9/5/2014 How to teach collocations to beginners?

| Denilso de LimaDenilso de Lima

http://www.denilsodelima.com.br/articles/how-to-teach-collocations-to-beginners/ 1/4

Gettoknowmyfamouswebsite"Inglsnapontadalngua"
Howtoteachcollocationstobeginners?
2011-08-15 ByDenilsodeLima Postedin Articles
Iamprettymuchsurethatyouvealreadyheardandread
a lot about col l ocations. You may have read that
collocationsarewordsthatgotogether.Youmayalsohave
found lots of examples in lots of websites and books.
Youve even been convinced that teaching collocations is
strictly necessary to develop learners fluency in the
Englishlanguage.Sofar,sogood,right!?However,thebig
question is: how to teach collocations? In this and further
posts,Illbesharingsomeideastohelpyouwiththat.
One of the first things you have to do before starting
teachingcollocationsistoraise students awareness of
col l ocations. If they do not get the picture, you will have
problems. So, the first challenging and key task is this: help learners understand what
collocations are and why they are so important. Show them that sometimes its better to learn
wordstogetherratherthanisolated.
After accomplishing such a task, you and your learners will be ready to make the most of the
wordsfoundincoursebooksandevenotherwordsthatmaycomeupinclass.Keepinmindthat
youdonothavetocoverallthewordsfromasinglelesson.Thebestthingtodoistopickthreeto
fourkeywordsfromthelesson(aunitinthebook)andgivefivetosevenwordsthatgowiththem.
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9/5/2014 How to teach collocations to beginners? | Denilso de LimaDenilso de Lima
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Letssayyoureteachingbeginners.Todayslessonisrelatedtoweather.So,
you can pick the words weather, hot, and cold to teach words that
collocatewiththem.TheOxford Col l ocations Dictionary for Students
of Engl ish might come in handy here. I recommend you get these
collocationsreadybeforetheclass.
Intheclassroom,attherighttimeandinthemostnaturalwaypossible,you
write one of the key words on the board and show students some of the
words that go with it. Imagine you have the chance to show collocates with
weather, for example. Then, you can write the following diagram on the
board:
Itsalsoagoodideatogiveexampleswithsomeofthesecombinations.Thatis,dontgivelearners
thelistofwordsonly,givethemexamplestomakethecombinationsmeaningful.
Whatabeautiful weather!
Whatal ovel y weather!
Whatanawful weather!
Ichecked the weatherthismorning.
Anyonechecked the weather?
Imsureyoullenjoy the beautiful weatherinBoraBora.
Makesuretheexamplesarepossiblethingstobesaidbyanativespeakerofthelanguage.Donot
makeupprobableexamples.Inordertofindgoodexamples,youcanlookupforsentencesina
corpus, dicitionary, internet, etc. Always keep this in mind: the more examples you give, the
better.
Keep also in mind that learners sometimes may have problems understanding some
combinations.Incasethatreallyhappens,youcanaskthemtotranslatethecollocationstheyre
having problem with into their own language (L1). You, the teacher, can also give them the right
equivalences in their own language. Allowing students to use their own language to deal with
some possible problems in the classroom is not a terrible thing; actually, it might be more than
necessaryandmuchwelcomesometimes.
Ashomework,asklearnerstopickthreetofivewordcombinationsandwriteexamplesentences
with them. This will help them to revisit the collocations you taught in class. Tell students to
create their own system to for reviewing the collocations. In class, ask learners to say the
sentencestheywrote.Theyshouldtryingsayingthesentenceoutloudandwithoutreadingthem
from the paper. This makes things much more fun and activate their brain for long term
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Comments(2)
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142weeksago
It'sreallyagreatwaytoteachthemsomecollocations:D
ThankyouDenilso:D
142weeksago
DearDenilso,Imsothankfulcoseyouresharingsoreachknowledge,withmeandothers.Im
surewereenjoyingalotyoursubjects.
Theyregreat....andImusingtheseonmyBlog,theyresousefulfor
meandmyStudents.
sincerely,
Arlene
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memorization.
This is a simple way to develop students col l ocational competence and, as a consequence,
their fl uency in the target language. Pointing out its importance to students and giving them
ideas about how to store collocations is a thing to be done in the earlier stages of their English
language learning. The earlier they get the idea, the better chance theyll have to soon develop
theirskillsinEnglish.
References:
Lima, D. (2007). Por que assim e no assado? O guia definitivo de collocations em ingls. Rio de
Janeiro:Elsevier/Campus.
Lewis, M. (Ed.) (2000). Teaching Collocations: further developments in the Lexical Approach.
Hove:LTP.
Lewis,M.(1997).ImplementingtheLexicalApproach:puttingtheoryintopractice.Hove:LTP.
Oxford University Press (2009). Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English [2 ed].
Oxford:OUP
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