Teaching Collocation to Higher Level Learners of English
Word Count 2470 Page 1 Teaching Collocation to Higher Level Students of English LSA 1 Systems - Lexis
Table of Contents Introduction
3
An Analysis of Collocation 3 Meaning
3
Form …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………… 4 Pronunciation……………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………….4
Learner
Issues
with
Collocation
……………………………………………………...
……………………………………………….……5 Collocations are arbitrary ………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………….……5 Issues with meaning …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………5 Focusing on individual words ………………………………………………………………………………….……………………….……… 5 Appropriacy …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………….5 Issues with form ………………………………………………………………………………………. ………………………………………………6 Learners’ first language isn’t English ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6 Issues with pronunciation ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. ……6 Learners sound unnatural using …………………………………………………………………………………………….6
Teaching
collocation
Suggestions
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………6 Page 2 Teaching Collocation to Higher Level Students of English LSA 1 Systems - Lexis
Arbitrariness …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………….6 Focusing on individual words …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 7 Appropriacy …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………..….7 Unnatural pronunciation …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ……..8 Bibliography …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………….………………8
Introduction In this essay, the focus is on teaching collocations to higher level learners. It covers an analysis of collocations of a variety of forms. This area has been chosen because the teaching of lexis has often lagged behind the teaching of grammar in the classrooms of those teaching English. Regarding the importance of lexis, it is hard to argue with Wilkins who wrote (cited by Lewis, 1997, p.16), “Without grammar little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed” or Sinclair who said, “A lexical mistake often causes misunderstanding, while a grammar mistake rarely does.” Where does one start when teaching lexis in the classroom? Lewis lays out two major areas that he says merit attention: collocation and fixed expression (Lewis, 1997). In my experience, learners at higher levels often have trouble with forming and using collocations. This is evident either because they tend not to use them or they use them incorrectly. Native speakers make wide use of collocations when speaking. Because it is a feature that is widely used by native speakers, leaners need to be able to use collocations so their speech sounds natural and so they can communicate their message in the most accurate way. Of further Page 3 Teaching Collocation to Higher Level Students of English LSA 1 Systems - Lexis
benefit to learners is the fact that by using collocation as “chunks” of speech it will make it easier for them to construct sentences. An analysis of collocation The British linguist J.F. Firth (cited by Wikipedia, 2015, para. 2) said, “You shall know a word by the company it keeps” This is essentially the definition of collocation, “the company a word keeps” (ibid.). For the purposes of this essay, we will use the definition given by Lewis (1997, p.25), “Collocations are those combinations of words which occur naturally with greater than random frequency. Collocations co-occur, but not all words which co-occur are collocations.” Meaning We most likely recognize that each individual collocation will have a meaning that needs to be taught individually. Meanings of collocations are, at times, not obvious from the individual words they contain. The complete phrase carries the meaning, for example being on pins and needles, fit and finish, or white noise. An additional area of meaning that merits attention is appropriacy. In defining appropriacy, Thornbury (2006, p.14, 15) says, “If you use language appropriately, you use it in a way that is suitable for the context, including the cultural context, and in a way which meets the expectations of the people you are communicating with.” Essentially, we need to use the right words at the right times without causing offence and hindering our intended message. Upon meeting the president or prime minister, we don’t greet them with “Hey man” or “What’s up?” That would be inappropriate language for the person and situation. Form Given the wide variety of words that can co-occur, collocations can take many forms. Collocations have been separated into various different groups over time. In a research paper by Parisa Farrokh (Farrokh, 2012) we are given a good overview of these. He begins with Benson et al. who set out two main categories of collocation with subcategories below those. The first main category is lexical collocation. “A lexical collocation could be made up of nouns, adjectives, verbs, or adverbs, like “warmest regards”, “strictly accurate”, and etc.” The second category is grammatical collocations, “…a grammatical collocation is made up of a dominant word, such as a noun, an adjective, or a verb, and a preposition or grammatical structure like an infinitive or a clause.” Some of these grammatical collocations are (ibid., p.59, 60): noun + preposition noun + to inf preposition + noun
Apathy toward He was a fool to do it in advance, at anchor Page 4
Teaching Collocation to Higher Level Students of English LSA 1 Systems - Lexis
adjective + preposition
They are afraid of him.
Later, Sinclair divided collocations into, what I find to be, two rather confusing groups downward collocation and upward collocation, based upon the concept of nodes and collocates, and the frequency of the collocate (ibid., p. 61) Lewis himself divided collocations into twenty different types similar to Benson et al. but making mention of several other categories such as binominals like, “backwards and forwards”, trinominals, “hook, line and sinker”, and discourse markers, “To put it another way” (ibid., p. 61, 62) to mention a few. Distinction of collocations is also made based on fixedness. Some collocations have a more fixed pattern. Some examples of more fixed collocation are aptitude test, and drug addict. If we want to use the word aptitude or addict, there are few other words that will naturally collocate. Other collocations are semi-fixed, such as what I'm saying/suggesting/proposing. There are a few options of collocates to use but not many (Lewis, 2000, p.50). A final area of collocation has to do with de-lexicalised verbs. These are verbs that have little meaning on their own; put, take, make, and have. However, these words can take a large number of collocations (Lewis, 1997, p.116) A moment spent considering just the word have will reveal a very wide variety of possible collocations. These de-lexicalised verbs and their collocates are quite the opposite of fixed or semi fixed collocations. From this brief overview of collocations and their forms and categories, we can see that collocation involves a high variety of forms. Pronunciation Correct pronunciation of collocations is important. Each collocation will have an individual pronunciation and stress that goes along with it. Collocations will frequently show features of connected speech, such as linking, intrusion, elision, weak forms, and rhythm. Learner Issues with Collocation Collocations are arbitrary The main area that I have found learners to have trouble with is how arbitrary collocations can be. Learners can be put off by that arbitrariness hoping for some “rule” about how to create and use them. When deciding to use a collocation, learners may also have no information or very little information that can help them know what will collocate with what in a way that will seem natural to native speakers. For example, while describing the weather, a class of Korean speaking learners asked me why in English we could say there was a hard rain but not a hard snow. Other examples of collocation that I have seen higher level learners have difficulty with are why we drive a car or drive a truck; ride a bicycle, ride a motorcycle, or ride a horse; pilot/fly an airplane; and sail/pilot/skipper a boat. While we may be able to come up with some general description to explain these collocations, for learners, they are not intuitive choices and can present a great deal of confusion. Some additional examples given by Lewis (1997, p.196) are these: Page 5 Teaching Collocation to Higher Level Students of English LSA 1 Systems - Lexis
Why can you say a close friend but not a near friend? Why can’t you say It’s forty past three? Issues with Meaning Focusing on individual words When looking at new collocations, learners may focus too much on the meaning of individual words and ignore the words that occur around each. These words that they ignore are the potential collocations. Learners may not realize that the meaning is carried by the full phrase. This can be particularly true when looking at a text. (Hunt, 2012). We can see this exemplified with the collocation a heavy smoker. A learner focusing just on the two individual words may end up with the idea that we are talking about an overweight smoker. They may miss that these two words form a collocation meaning to smoke a lot. Appropriacy Appropriacy is an area that can present difficulty for learners. When learning a new collocation there may not be enough, or any, context that could signal appropriacy. Additionally, learners may not be aware that, like their L1, all English language is not appropriate for all situations. For example, if a group of learners are describing what they did over the weekend in English, they may need to know that collocations like: have a blast, get pissed, and smoke a fag are words much more appropriate for an informal context such as telling some fellow friends about the weekend. An example of inappropriate language was seen while teaching a group of learners in Peru. On the first day of class, a man entered and greeted his classmates and me as the teacher with “Yo, dude!”, and “What’s up man?” It provoked a few laughs, but it was an honest mistake by the man who had picked it up from teaching English speakers how to surf. He needed to be made aware that those collocations were, likely, inappropriate for the classroom. Learners need to be made aware of and sensitized to appropriacy and that not all collocations are appropriate for all situations. Issues with Form Learners’ first language is different than English Learners’ L1 may come into play while learning collocations. A perhaps natural assumption is sometimes made by learners that words behave in the same ways in English as their L1 (Hunt, 2012). For native speakers of Korean or Spanish, it is common hear a reversal of adjective + noun collocations to noun + adjective. Learners even at higher level can be heard, at times, talking about a car blue (color (added by Korean learners)) or a building tall.
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Issues with Pronunciation Learners sound unnatural using collocations Learners may not know how the pronunciation of the collocation connects together into one, using features of connected speech and stress. This may lead to learners sounding, according to Hunt (2012, para. 25) “very stilted when speaking“. She goes on to say, There are three main reasons for this: 1. they pronounce every word with equal stress 2. they fail to notice how the sentence could be chunked 3. they don’t link the chunks together This can be seen in the collocation you and me. A learner may pronounce these as separate pieces such as /ju: ænd miː/. A native speaker’s pronunciation though would have a linking /w/ sound and a weak form of and, as in /ju:wənmiː/ (Marks, 2007) Teaching Suggestions Arbitrariness To address the issue of arbitrary collocation, I have found that raising learners’ awareness of collocation through the use of texts is valuable. This can be accomplished by having the learners read a text, perhaps a news article or a text from their course book. After reading the text, learners go back through the text and underline the collocations they see. At times, especially when the activity is new for learners, I have had them look for certain types of collocation, such as adjective + noun. At others, I leave it up to the learners to find them on their own. After getting feedback from the learners about what collocations they have underlined, I point out any that they have missed. I have found that even higher level learners are likely to miss collocations in a text. Finally, I have the learners record any collocations that are new or unexpected for them in their vocabulary notebooks. I have found this activity to be effective because when done regularly it helps learners to become aware of what collocations normally exist in English. It is effective because over time they develop their instincts for creating natural collocations. When I have consistently done this type of activity with higher level learners over a period of time, I have seen good improvement in collocation usage. A possible drawback I have found with this type of activity is that it can take a considerable amount of time until learners are aware of even a somewhat wide variety of collocations. It needs to be done consistently over a period of months or longer. Focusing on individual words
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When dealing with learners focusing on individual words, I find it effective to point out to learners the collocations that are all around them in an English classroom. This may be through using a text or listening activity in a way similar to above, pointing out the collocations that exist in it. Another method that I have found useful is to use the learners’ own language from a speaking activity, taking examples from what they have produced and putting it on the board. I may put up the word smoker and elicit from learners what could collocate with it (heavy, cigar, passive, etc...). Doing this activity has helped my learners to see that often words don’t exist in isolation. This activity is effective and valuable because learners begin to realize that they need to focus not on individual words but on the company words keep (Firth, cited by Wikipedia, 2015). Appropriacy To focus on the matter of appropriacy with higher level learners, I have used videos, particularly of comedy programs. This idea originally came from the British Council’s website (“Appropriacy,” 2008). Frequently, comedy programs contain a level of inappropriate language. After selecting a suitable program, I show about a minute of it to learners. While they are watching and listening, I have them note some of the phrases or collocations that they hear used. After watching a few times for note taking, this language can then be used to have learners discuss what they think would be appropriate in a formal or informal situation or what they would use with a good friend and what they would use with their parents/grandparents. I have found this activity is effective because it sensitizes learners to levels of appropriacy. Learners see that various types of phrases and collocation are used in different situations depending on the formality of the situation and who we are talking or writing to. Care does need to be exercised when selecting a program to watch. Teachers need to select a program that is suitable in terms of the learners’ level and in content so as not to cause offense.
Unnatural Pronunciation When teaching learners how to pronounce collocations with naturalness, I have found success with teaching correct pronunciation of the individual phonemes, stress, and linking as a package for each collocation. When a new collocation is encountered in class, I put it up on the board in phonemic script. I then have the learners mark where they think the stress is. After they have marked the stress, I say the collocation to have them check what they have marked. Continuing, I have them listen to me and mark any linking sounds that may go with the collocation. Finally, I drill the collocation chorally and individually, checking that the learners sound as natural as possible. I have found it effective to drill the collocation in a sentence, so they can get a sense of how it all fits together in a longer utterance. I make sure this pronunciation information goes into their vocabulary notebook along with the collocation. This activity is effective because learners leave a class not just with a greater knowledge of a collocation but also the correct pronunciation so they can use it in a natural sounding way. Page 8 Teaching Collocation to Higher Level Students of English LSA 1 Systems - Lexis
Word count 2470 Bibliography: Books: Lewis, M. (1997) Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into Practice, Heinle, Cengage Learning Lewis, M. (2000) Teaching Collocation – Further Developments in the Lexical Approach, Thomson Heinle Language Teaching Thornbury, S (2006) An A-Z of ELT, Macmillan Education Articles: Farrokh, P. (2012) Raising Awareness of Collocation in ESL/EFL Classrooms, Journal of Studies in Education Vol 2/3 Aug 2012 Websites: Appropriacy. (2008) https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/appropriacy(16.10.2015) Hunt, R, (2012) ‘Grammar and Vocabulary: Teaching Students Collocations.’ http://www.onestopenglish.com/methodology/teaching-articles/grammar-vocabulary-andskills/grammar-and-vocabulary-teaching-students-collocations/146468.article(16.10.2015) Wikipedia, (2015). ‘John Rupert Firth.’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rupert_Firth(16.10.2015) Course Book: Marks, J (2007) English Pronunciation in Use, Cambridge University Press
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