Hill suggests,a matter of the size of the learner's mental lexicon? Do you agree that over-emphasisinggrammar can actively prevent learners from developing beyond the intermediateplateau?
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Integratingcollocation
Chapter4 Integrating collocationinto a readingand writing course Jane Conzett Jane Conzett works on a typical Intensive English Program in the United States. She describes how her reading and writing classeshave changed as a result of her dissatisfaction with the way she was reacting to errors in her students' written assignments. Like Morgan Lewis, she found that some theoretical reading helped her understand the problem better, and guided her towards teaching strategies that she finds more effective. She emphasisesthe importance of both context and collocation in presenting new words. Non-American readers need to be aware that language teaching in the US may vary from what is usual in the British and European tradition. Jane writes from the perspective of an American Intensive English Program, but many of her experiences and conclusions parallel those of George Woolard and Morgan Lewis described earlier.
4.1 Background As an instructor in an Intensive English Program (IEP) in the United States, my discovery and understandingof collocation actually resultedfrom my own frustrationwith vocabularystudy in the classroom.Before I describehow this came about, a brief outline of a typical American IEP may be helpful for readersnot familiar with suchprograms.The goal of most IEPs is to improve students'abilityto use English for academicand professionalpurposes,most often in preparationfor academicwork in American collegesand universities. Term length ranges from 8-16 weeks; class size averagesabout 12. The approachto curriculum is frequently content-based,and core coursesmay be integrated so that students enroll in combined skills courses such as reading/writing, or listening/speaking,or they may be taught as single-skill courses. Many programs offer electives such as pronunciation, computer skills, or TOEFL preparation,the latter becausethe Test of English as a Foreign Languageis the proficiency test most often required by American universities for admissionto degreeprograms.Studentsare in classan averageof 18 to 25 hours per week, and they complete severalhours of homework outside of classeachday. My frustration as a teachercame about when, despite careful, contextualized study of vocabulary in my reading and writing classes,my studentsoften used
their r produc classe serend heard c of colk Learnit, stumbii vocabu haveres
Asmyr approac In the cr describe to imple
4.2 Tr
Asdom as an 1r thematic 'society
vanety ol the En-el encounte nonrnatt\
vocabula point in o at a tfeme native spe and others vocabular estimatesi this same speakervc thosewhot
How can tr up the hill thinking. T US in the 1 the notion inferring fi with severa acquisition
Integrating
u'riting
nited States. is a result of er students' : theoretical her towards r mlportance the US may r v rites from manr- of her lnd \Iorgan
lr t:d States, f _rmnlv own :e horv this : reiptul for s io lmprove r t s e s .m o s t rlir ersities. ,r . t t l l , T h e : r r e sm a y b e 'ri such as : srngle-skill ;;r skilis, or L: a Foreign -;n1\'ers1t1es : eo f 1 8 t o 2 5 L outside of r,11:e\tualized Ltsotien used
collocation
7l
their new vocabulary incorrectly when they moved from receptive to productivelanguage.As I struggledto remedy what wasn't working in my classes, I headed to the library for some help and stumbled almost serendipitouslyupon the notion of collocation,a word I had previouslynever heard of. The proverbial light bulb went on. I recognized from a description of collocations that was included as part of Nation's book, Teachingand Leaming vocabulary,that this was preciselywhere I and my studentswere stumbling. Since that time, I have changed my approach to teaching vocabularyin my readingand writing classes,testingand trying methodsthat haveresultedin more accuratelanguageproductionby my students. As my knowledge and understandingof collocationhas grown, my overall approachto teachinghas changedin somesubtle,but importantways as well. In the context of our IEP, a typical one in the united States,I would like to describehow this gradualchangecameabout,and sharesomepracticalways to implementpracticeand training in collocationswithin existing cunicula.
4.2 The need to build vocabulary As do many American IEPs today, our program teachesreading and writing as an integrated course. Students read articles or texts, often grouped thematicallyaround a particular content area such as ,work and careers,,or 'society and aging', and then respond to the readings in writing, using a variety of discoursetypes.This approachmimics the typical interactionwith the English language that future graduate or undergraduatestudents will encounterat the university.When thesereading and writing tasks are given to non-nativespeakers,a naturalresponseis for studentsto bemoantheir lack of vocabulary,and we teachers- most of us secondlanguagelearnersat some point in our own lives - can certainly seetheir point. In fact,L2leamers are at a tremendousdisadvantagewhen one comparestheir vocabulary to that of nativespeakers.If we aredefiningvocabularyasjust individual words,Nation and othersestimatethe sizeof a native-speaker undergraduate student'sactive vocabulary (words used in speech and writing) at 20,000 words. crow estimatesa much greaterpassivevocabulary- 60,000to 100,000words _ for this sameaveragestudent,but eventhe most conservativeestimateof nativespeakervocabularyis enoughto be discouragingto every ESL student,even thosewhoselanguageis quite 'advanced'. How can teachershelp their studentsfeel lesslike sisyphuspushinghis stone up the hill as they study vocabulary? current approachesreflect a shift in thinking. The communicative approach to languageteaching, popular in the uS in the 1970sand 1980s,downplayedexplicit vocabularyinstruction,with the notion that students could learn vocabulary implicitly, guessing and inferring from rich context. Sokmen has describedhow this approachmet with severalproblemsrelatingto the slowness of rhe merhodand the raleof acquisition, the inaccuracy of some of the 'guesses', its disregard for
72
Integratingcollocatton
individual abilities and learning styles, and especially,the lack of retention of the new vocabulary. Recent research,while not advocating total abandonmentof inferring from context, which is a valuable reading skill in its own right, supporlsthe notion that some systematic,explicit study of vocabulary is vital to gaining language proficiency.As Sokmenconcludes: The pendulum has swung from direct teaching of vocabulary (the grammar-translationmethod) to incidental (the communicative approach)and now, laudably,back to the middle: implicit and explicit learning. The question today is no longer whether or not to teach vocabulary explicitly, but how to go aboutit.
4.3 Explicit vocabulary study Recognizing the imporlance of explicit vocabulary study, our IEP has in recent years made it an explicit part of the reading and writing curriculum, The meansof achievingthis vary, dependingon the teachers'preferences and the students'proficiency levels. Some teacherschoose vocabulary builder books basedon word-lists; some choosebooks basedon roots and affixes; others study vocabulary in context in teacher-createdlists based on the readingsthe studentsdo in class. All of thesechoiceshave their advantages. With limited time one can see the efficiency of studying high-frequency vocabulary;booksbasedon roots and affixescan help studentsmakeeducated guessesat the meaningsof new words, with the added benefit of helping studentswho strugglewith English spelling patterns.It can, for example,be reassuringto studentsto know that medicine and medical have the sameroot spelling of medic, even though one would not be able to guessthis from the way the words arepronounced.In-contextstudy of vocabularyencounteredin reading has the well-known advantagesof point-of-need relevance to the student,and natural,real-life examplesof usage. The vocabularybooks I have used have been for the most part well-written, with ample opportunities for studentsto practice the vocabulary through incontext cloze exercises,matching, fill-in-the-blank, etc. Interestingly,the students have always been enthusiastic about explicit vocabulary study, perhapsbecauseit has the initial appearanceof being somethingreassuringly concretein the complex world of secondlanguageacquisition. With good books, motivated students,and plenty of practice, I felt destined for success.Instead,evenif the studentsscoredwell on passiveskills exams, when they tried to actually use the new vocabulary, something often went disappointinglywrong. Here are some sentencesthat were produced by studentsin our IEP after they had received explicit vocabulary instruction for the underlined words:
Bec Wei AFe
My usu partiai c the wori on their toxic nte bwt we ct and dis commun langua-u certainhaccurac\ successf
4.4 Th
The reaso of colloca they conta definition but don'r might be simple del Elsewhere perspectt\ Even with may be of
verb + adjectii, verb + I adverb
Smadja po explained studentsari can see tha adjective+t that informr snake, nor. snake. The powerful, ar and the othe
Integrating collocation
tion of l from notron 1_quage
'lt
rli,-itlru
has in .cLllum. ,.s and builder utlixes; on the Lxtages. '.luency :ucated helping -rrle,be ne root rom the teredin : ro the .r rrtfAn
r'.ish ins1r'. the !
JLUUIT
suringly destined i eKams, en went lier they
73
Be careful. That snake is toxic. Wewill sever this class becauseit is too larpe. A Ferrari is a verTW[e]xt:car My usual responseto production elrors of this type was to give the student partial or half credit becausethey had obviously understoodlhemeaningof the words despitethe awkward sentences.Sometimes I wrote ,word choice, on their paper,indicating the error type. when a student asked,But croesn,t toxic meanpoisonous?I wourd give a responsealong the lines of, weil, yes, but we don't usually use it that way, which left both of us feering fiustrated and dissatisfied. I should point out that the student obviously had communicatedthe intendedmeaning, and in that regard was successfulin language production. However, one of the objectives of the course, and certainlya goal of the college-boundstudentsthemselves, was to increasethe accuracy of their production, and in this regard we were not always successful.
4.4 The missing link: collocation The reasonthat 'we don't usuaily use it that way,is explainedwith the idea of collocation. The three student-producedsentences are incorrect because they containcollocationerrors.what is collocation?you might get a different definition from everylinguist you askedbecauseterminology is not yet fixed, but don't at this stagewo''y too much about what collocation is, or how it might be preciserydefined. I have found it easier to work with this very simple definition: Two or more words that tend to occur together(collocate). Elsewherein this book different kinds of collocations, and u -or" theoretical perspective,are discussedin more detail. Even with my simpledefinition,it is easyto seeimmediately that collocations may be ol severaldifferenttypes: verb + object disputefindings adjective + noun wnuccompanied mino, verb + preposition engagein, hear oUorl adverb + adjective + noun highly irregular situation Smadja points out that why these words occur together cannot easily be explained on semantic grounds, and the sentencesproduced by our IEp studentsare good examplesof the probrem. Retuming to the toxic snake we can see that although the student may learn the grammatical collocation of adjective+noun,andmay learn that 'the meaning'of toxic is poisonous,all of that informationneitherhelps the studentto produce the expectedpoisonows snake,nor, equaily importantly, to avoid the non-standard/unacce ptabretoxic snake. The same is true for the potent Ferrari. one meaning of potent is powerful, and both are adjectives,but one does go collocate - with Ferrari and the other does not. Similarry, severecrc/ass is another coilocation enor.
74
Integrating collocation
For the native speaker, knowledge of acceptable and unacceptable collocations is largely instinctive. This is demonstratedby the way most native speakerswould automatically add exactly the samewords to complete thesephrases:sibling , mitigating You almostcertainlyselectedsibling rivalry andmitigating circumstances.In 'obvious' answerswhich fact, tt is quite difficult to think of alternativesto the are plausible and likely. Collocations may be strong - the presenceof one word means you strongly expect the other word to be there too - or weak, when the collocatescan vary a great deal. I have found it helpful to conceptualize collocations on a continuum like the one below. On such a continuum, units made of freelycombining words llke friendly dog or old car would not be treated as collocations,nor would fixed expressionsand idioms llke throw in the towel. I treat as collocations those items that appearin the middle of this continuum, with stronsercollocationsto the risht. and weakercollocationsto the left. friendly dog
sibling ivalry
strongcffie weaker
oM car
heavysmoker
throw inthe towel
stronge
mitigatingcircumstances
Starsand Stripes
'treatsas'collocations.This is wise; ratherthan getting [Janetalks of what she involved in long discussionsof what exactly is and is not a collocation, teachersneed to make a pedagogical,rather than theoretical decision. Ed]
4.5 The need for guidance from the teacher For the study of collocations to be successful, the teacher has the responsibility to direct leamers' attention to the most useful collocations, those which hold high priority in the context of the curriculum. We should also discourage students from going overboard, and recording every collocation they meet. This means they must be discouragedfrom recording very weak items (nice house,good vacation), or strong ones which are very unusual, and correspondingly probably not appropriate for most learners (reducedto penury). Not all vocabulary effors are collocation errors. Some are substitutionor contextual errors, using the wrong word with the wrong meaning. Some examples of vocabulary effors of this type produced by our students are, When I have children, I hope I will be vetj amorowswith them, and Owr trainers are vety helpful and suggestlve.These students simply learned the wrong meaning, or the wrong context, for amorous and suggestive. When one realizes that native speakersnot only know an enormous number of individual words, but they also know much more about how thesecombine, or collocate, the burden of theL2leamer suddenly seemseven greater.It may have seemeddifficult enough for our studentsto learn the word sibling,btrtto
leam al sibling the 20.( speake leamers evidenc colloca and po incorpo matenal collocat rmportar
After thr come to quesfion in part d are availi 'problern
teachin-e collocati their mer
4.6 Mt
In somer Insteadol why don somethin the studer it and pr< make stu< ways clas of their la 1. Teach r
Collocaiic limited pr concept. J English ia Once expl when appr 2. Adapt t
Currentl1,.
Integrating c ollocation
)Jeptable ',3)' most complete 'iltces.Ilr 3rs which . strongly I can vary ons on a ri
freelrr-
i-ated as :irc towel. t]ltlnuum, he left. i rovel ---> S:,tpes rtrngettlng rllocation, rrr, Edl
i 1-rasthe ,iLocations, \\-e should rng every I recording t:l are very :i learners )i1tUtlon OI Ling. Some Lidents afe, ,t. and Our learned the lus number )- combine, 'ater.It may l:1lng,but to
t3
learn also that native speakerstrsesibling rivalryt and do not generally use sibling competitiottmakesthe task even more daunting.we suddenly realize the 20,000-word vocabulary forms onry the rudimentary base of the native speaker'smentallexicon.This, combinedwith the 'word choice,errorsthe L2 leamers make, despite contextualizedpresentationof new vocabulary,is evidence that ESL students need additional, explicit instruction in collocations.Swan reminds us that vocabulary ,will not take care of itself ,, and points out the pedagogic necessity of deliberately selecting, incorporating, and recycling high-priority vocabulary into classroom materials and activities. This point applies just as much, if not more, to collocationswhich studentsare lesslikely to notice unlessguidedtowardsthe importanceof collocationby their teachers. After the intrial Aha!feeling one has when realizing how much collocations come to bear upon language,the classroom teacher has to consider the questionofjust how to go about the explicit teachingof collocation.Today, in part due to technological advances,more researchand resourcesthan ever are availableto help the classroomteacherspecificallyaddressthe collocation 'problem'. collocation has often been a source of student e[or; some teaching suggestionsfollow that can help students understand the idea of collocationand enablethem to use collocationsto their advantagein buildins their mental lexiconsin a systematicway.
4.6 Nlake students aware of collocation In someways, it is a relief to bring collocationsout of the closet,so to speak. Instead of feeling frustrated and a bit ineffectual when a studentasks me, Bzl why don't Americans say 'mitigating situations'? I can answer with
ways classroomteacherscan assisttheir studentsin taking control of this part of theirlanguage learning. l. Teach students the word ,collocation' Collocationsexist in the students'L1, so, except for studentsof extremely limited proficiency, it really is not difficult for them to understand the concept. It is helpful to remind them that, just like their native language,the English language has some words that go together, and some that do not. Once explained, you can save a great deal of class time by using the term when appropriate. 2. Adapt books to include collocations currently, few textbooks for ESL students address collocations
76
Integratingcollocatnn
Modifying and adaptingexisting books is a good solution, and this can be accomplishedfairly easily.If using vocabulary-builderbooksbasedon wordlists or roots and affixes, have students adapt them. Students can make notationsabout frequentcollocationsnext to the word lists. Teachersshould feel confident in supplying frequent collocations from their own knowledge of the English lexicon, but if desired,it's also possibleto check someof the corpus-based referencesmentionedbelow. 3. Context and collocation notebooks Within the specific area of vocabulary building, I have found it useful to presentto the students'the two C's' of context and collocaflon.When I first stafiedpresentingnew words with only the collocations,this did not always help them avoid pitfalls with new vocabulary becauseindividual words and multi-word items can operate within a restricted context as well as with particularcollocates.For example,the following is a sampleof somecontext and collocation information I gave to some students using Goodman's Advancing VocabularrySkills, a book for native speakersand leamers which we have at times used in our advancedreading and writing class. Word
Special context?
Collocations
discretion (n)
(caution/privacy, authority, judgment)
at your/someone'sdiscretion verbs: exercise- , handle sth with -. use -. leaveto sb's show adj: complete/total/utmost-
Thereare no servicechargesaddedto the bill. Tip at your discretion. He handledthe private matter with completediscretion. Thejob applicantswere hired at the discretionof the hiring committee. facetious (adj)
(flippant - often negative)
noun: - remark
I wish Bill wowldstop makingfacetiowsremarks. scrupulous (adj) (relatingto honesty, noun: - care,- attention fairness, exactness) John deals with the accountsand he's absolutelyscrupulous. What works especiallywell for this purposeis a stenographer'snotebook. [used for taking US shorthand, Ed.] It's a portable size for recording vocabulary, and also comes ready-made with two columns thal are ideally suited to record context and collocation in their respectiveplaces, following the initial word entry and definition. During one of the first class meetings, I model how to record the context and collocation of each word, and then for the remainder of the course,whenever we work specifically on vocabulary,I write the two headings, Context and Collocation, on the blackboard, and write the relevantnotations under eachheadins as we work down the list. For
some\\becaus words. r preposlt phrases pleasur
Where < example obtained Collocatt based di modified addition. to provid much safr No, you c Ifyou sar day!)
4.Addar
When first things ctre limbs, heor Collocatio simple qu subsequen to the collo subsequen questlonroutine for rtemsto the 5. Selectvc
By domain looselythe s domain miE might incluc Though prot a good basis observing th understandtl domain sucl whimpe4 ho. pomt out exi
Integrating
can be n wordn make , should rwledge e of the
Lsefulto :n I first t always rrds and as with l context odman's rs which
collocation
77
somewords I might only note a restrictivecontextand no collocations;this is becausethe particular word might combine freely with other words. For other words, my notation under the collocation column may be as simple as the preposition that follows an adjective (adept at), or it may be severalcommon phrases frequently associatedwith that particular word, (a vicarious thrill, pleasure,experience).Sometimes,I haveno notationin either column. where do I get my information? context I can suppry myself, or from examples in the vocabulary book. Information about collocations can be obtained from a collocation dictionary like the LTp Dictionarv of seleited Collocations.which I usedherefor manyentries.or othergood ESL corpus_ based dictionaries in which the example sentences,sometimes slightly modified (rather than the definitions) can be ideal for this purpose. In addition, like any other teacher,I can also use my own knowledge of English to provide collocation information to the students.(A word of advice: it is much saferfor a teacherto tell students:I rJon't think I,ve ever heard.that than No, you can't say that when the classencountersa questionablecollocation. If you say the latter, there is every chancea studentwill hear or read it the next day!) 4. Add a question
retron ile sth sb'srostot1. Utree.
notebook. recording rre ideally following neetings,I rd then for cabulary,I ooard,and he list. For
when first presentinga new vocabulary item, teacherscan ask,what kinctsoJ things are (severed)?(the connectionwith, economic ties, and,thegruesome limbs, heads).what kind of things are (potent)?(drinks, chemicals,a mixture) collocations can be elicited from the studentsor provided by the teacher.This simple questioning is especially effective as a reinforcing technique in subsequentlessons,and ensuresthat the studentshave the repeatedexposure to the collocations necessaryto fix them in their memories.All it tat<esdurins subsequentencounterswith the vocabulary item is a quick repeat of thl question - what kinds of things are . . . ? rt can become an easy, automatic routine for studentsand teachersthat is effective in helping studentstransfer itemsto theirlong-termmemories. 5. Select vocabulary textbooks that use domain vocabulary By domain vocabulary I mean the study of different vocabulary items with looselythe samemeaning,basedon a 'parent'domain,for exampiethe LovE domain might include adore, cherish, treasure, while the HATE domain might include detest,loathe, despise. Though probably not intendedto, books basedon domain vocabularyprovide a good basisfor training and practicein collocation,for two reasons. First, by observing the lexical variety related to a single concept, students come to understandthat the English lexicon is not an open system.when they learn a domain such as cRY, suggestedby Hollisky and including weep, sob, tvhimpe4 howl, bellow, shed tears, students will see - and teachers should point out explicitly - thaLwords with similar meanings are frequently not
78
Integrttting
colloctttion
collocationally interchangeable.Second, the way that domain vocabulary books are arrangedaround a particular concept provides an ideal set-up for addinga studyof collocalion.
The Wa sentenc example
One series I particularly admire is Walk, Amble, Stroll (Levels 1 and 2, Hollisky et al.). In thesebooks,when the words relatedto basicconceptssuch as the OLD-NEW domain are introduced,the authorspresentthem in context, often with collocations:
Pape Han'r (fout
Many people are interested in old things and events which happeneda long time ago. Some of them like to buy expensive antique fwmiture and others enjoy reading books about Julius Caesarand other leaders from ancient history. Other people are more interested in new things and new ideas. They like to have moderufurniture or read about current events.Some of them only go to the most recent movies.Do you prefer old or new movies? Are you interestedin ancientor modern history?
Teacher with an; reinforce Again, fr
The underlined words are those selected for presentationby the authors; I haveaddedthe italics to showthe collocations.This domainprovidesan ideal opportunity to point out that we don't say old histoty or antique history; Ihe standardexpressionis ancient historlt. Similarly, we say cwrrenteventsand recentevents,but we do not saynew events. Dependingupon the goalsof the class,the teachercan simply point out the collocations,or createadditional exercises and activities specifically geared to practicing and retaining the collocations.
(Italics mr the compc
One such activity, suggestedby Channell,is a collocationgrid. Thesecan be done for many groups of words with similar or related meanings, and for different kinds of grammatical pairs such as subjects and verbs, verbs and objects, adjectivesand nouns, etc. Using the OLD-NEW domain from the previous example, the grid might look like the one below. If using a domain vocabularybook in class,the teacherneedsonly supply the blank grids after modelling the first unit, and the studentscan complete the grids with the collocations they discover in each chapter. This is also an excellent way to review and practice, which is crucial to retention. events
furniture
old
T
antique
T
ancrent
?
new
history
+ T
T
recent
T
cuffent
T
modem
)
T
ideas
movles T
? T
T
+
T
T
+
+ +
T
When Did a Has I'r was fir
Again, w.r Two C's o For some collocatior 6. Tlain st
One semes and writinl rnterestin_e 'vocabulan
the studen lmpoftant Il word units 1
Because E thematicalil presentan ir reading,and teachercan I collocations themselves woffy wheth any other wa and writing, ideasof 'pns
Integrating collocation
Yocabulary L1set-,upfor ls 1 and 2, nceptssuch r m context, u'hrch r-ns1ve Julius rle are rr have n only :oties? e authors;I ,les an ideal itistorl; the r eventsand goalsof the : additional rtaining the -lese can be lg:s.and for '. r erbs and rn from the r supplythe ompletethe s is also an n. movles
79
The Walk,Amble,,Srrollbooks follow the introductionof each domain with sentencecompletion practice that frequently reinforces collocation. Some examplesfrom the BUILD domain: Paperwas first . . . in China. (manwfactured,constructed) Harvard,the oldestuniversityin the US, was . . . in 1636. (fuunded,manufactwred,thowghtup, produced) Teacherscan mimic this techniqueof forced-choicepracticeof collocations with any words the class might be studying. Hollisky et al take this reinforcement one step further in their questions for discussion or writing. Again, from their BUILD domain: When was your country establishedas an independentcountry? Did a personor group of people/oundyour countryT Has your country'ssystemof governmentchangedvery much sinceit was first organiled? (Italics mine, and note particularlythe last examplewhere,on this occasion, the componentsof the collocationoccur quite widely separated.) Again, we must remember,collocation is not the only area of interest;the Two C's of contextand collocationoperatein domain vocabularybooks,too. For some words (whimpea sob, weep), context is much more important than collocation. 6. Train students to observe and note collocations in reading One semesterI choseto study vocabulary'words' in context in my reading and writing class, rather than use a vocabulary builder textbook, and an interesting thing happened.Working through each unit, I would pull out the 'vocabulary' that was important to that particular subject, and make lists for the students.However, I soon noticed that I was not generatinglists of important words, but in nearly every case had lists of expressions - multiword units that I cameto recognizewere often collocations. Because ESL reading and writing books are commonly organized thematicallyaroundsubjectssuch as'the workplace',or'prisons'this can present an ideal opportunity to train studentsto observecollocations in their reading, and to note and use these expressionsin their writing. At first, the teachercan model the kind of list neededby making a list of vocabularyand collocations for a thematic unit. Later, students can generate the lists themselves,for leamer autonomy,or as a class.At this juncture, I do not woffy whether a phrasefits a particular definition of collocation, or analyzeir any other way. If it is important,useful vocabularyfor the students'reading and writing, I include it. Here are two examplesof the lists I made using the ideasof 'prisons'and'the workplace':
80
Integratingcollocation
Prisons
The workplace
prrsonsentence corections officer prison-issueclothing self-helpcourses kill time re-entryinto society doing time alternative sentence prison capacity
mental challenge prospectiveemployees job autonomy hourly wage straight salary employee turnover incentiveschemes unskilledworkers extemal recognition
The single most important thing for teachers,more than worrying whether or not somethingis a collocation,is to shift their and their students'focusaway from individual words to chunks of language. These chunks improve the fluency and accuracy of the English students produce. This can be accomplishedwithout changingtextbooksor even modifying the course,but by simply calling students' attention to the collocations in the readings, studying them as a paft of a vocabulary list, and repeating and reinforcing them in writing assignments,describedbelow. 7. Collocations in writing Writing is frequently taught as an integrated course with reading in many IEPs, so the above-mentionedtechnique is easily adapted to reinforcing collocationsin writing. When teachersgive writing assignments basedon the readings, they can review with their students a list of collocations and expressionsthat are important to accurately expressingthe ideas relevant to the topic. Teacherscan also ensurethat studentsusethesenew expressionsby giving short 'forced choice' writing and discussion assignments,where studentswill haveto use the expressionsin order to answerthe question:Are alternative sentences a good idea when prison capacity has reached its maximwm?Are self-help coursesofferedto prisoners in your counttj before their re-entry into society? Alternatively, for a writing assignmentwhich doesn't follow a reading selection,teacherscan quickly preparea short list of common collocations and phrases used in the context relevant to that assignment; this can be discussedwith studentsbefore they begin writing. [Morgan Lewis makesthe samesuggestion.Ed.1 For example,if you were going to haveyour studentswrite an essayaboutthe pros and cons of child day care, you might first want to do a pre-writing exercise and in this context, note on the board and discuss the meaning of expressionsllke: physicalwell-being,emotionalwell-being,quality time, high turnoverof pre-schoolteachers,child-careworkers,working outsidethe home, double-income family, womenin the workforce,teacher-childratios,etc.
8.'Look
Students dictionar construc the accul friendll, 1 Once thel from thet collocatio how to u_ 9. A writi
When our Purposes accustom emphasizi degree.Th as my inst experlence traineeaski at the appr envisionins no actualla to approac through our informatior phrases- cr Typical exa experience Cowldwe gt He's tied up not so far of Perhaps the functional nc its langua_e emphasizele English in a students'at speaking.Na their book Ze at the end of t 'useful invan variableslots
[ntegrating collocation
81
8. 'Look it up twice, Students writing in or translating a second language rely heavily on dictionaries and thesauruses,and teachers can attest to the mangled constructionsand confusingmeaningsthat often result.Studentscan improve the accuracyof their writing if they are taughtto .look it up twice', a student_ tiiendly phrase that is another version of Lewis' decoding and encoding. once they have found the basic word they want to use in writing - perhaps tiom their bilingual dictionary - a dictionary or ref'erencethat includes collocation information such as those given below is necessaryto find out how to use it accurately. \\ hether or ocusaway nprove the is can be :ourse,but : readings, reinforcing
s m many reinforcing ised on the ations and relevantto ressionsby nts. where restion:Are ,eached its ntrty before a reading :oliocations this can be s makes the
ar,aboutthe pre-writing meaning of n'time,high ,.Iethe home, ts. etc.
9. A writing lesson from ESp/Business English when our IEP firsr branched out to include ESp (English for Specific Purposes)programs for corporate clients, the academicEngrish we were accustomedto teachinghad to be modified to meet the needsof the trainees, emphasizingthe functional and pragmatic nature of English to a much greater degree.Though I remain primarily a teacher of academicEnglish in an IEF, as my institution employs specializedtrainersfor corporateclients, my first experiencewith businesstraineeswas an eye-openingone. one particular traineeaskedif I could give him 'a list of expressionsI can memorize and use, at the appropriateplace and time. put off by his word ,memorize,, and envisioningsome sort of mechanicaltraveler'sphrasebook that would build no actual languageproficiency, I assuredhim that was not at all asound way to approach improving his English. Interestingry,though, as we worked throughour languageunits on negotiating,describingtrends,telephoning for information,clarifying, etc,rreaTizedthat we were in fact presenting lexical phrases- collocations- and asking our traineesto practiceand retain them. Typical examples were: I'll get back to yow Jirst thing tomorrow. The market e-rperienceda sharp drophlight decline/remainedstable. Is that everything? C o u l d w eg o o v e r t h a t a g a i nL?e t m e c o n f i t m . . . . w o u r d y o u m i n d i f r. ".? He's tied up at the moment.The traineewho askedfor usefulexpressions was not so far off the mark. Perhapsthe very nature of ESp and businesstraining - the pragmatic and functional notions previously referred to - puts collocations at the forefront of its language work; certainly the relevant books and training materials emphasizelexical phrasesas a matter of course.Those who teach academic English in an IEP can benefit their students in the same way, by calling :tudents' attention to the 'useful expressions'of academic writing and speaking.Nattinger and Decarrico have written about exactly this concept in :heir book Lexical Phrctsesand LanguageTeaching.The teaching suggestions et the end of their book provide recommendationsfor having stuJentspractice 'useful invariablephrases'commonly used in written discourse,some with ''ariableslots that studentscan fill in. Relatedto this, Hoey's book. patterns
82
Integrating
collocation
of Lexis in Text, demonstratesthe cenfal role lexis plays in cohesion, even acrosssentenceboundariesand over distanceswith texts,and an earlierbook by Halliday and Hasan, Cohesionin English, classifiescollocation as the second of two types of lexical cohesion (the first being various types of reiteration). How could this work in the IEP classroom?Teacherscan give their students shortcutsto more fluent and natural academicwriting by having them practice the 'collocationsof writing'. When teachingthe common academictask of summary writing for example, along with instruction in the general conventionsof summary writing, I have my studentspractice with a list of commonly-usedphrasesand verbs: contendsthat (+ clause) maintainsthat (+ clause) addressesthe issueof (+ noun phrase) In his/her article/book etc, John Doe disputes(+ noun phrase) suggests(that) (+ nownphrase) discwsses points out that (+ clawse) These same verbs prove useful later on when we introduce the documented research paper, which requires internal citations. When we address the importance of objectivity in research papers, neutral phrases such as: Evidencesuggests. . ., Recentfindings support . . ., h has beendetermined by . . ., Supportfor this point existsin . . ., arepresentedfor the studentsto practice. To make a point, we also light-heaftedly compare them to biased phrasessuchasEverybodyknowsthat. . ., Theyhad a craly idea that. . . etc. These ideas are certainly not new, but, much like the explicit teaching of vocabulary, they fell out of favor with many teachersduring the era of the communicative approach to teaching. Though concerned at first that these approachesmight soundtoo 'canned'or formulaic, I have beenpleasedwith the resultsin the students'writing, and pleasantlysurprisedat how well they are able to adapt the phrasesto their own writing topics. I have also successfullyincorporatedcollocationsand lexical phrasesin the writing curriculum by introducing and having students practice the multiword items that indicaterelationshipsbetweenideas.A few examplesfollow; teacherscan emphasize any such phrases as appropriate for their students' proficiency. Similarity/comparison
Difference/contrast:
Conclusion
strikingly similar in like manner
in marked contrast draw a conclusion jump a fundamental difference to a conclusion the logical conclusion on the contrary a hasty conclusion ln summarv
Agree, genera unanln out of i
4.7 Rt
As our repetitio students meanin-e needsto 7, thou-s teachin-s expenenc informati
Convincii it operate can be dii word = d, and electr not enou-s a word tha knowing I so system goal of g Fortunatel help teach enjoyable accomplis Listed herr classroom want to cot ways their
1. Collocat
This techni has alreadlcan compie competitive 2. Addition Vocabulary
Integratingcollocation
, : : 1 , - l f l .e V e i l
:.-,Lierbook :- :n ?Sthe ,-: I\pes Of 1-rr students tem practice rmic task of tire genelal r ith a list of
,i,',iutphrase)
' documented ir,ddressthe !:s SuChaS: r:.detennined ni studentsto i-m to biased .ilirut...etc. ri teaching of th- era of the ;r:t that these r pleasedwith h,l,' rvell they ;hrases in the rice the multiimples follow; tlieir students'
Agree/disagree Listing/enumeration generalconsensus another/yetanother unanlmous agreement in a number of wavs out of the question
83
Cause/effect leadsto resultsin unexpectedresult or finding
4.7 Review and testing As our understanding of the human memory grows, the importance of repetition and reinforcement can't be over-emphasized.The brightest of studentswill not be able to recall and use new words without repeated, meaningful contact with them. Estimates of the number of times a student needsto meaningfully encountera new word range in the researchfrom 5 to 7, though classroomteachersare probably not sulprised by this. Whether teaching the multiplication tables or collocations, teachers know from experiencethat there must first be systematic,meaningful practice, or the new information will not be retained. Convincingstudentsthat they don't really 'know'a word until they know how it operateswith other words and contextsis also part of the teacher'sjob. It can be difficult to wean studentsfrom the idea that Ll word = L2 word and word = definition, particularly in this instant-gratification age of computers and electronic dictionaries. Telling a student that something is important is not enough; to make a studentacceptthe notion that there is more to knowing a word than knowing its basic definition, they need to be held accountablefor knowing how it is used.Teachershold studentsaccountableby testingthem, I so systematictestingof vocabularyshouldinclude collocations,with the twin goal of giving students additional, meaningful contact with the words. Fortunately,this is not difficult to accomplish,and many resourcesexist to help teachersproduce qluizzes,tests and practice exercises.These can also be enjoyable and game-like - many of them matching exercises- and can be accomplishedwithout overly stressingstudent or teacher. Listed here are some of the review and testing exercisesI have used in my classroom.As teachersadaptand createtheir own techniques,they might also want to consider current researchon learning styles, and consider in which ways their review work complementstheir students'variousleaming styles. 1. Collocation grid
sion : irnclusion l conclusion ;a1 conclusion conclusion ItLll \
This technique,mentioned above, is especially good for review when a class has already completed a grid once.A new grid can be supplied, and students can complete them again, either as an individual review, a race, or as either competitive or collaborative teams working for both speedand accuracy. 2. Additions to tests for vocabulary-builder textbooks Vocabularytests often only ask studentsto know a word's definition. Where
84
Integrating collocation
applicable,add questionsthat elicit collocationsthe classhas studied.Again, this is where the teacher'srole in selectinghigh priority, useful collocations ls lmportant. Intermediateleamersor above,'Odd one out': Crossout the word which doesnot belong in the group: potent caf potent drink, potent drwg,potent weapon Advancedlearners:the more activetask, askingthem to supply collocations: For the following words, add one or more words with which it might be expectedto occur: potent- potentdrwg,potent weapon,........ reality -face reality, harsh reality, virtual reality, ........ For all levels:matchingcolumnsof collocations(passiveskill). For matching exercises other than those designed to test material already learned, it is usually best to have the strongestcollocationsfirst. The more ambiguous examplesshould come later, so that the whole practice gets easieras students work through it. Putting the most ambiguousexamplesfirst makes the whole activity more like a frustrating guessinggame than useful review and testing. 3. Backwards vocabulary test Use this technique in a reading class where a list of expressionsand collocations has been generatedby the class for a thematic or content-based unit. (See number 6 in the section Make students aware of collocations 'definitions', which may actually be above.)The teacherpreparesa set of longer descriptions or explanations. The student must provide the correct collocationor multi-word unit. This is especiallyvaluablein helping students retain their reading vocabulary.For example: What collocation or phrasemeansa method of payment in which a worker is not paid by the hour, and doesnot eam commission,but is paid a fixed wage, usually arrangedas an annual contract? (a straight salary) What collocation means competition between brothers and sisters? (sibling rivahlt) 4. Producing example sentences 'vocabulary sentences' Require only more advancedlearnersto write and then hold them accountablefor using correct collocations. 'use Sincechildhood,we as native speakershavebeenaskedto the following vocabulary words in sentenceswhich demonstratetheir meaning'. This is a fine task for native speakers, but when teachers require this of second languagelearners,collocation error can causegreat difficulty, with the added dangerof reinforcingenors. (Wewill severthis classbecawseit is too large.)
Prelimin increase students such as r who are a be expec advanced produced very pote,
5. Collocr
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Preliminary research,though sparse,suggeststhat collocationalknowledge increases along with language proficiency. Therefore, for lower-level students,it is betterto testpassivevocabularyand collocationskills with tasks such as matching, cross-outand fill-in the blanks.Advanced level students who are askedto write sentences with vocabularythat hasbeenstudiedshould be expectedto use it correctly.If we have studiedpotent,I no longer give my advancedstudentshalf-credit for a potent Ferrari. A successfulsentence, produced by one of our studentsis: 11lsLong Island lced rea [a cocktail] was vetj potent. 5. Collocations Dominoes
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Teamsor pairs of studentsare given setsof cards,eachof which containsone part of a useful collocation.The task, like traditional dominoes,is to match the two parts. The cards can be re-used and presented again to the same studentsfor more review.
4.8 Concordancesfor teachersand students computer technologyhasprovidedlanguagelearnersand teacherswith some excellentresourceson collocations.one I haveusedis Cobuild Direct which is an on-line service for accessinglanguage data based on the Bank of English. Extraction of concordances,collocations,and word frequency are available from the corpus; searching tools are point and click. The information is available [at the time of writing] on the Cobuild website at http://www.cobuild.collins.co.uk/. Thoseinterestedcan try a demo. After learning about collocations,when studentsuse databasesor search engines on the Internet, they may discover on their own some frequent collocations related to a particular topic. Encouragethem to observeand note those collocations,particularly if they will be writing about these subjects. [Michael Hoey explains on p 238 how an informational text is a kind of disguised concordance,so relevant arlicles are an extremely useful resource for leamers to find the particular collocations they need. Edl Finally, when explaining collocations in the classroom,teachersshouldn't forget that, as fluent speakersofEnglish, they have a greatdeal ofknowledge about collocations - their own personal databases.Expensive computer programs and well-stocked reference libraries are nice, but not vital to the introduction of collocation in the classroom.You don't need a computer program to tell your studentsto say that a Ferrari is a powerful, not potent, car. Much of the collocation information that studentsneed in the classroom is readily available from the teacher's own mental lexicon. The differences between British and American English, and regional variations of certain expressionsmight also be more easily explained by a local native speaker.
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Integ rating c ollocation
4.9 Conclusion The English lexicon is not an open system.Realizing this through my own frustrations in the classroomhas changedmy overall approachto teaching in some subtle ways. My primary coursegoals of helping studentsto improve their reading, writing and vocabulary have not changed significantly, but wheneverpossible,I call my students'attentionto multi-word units - chunks - of language,and work to help them leam and retain them. I no longer disparage'useful phrases'and collocationsas shortcutsunworthy of'real' languageteaching,but recognizehow much they come to bear on language production.It has been my impressionas an ordinary classroomteacherthat thosestudentsoften dubbed'good at learninglanguages'are in fact unusually good observersof language,and, in particular,of contextand collocation. Teachers'attitudesin presentingcollocations can affect whether their students perceivethem as useful, necessaryinformation or as just one more thing to learn in their seeminglyendlesstasksas languageleamers.If teacherspresent collocations in a matter-of-fact,positive way, as if they were no more unusual than parts of speechor word forms, this attitude is picked up by the students. In the context of ordinary lessons, useful, strong collocations can be highlighted everywherewe find them both in plannedreading and in language which comes into the classroom serendipitously.Reading, listening and speaking materials, particularly those used by IEPs which follow a thematic or content-basedapproach, are rich, authentic sources of collocations. Existing vocabulary-builder books can be modified to include information about collocations, and notebooks can be kept by studentsto record context and collocation information. It is up to the teacherto call students' attention to these useful collocations, practice them in a regular, systematic manner, and hold students accountablefor them through testing and in their written languageproduction. Part of teaching collocation includes training students to use available resourceswhen they move from receptiveto productive language,particularly writing. When studentsleam that it does indeed matter 'what word goes with what' and have the tools to discover this information on their own, they are able to produce language that is more natural and accurate.They are also correspondinglybetter able to expresswhat they wish to, which is itself a satisfying achievement. Until textbook writers addressit explicitly, adding the study of collocation to the curriculum does require a little extra effort on the part of already-busy teachers,but I have found it more than anything to be a change of attitude. Teachersin IEPs can apply the ideas in modest ways, by incorporating the study of collocation into their traditional vocabulary work, and by providing training in the use of collocation references to improve their students' productive language.In larger ways, teacherscan emphasize,more than they
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Channel, J. TeachingJou Crow, J. T. I EnglewoodC Halliday NL Longman. Hoey,M. (19 Hollisky et al Hollisky et ai Lewis, M. (1! Lewis, M. (l! England:Lanl Nation, I.S.P. Nation, I.S.p Nattinger, J.F Oxford Univer Smadja, F.A. compuhng,4(: Siikmen,A. (i and M. McCar University Pre: Swan, M. (199 IAIEFL Confe
Integrat ing collocation
:h my own teachingin to lmprove cantly, but ts - chunks no longer Lt,of 'real' n language "'acherthat t r,rnusually location. eil students )re thing to )-rs present rre unusual re students. ns can be in language tening and a thematic ollocations. information rrrd context :s'attention llc manner, h:ir written e available parlicularly d _soes with ,,n.they are Levare also h is itself a rllocationto iready-busy of attitude. rorating the 1 providing ir students' re than they
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might have previously done, the collocations and multi-word units encounterednaturally in all of their courses,with an eye toward their 'big picture' effect on the English language. Regardlessof the approach to collocation,our goal as teachersremainsthe same:to empowerour students as languagelearners. [This chapter is based on a presentation given at the 32nd, TESOL Convention,Seattle,1998.1
DiscussionQuestions Do you see any advantagesor disadvantages in separatingvocabularyfrom other aspectsof languageleaming? Do you use a code indicating the type of error when providing feedback on learners'written work, particularly essays?If so, does collocationform part of that feedback ? To what extentdo you think faults in your learners'written work are caused by: . not knowing a (single)word that they need? . not knowing the correct collocation? ' writing long, grammaticallycomplicatedexpressions, perhapsincluding grammarmistakes,becausethey do not know the appropriatemulti-word expression?
References channel, J' (1981) Applying semantictheory to vocabularyteaching.English Language TeachingJoumal 35(2) lI5-122. Cro% J. T. (1986). Vocabulary for advancedreading comprehension:the keyword approach. EnglewoodCliffs, NJ: PrenticeHall Regents. Halliday, M.A.K. & Hasan, R. (1976). Cohesionin English.London & New york: Longman. Hoey, M. (1991).Pattemsof Lexis in Text. Oxford: Oxford University press. Hollisky et al. (1995).Walk, ambie,stroil, level 1. Boston,MA: Heinle & Heinle. Hollisky et al. (1992).Walk, amble, stroll, Ievel 2 Bosron,MA: Heinle & Heinle. Lewis, M. (1993).The lexical approach.Hove, England:LanguageTeachingpublications. Lewis, M. (1997) Implementing the lexical approach: putting theory into practice. Hove, England: Language Teaching Pubiications. Nation, I.S.P. (1990). Teaching & leaming vocabulary. New york: Newbury House. Nation, I.s.P. (Ed.). (1994).New ways in teachingvocabulary.Alexandria,vA: TESoL. Nattinger, J.R., & Decarrico, J.s. (1992) Lexical phrasesand languageteaching.oxford: Oxford University Press smadja, EA. (1989).Lexical co-occulrence:The missing link. Literary and linguistic computing,4(3),163-168. Siikmen, A. (1997). current trendsin teachingsecondlanguagevocabulary.In N. Schmitt and M. Mccarthy, (Eds.), vocabulary: description, acquisition and pedagogy.cambridge University Press,Cambridge, England. Swan, M. (1996) Languageteachingis teachinglanguage plenary addressto IATEFL, IAIEFL ConferenceReport. 34,38.
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CLassroom stratep ies. activ ities and exercises
Chapter5 Classroornstrategies,activitiesand exercises Jimmie Hill, Morgan Lewis and Michael Lewis This chapter begins by describing ways teachers have introduced collocation to their learners. It discusses some general strategies for making your classroom approach more lexical. There is a detailed description of how one teacher, Deborah PettS has introduced more collocational work for different kinds of classes.The chapter then presents sample activities and exercises which can be taken into the classroom immediately. All the activities and exercises suggested have two purposes - firstly, the immediate one of practising new collocations and building learners'rnenfal lexicons. The second, more long-term purpose is to make learners more aware of collocation as a powerful way of improving their ability to write precisely and well. Many of the activities and exercises are particularly helpful in preparing learners for any more adyanced examination.
5.1 Introducing collocation to learners Learnersnaturally assumethat the word is the basic unit of language,but this book is basedon a differentassumption- that languageis storedin our mental lexicons in different ways, some single words, but also a vast number of multi-word items. It is essential,then, that teachersintroduce the idea of multi-word units to their learners,and then adopt classroomstrategieswhich constantlyremind learnersof the importanceof thesemulti-word items.The phrasalnatureof languagecan initially seemstrangeto learners,and teachers need a number of different strategiesto introduce the idea to different kinds of leamers.Here are a few, which have been usedsuccessfullybv teachers. 1. Words are like people Leamers may find it easy to understand the parallel between words and people. We all feel comfortable when we are sunounded by friends and acquaintances,but anxious in unfamiliar situations when we are surrounded by strangers.We have friendships of different