Collocation

Collocation is the way in which some words are often used together. A collocation is a particular combination of words used in this way: "Commit a crime" is a typical collocation in English. (Longman Advanced American Dictionary)

Common patterns of collocation include: verb + noun (fly a ite) adjective + noun (a light snowfall) adverb + verb (to !oldly go) adverb + adjective (totally different) adjective + preposition (similar to) noun + noun (a collocation dictionary) "immie #ill offers the following schema for pointing out collocations to students (in Lewis$ %.$ &''': ()): Unique collocations. E.g. foot the !ill* shrug your shoulders. (+hese are uni,ue !ecause foot (as a ver!) and shrug are not used with any other nouns.) Strong collocations. +renchant criticism$ rancid !utter. (+here are other things that can !e

trenchant or rancid$ !ut very few.) Weak collocations. A tall woman$ a red shirt$ an e-pensive car$ a loud noise. (+hese com!inations are entirely predicta!le to most students and not worth focussing on.) edium!strength collocations. #old a conversation$ a ma.or operation$ e-pensive tastes$ a loud shirt. (/ote that words such as e-pensive and loud can form !oth wea and medium0strength collocations.) #ill argues that it is the medium0strength collocations which are most important for the E1L classroom.

"#pression. A word or phrase that is used to e-press a particular idea or feeling. 2ou use the e-pression "!rea a leg" to wish an actor good luc . $diom. A group of words that has a special meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning of each separate word. $diomatic. 3. An idiomatic phrase or e-pression has a special meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning of each separate word. &. 4f language is idiomatic$ it is typical of the natural way in which someone using their own language spea s or writes. +heir !oo s are translated into idiomatic English. %e#ical &pproach. +he name given !y %ichael Lewis and his associates to the le-is5collocation0focussed theories and procedures developed in +he Le-ical Approach$ 4mplementing the Le-ical Approach$ +eaching Collocation$ and numerous te-t!oo s pu!lished !y L+6. %e#ical 'hrases. /attinger and DeCarrico define le-ical phrases as "7chun s7 of language of varying lengths$ phrases li e as it were$ on the other hand$ as 8 would have us !elieve$ and so on. As such$ they are multi0word le-ical phenomena that e-ist somewhere !etween the traditional poles of le-icon and synta-$ conventionali9ed form5function composites that occur more fre,uently and have more idiomatically determined meaning than language that is put together each time." (/attinger and DeCarrico 3::&:3) ;ther terms with similar meaning include multi0word le-ical units$ multi0word items$ le-ical chun s$ le-icali9ed sentence stems$ and ready0made (comple-) units. "Le-ical phrase" is also the term used most recently !y 1chmitt (&''') in <oca!ulary in Language +eaching. %e#is. All the words and phrases in a language. 'hrasal verb. +wo or more words including a ver! and adver! or preposition which are used together as a ver! and have a different meaning from the ver! alone. 4n the sentence "+he roc et !lew up$" "!lew up" is a phrasal ver!. 6hrasal ver!s may or may not !e idiomatic.

'hrase. 3. A group of words that are often used together and that have a special meaning. Darwin gave the world the phrase "1urvival of the fittest." &. A group of words without a main ver! that together ma e a su!.ect$ an o!.ect or a ver! tense. 4n the sentence$ "1arah was wearing old grey snea ers$" "old grey snea ers" is a noun phrase.

A !rief introduction to !asic terminology used on our we! pages and !y people interested in teaching le-ically. =nless otherwise indicated$ definitions are from$ or !ased on$ the Longman Advanced American Dictionary.

1ource : http:55www.eli.u!c.ca5teachers5resources5le-icon5

Collocation

4 want to concentrate in this article on the pro!lems non0native spea ers may have with English voca!ulary use 0 in particular with the appropriate com!inations of words. +his is an aspect of language called collocation. An e-ample of collocation that many learners of English may !e familiar with is the different ad.ectives that are used to descri!e a good0loo ing man and a good0 loo ing woman. >e tal of a !eautiful woman and of a handsome man$ !ut rarely of a !eautiful man or a handsome woman. (4t is ,uite possi!le$ in fact$ to descri!e a woman as handsome. #owever$ this implies that she is not !eautiful at all in the traditional sense of female !eauty$ !ut rather that she is mature in age$ has large features and a certain strength of character. 1imilarly$ a man could !e descri!ed as !eautiful$ !ut this would usually imply that he had feminine features. Calling a man pretty is most often done per.oratively to suggest effeminacy.) 4n another familiar e-ample of collocation$ we tal of high mountains and tall trees$ !ut not of tall mountains and high trees. 1imilarly a man can !e tall !ut never high (e-cept in the sense of !eing into-icated?)$ whereas a ceiling can only !e high$ not tall. A window can !e !oth tall or high$ !ut a tall window is not the same as a high window. >e get old and tired$ !ut we go !ald or grey. >e get sic !ut we fall ill. A !ig house$ a large house and a great house have the same meaning$ !ut a great man is not the same as a !ig man or a large man. 2ou can ma e a !ig mista e or a great mista e$ !ut you cannot ma e a large mista e. 2ou can !e a little sad !ut not a little happy. >e say very pleased and very tiny$ !ut we do not say very delighted or very huge. And so on 0 there are endless e-amples of this ind of difficulty? +he pro!lem for the learner of English is that there are no collocation rules that can !e learned. +he native English spea er intuitively ma es the correct collocation$ !ased on a lifetime e-perience of hearing and reading the words in set com!inations. +he non0native spea er has a more limited e-perience and may fre,uently collocate words in a way that sounds odd to the native spea er.

#ere are some ,uestions to test your nowledge of collocations:

>hat is the difference !etween a high window and a tall window@ Loo at the following pairs of phrases and in each case choose the most usual collocation:
o o o o

strong tea 5 powerful tea a strong car 5 a powerful car a strong computer 5 a powerful computer a strong drug 5a powerful drug

/ow loo at the following words and phrases and decide if we do them or ma e them. Aor e-ample$ do we do a mess or ma e a mess@ a mista e a wish someone a favour damage the housewor a test your !est a telephone call the !eds a promise a speech your hair (i.e. com! it or ma e it tidy

a mess a noise a .o! the shopping

Ainally some odds and ends. 1ee if you now the correct collocations in answer to the following ,uestions@

+he opposite of strong tea is wea tea. >hat is the opposite of strong cigarettes$ a strong wind$ a strong smell@ >hat is the usual way of descri!ing someone who smo es a lot@
o o o o o

a !ig smo er a strong smo er a hard smo er a heavy smo er a furious smo er

1omeone can !e very tired$ !ut not very awa e or very asleep. >hat do we say instead@ >hat is the opposite of sweet wine@

>hich of the following are the usual collocations@

o o o o o o o

completely !eautiful incredi!ly !eautiful a!solutely !eautiful e-tremely !eautiful totally !eautiful utterly !eautiful thoroughly !eautiful

+he following collocations are incorrect. Can you sort them out@
o o o

to get in a !uilding to get on a car to go in a ship

%ore on collocation

&nswers

A high window is a window that is located a long way from the ground$ whereas a tall window measures a long way from top to !ottom. >e tal of strong tea$ a powerful car and a powerful computer. A drug can !e !oth strong and powerful. +hese are the usual collocations with ma e or do: ma e a mess ma e a noise do a .o! ma e a mista e ma e a wish do someone a favour do the housewor do a test do your !est ma e or do the !eds ma e a promise ma e a speech do your hair (i.e. com! it or ma e it tidy

do the shopping do damage

ma e a telephone call ;dds and ends. #ere are the usual collocations:

o o o o o o

mild cigarettes$ a light wind$ a faint smell a heavy smo er wide awa e* sound asleep or fast asleep dry wine to get in a car* to get on a ship* to go in a !uilding incredi!ly !eautiful* e-tremely !eautiful (and possi!ly: utterly !eautiful)

A ,uestion from a site visitor

1ource : http:55www.fis.edu5eslwe!5esl5parents5easy5colloc.htm

What is collocation(

%anguage and le#is >hen 4 first started teaching English$ we were encouraged to thin of grammar as the !ones of the language and voca!ulary as the flesh to !e added. >e now now that language consists largely of pre0fa!ricated chun s of le-is. +hat 7s eleton image7 has !een consigned prover!ially to the cup!oard. & central feature of le#is is collocation$ an idea that for the first 3B years of my career in EL+ 4 hardly gave a moment7s thought to$ !ut for the past 3' has come to play a more and more central part in my thin ing a!out English$ the classroom$ materials$ and methodology. 4 am not alone. +he wor of "ohn 1inclair$ Dave >illis$ Con Carter$ %ichael %cCarthy$ %ichael Lewis$ and many others$ have all contri!uted to the way teachers today thin a!out le-is and what it means for their teaching.

What is collocation(

Collocation is a feature of all languages. At its simplest$ according to Cutherford$ collocation is 7what goes together with what7. 4 li e to define it as 7the wa) words occur together in predictable wa)s. 7>e are not surprised if we hear someone spea of an utter disaster or if we read of a shady deal. Although we are familiar with the use of shady with nouns li e place$ or corner$ we are not surprised !y its metaphorical use with deal. Language is intrinsically metaphorical. Dnowing the word shady involves nowing the range of words it can collocate with. Driving into London recently$ 4 passed a road safety poster with a picture of a tom!stone. +he caption was 4f you go fast$ you7ll go fast. +his must !e a mystery to foreign visitors who do not now the collocation go fast meaning die in a short space of time. Aor teachers who are familiar with the huge impact of corpus linguistics$ these o!servations are o!vious$ !ut it is important to remem!er that for many teachers worldwide the word is still the !asic unit of language. Corpus linguistics has taught us the importance of loo ing at natural language in large enough ,uantities to see recurring patterns of le#is. 2ou might li e to re0read this article so far and underline all the groups of words which occur in predictable combinations. Aor e-ample$ encouraged to thin $ a central feature$ for the first 8 years of my career$ a moment7s thought$ has come to play a more and more central part in my thin ing$ road safety$ huge impact$ etc.

$s this new( ;f course not? Even if the word 7collocation7 is new to students and to some teachers$ the pro!lem is as old as language learning itself. #ow often do students as Can you say 8@ 0 4f we can say !oth 4t7s nice to get out into the open5fresh air$ why can7t we say "4 need a !reath of open air"@ And if we can say 7an open0air restaurant7$ why not then 7a fresh0air restaurant7@ >e have all smiled at the menu with cow tail soup or the student who tal ed a!out silly cow disease. >e are familiar with the concept of communicative competence$ !ut perhaps we should add the concept of collocational competence to our thin ing. Any analysis of students7 speech or writing shows a lac of this collocational competence. Lac of competence in this area forces students into grammatical mista es !ecause they create longer utterances !ecause they do not now the collocations which e-press precisely what they want to say. A student could easily invent the cum!ersome #is disa!ility is forever !ecause they lac the ad. E noun collocation$ he has a permanent disa!ility. Analysis of students7 essay writing often shows a serious lac of collocational competence with the English 7de0le-icalised7 ver!s: get$ put$ ma e$ do$ !ring$ ta e. 1tudents with good ideas often lose mar s !ecause they don7t now the four or five most important collocates of a ey word that is central to what they are writing a!out.

*ifferent kinds of collocation A collocation can !e made up of two or more words: ver! E noun ma e a mista e ad. E noun heavy traffic adv E ver! totally misunderstand adv E ad. e-tremely generous

ad. E prep guilty of ....ing noun E noun a ceasefire agreement Collocations can !e much longer. Aor e-ample: adv E ver! E ad. E noun E prep E noun F seriously affect the political situation in (/orthern 4reland). >hen analysing te-t we often find that collocations of B or ( words are common. Loo ing with an open mind at te-t we are immediately persuaded to stop thin ing in terms of individual words. EL+ has always recognised two types of collocation where the patterns have !een clear 0 idioms and phrasal ver!s. Everything falling outside those two categories used to !e conveniently !ut confusingly la!elled 7idiomatic7. 1ome of the le-ical categories which %ichael Lewis proposes in 4mplementing the Le-ical Approach help us to thin more coherently a!out le-is from a student7s point of view.

+. Unique collocations 4t is useful to thin of collocation on a cline from pro!a!ly uni,ue 5 fi-ed 5 strong to fle-i!le5wea . 4 say 7pro!a!ly7 uni,ue advisedly since all native spea ers now that as soon as they say that 8 does not e-ist$ they find it said or written within &G hours? 4 have often given the e-ample leg room (meaning the distance !etween two seats in$ for e-ample$ a plane) in tal s and maintained that leg space was not possi!le. 4 have recently learned that the correct technical term in the airline industry is$ in fact$ leg space. 4n her 3::H 4atefl plenary tal Iwyneth Ao- of Co!uild pointed out the uni,ueness in their corpus of foot used as a ver! in the collocation foot the !ill. >e cannot imagine footing the invoice$ or footing the coffee. 1imilarly$ we shrug our shoulders$ !ut no other part of our anatomy.

,. Strong collocations A large num!er of collocations$ although not uni,ue$ are strong or very strong. 6redicta!ly$ we may tal of trenchant criticism or rancid !utter$ !ut this does not mean that other things cannot !e trenchant or rancid. >e often have ulterior motives or har!our grudges while !eing reduced to tears or even moved to tears. 1uch strong collocations are not uni,ue$ !ut it is clear that any nowledge of the words trenchant$ rancid$ motive$ grudge$ or tears would !e incomplete without some idea of their strong collocates. +he new corpus0!ased dictionaries often contain information a!out strong collocations$ !ut they remain patchy in the ,uantity and ,uality of that information.

-. Weak collocations

All elementary students create com!inations of words which are on the verge of the area we define as 7collocation7 ie those words which co0occur with 7a greater than random fre,uency.7 %any things can !e long or short$ cheap or e-pensive$ good or !ad. Colours are a good e-ample. Early on$ students learn the primary colours. +hey are a!le to ma e com!inations such as !lue shirt$ red car etc. +hey now that they can apply the colours in English in a similar way to their own language. +he picture is not as simple as that$ !ut for most teaching purposes we pretend that it is. #owever$ there is something 7more predicta!le7$ and$ therefore collocational$ a!out the following e-amples: a white shirt$ white wine$ red wine$ red hair$ !lac hair$ a !lue film$ a yellow su!marine. 1imilarly$ most teachers would agree that the ad.ective good is not very interesting from a teaching point of view. 4t can !e applied to anything 0 a meal$ a .ourney$ a government. Jut notice the strength of the following collocations containing good: 4t7ll ta e you a good hour. ;h$ he7s a good age. #e7ll do it in his own good time. >e need to recognise that even simple words have many uses and ma e sure that students are aware of their more predicta!le collocations.

..

edium!strength collocations

+he main learning load for all language users is not at the strong or wea ends of the collocational spectrum$ !ut in the middle 0 those many thousands of collocations which ma e up the greater part of what we say and write. %ost intermediate students will now the words hold and conversation$ !ut may not now that you can hold a conversation. +hey now the words ma e and mista e$ !ut have not stored ma e a mista e in their mental le-icons as a single item. >hen thin ing of this huge area$ it is useful to thin of the average 71un reader7$ ie a native spea er often of less education$ and in language terms we assume with a 7smaller voca!ulary7 than the 7+imes reader7$ the so0called educated native spea er. /ative spea ers with smaller voca!ularies are collocationally competent with what they have and this ma es them a!le to function perfectly ade,uately in most normal situations. 4 speculate that native spea ers with a total voca!ulary of B$''' words can function with no pro!lems as long as they are collocationally competent with those B'''. +his then e-plains why learners with even 7good voca!ularies7 still have pro!lems. +hey may now a lot of words$ !ut their collocational competence with them is very limited. 4 have come to the view that the main thrust of voca!ulary teaching (and 4 mean classroom teaching) at intermediate level and a!ove should !e to increase students7 collocational competence with their !asic voca!ulary while stressing on them the need to ac,uire more new words on their own. 4 wonder if you agree with me that a nomadic tri!e is a strong collocation !ecause nomadic collocates with a limited num!er of nouns. A !ig flat is a wea collocation and not very interesting for us as teachers. #e7s recovering from a ma.or operation is a comple- medium0strength collocation. 2ou could argue that there are three collocations present: recover from$ a ma.or operation$ and the whole e-pression recover from a ma.or operation. Each individual word may !e nown to students$ !ut they pro!a!ly won7t now the whole collocation. +hey are more li ely to say: %y father 0 he7s getting !etter 0 he had a !ig operation. Aull mar s for communicating meaning$ !ut more of an effort for !oth spea er and

listener. 4t is this area of medium0strength collocation which is missing from all traditional EL+ dictionaries.

Collocation as shorthand 2ou may very well loo at this last e-ample and as why the student needs to learn to say something the way native spea ers say it@ >hy not .ust ma e it up@ +he answer is o!vious. Collocation is the ey to fluency. +his cannot !e over0emphasised. %uch current fluency teaching concentrates on getting students tal ing. +his is futile if students haven7t had enough input in chun s$ which they can call on when needed. >hat happens in such lessons is that students are merely e-posed to the low0,uality output of other students. >e need to place a much greater emphasis on good0,uality written and spo en input at lower levels than is currently the case. /ative spea ers can only spea at the speed they spea !ecause they are calling on a vast repertoire of ready0made language in their mental le-icons. 1imilarly$ they can listen at the speed of speech and read ,uic ly !ecause they are constantly recognising used chun s7. 4 often say in lectures that the main difference !etween me and a non0native spea er is that 4 have met more English. +his ena!les me to process and produce language at a much faster rate than the average student. +ypical intermediate student speech is la!oured$ one word at a time$ and using simple voca!ulary to e-press !oth simple and complicated ideas. +he more e-posure students have to good ,uality input and the more awareness they develop of the le-ical nature of language$ the more they will recognise and eventually produce longer chun s themselves. Aluency is a natural conse,uence of a larger and more phrasal mental le-icon.

/he pronunciation pa)!off Jecause students create most of what they say from the individual words they now$ their pronunciation$ stress$ and intonetion$ can !e difficult for the listener. +he great added !onus to nowing a large num!er of collocations and other longer e-pressions is that we learn the stress pattern as a whole when we meet the item. +he more longer le-ical items students now$ the !etter their stress and intonation will !e. +he more and !igger the le-ical items students now$ the more !rain0space they have to thin a!out the content of what they are saying. +here are immediate methodological implications. +eachers should read te-ts aloud in class so that students hear the te-t correctly chun ed. 4n class we should do no unseen reading aloud and less silent reading. +he reason students find unseen reading so difficult is !ecause they don7t recognise the chun s. +hey read every word as if it were separate from every other word. During silent reading students may !e chun ing totally wrongly. And mis0chun ing matters. 1tudents cannot store items in their !rain correctly if they have not identified them correctly. +hey cannot then retrieve them. Correctly understood$ and stored le-ical items should !e availa!le for immediate use. 4 will always remem!er a lecture at +E1;L Arance some years ago when %ichael 1wan as ed me to read a poem to his audience in 1cots 0 a language similar in structure to English$ !ut with enough significant differences in voca!ulary to ma e it only partially comprehensi!le. Jecause 4 was a!le to read the poem meaningfully$ ie chun ing it correctly$ the

audience all laughed in the correct places. 4n one sense they 7understood7 the poem while not understanding a large proportion of the individual words. %ost teachers will have had the e-perience of watching and en.oying a 1ha espeare play. Aew will understand fully the nuances of 1ha espeare7s language. +he actors$ however$ spea the lines$ correctly$ therefore meaningfully$ chun ed for us. 1ays who@ >e now collocations !ecause we have met them. +hey are part of what David Jra9il has called 7used language7 which native spea ers meet and on which they !ase their own language. >e then retrieve them from our mental le-icon .ust as we pull out a telephone num!er or address. >e remem!er them. >e must !e aware that collocation is intrinsic to all natural native spea er language.

0ole of memor) in language EL+ has not given sufficient thought to this idea. Every native spea er parent nows how children love to hear the same rhymes and stories night after night to the e-tent that they can say the rhymes and tell the stories themselves. As adults we all have a huge store of memorised te-t in our heads$ ranging from poetry$ addresses$ telephone num!ers$ prover!s$ idioms$ sayings$ clich@$ to catch phrases and .o es. %ost often we have made no attempt to learn these items. #aving them is part of what we mean !y !eing a native spea er. #ow do 4 now lead on %acduff$ coughs and snee9es spread diseases$ flavour of the month$ free gratis and for nothing$ each and every one of us$ don7t forget the fruit gums %um$ and even +hat7s the way the coo ie crum!les@ 4 may never use them. 4ndeed$ 4 may !e allergic to anyone who does use them? +he fact of the matter (a good e-ample of one?) is that every native spea er has a vast store of these o!viously fi-ed e-pressions. >e have an even !igger store of collocations$ ready for use when re,uired.

*ensit) of collocation Any analysis of naturally0occurring te-t shows how densely collocations occur. >hile it can !e difficult to define the !oundaries of a collocation$ every te-t 4 have analysed has K out of 3' words occurring in some ind of collocation. Even if the figure was B'L it would have serious conse,uences for comprehension and choice of te-t. +here are immediate classroom implications for how we deal with te-ts. >e should !e as ing students to predict collocations which are in the te-t !y identifying and gapping them. >e should !e as ing students to notice and underline useful ones$ and we should !e encouraging them to store them in their note!oo s in some retrieva!le way along with the L3 e,uivalent of the whole collocation. 4n other words$ ma ing sense of te-t involves not only understanding new items$ it involves the a!ility to identify collocations.

Collocation and meaning

Every word has a collocational field ie that range of other words with which it collocates. <ery often the difference !etween words of similar meaning is defined partly !y their different collocational fields. Aor e-ample$ how many teachers have tried to e-plain the difference !etween wound and in.ury@ +hey do share collocates (nasty$ fatal$ serious etc)$ !ut some are very strong (internal in.ury$ !ut !ullet$ sta!$ nife$ gunshot$ self0inflicted$ gaping$ deep wound). 4t seems that when we have chec ed the meaning of a word in a conventional dictionary$ we have only started on the process of nowing it.

/he issues Although 4 meet many teachers who are trying to incorporate le-ical ideas into their teaching$ it seems that what we now now a!out the nature of English le-is$ and collocation in particular$ raises important issues for us all. 3. 4t is clear that le-is should !e one of the central organising principles of our sylla!us. =nfortunately$ grammar still rules$ and sentence grammar at that? &. +he voca!ulary learning load is much much greater than we used to thin 0 words$ collocations$ multi0word items$ and e-pressions. +his suggests that educated native spea ers have many hundreds of thousands of items stored in their mental le-icons. +his forces a radical re0thin of the present$ practice$ produce paradigm. 4t should force us to thin more a!out input and$ in particular$ ,uantity of input. 4t should ma e us ,uestion what the role of the language teacher is. 4nstead of !eing language practisers$ we should !e language providers. ). 4t is clear that we need different strategies for voca!ulary learning at different stages of learning$ !oth in and outside the classroom. Jeginners need words$ simple collocations$ and some e-pressions. 4n class intermediate students need collocational competence with the words they now* outside class they need to !e increasing their store of new words. Advanced students need more and !etter strategies to !uild on what they now while vastly increasing the num!er of words they meet outside the classroom. >ith the learning and memory load so much higher than we ever imagined$ we need to give more thought to how !est to manage learning in class. G. >e need to develop techni,ues to help students record and store le-is in ways which will ena!le them to retrieve what they want and to revise for e-aminations. Every student needs to !ecome a 7le-is collector7. B. +he language of many current te-t!oo s and %inistry sylla!uses is at odds with our current understanding of language and how it is ac,uired. +here is no point in teachers changing their classroom practice if their students then fail their e-aminations. (. >hat are the implications for reference !oo s@ 4t is clear that conventional dictionaries cannot give all the information necessary a!out collocation. At the same time translation can !e important when dealing with collocation and other inds of le-ical item. A fresh loo needs to !e ta en at !ilingual dictionaries.

K. >e need to start thin ing how this will affect e-aminations. Clearly$ it is easier to test the present perfect continuous than 7collocation7. Iiven the si9e of the mental le-icon$ is it even fair to attempt to test it@ >ho chooses which items are tested@ >hy those and not others@ H. +here are clear implications for translation. 4t should not have !een discarded. %any students have to do it. 4t is essential in much !usiness English and E16. Le-is is an area where literal translation is often impossi!le. A collocation in English may !e totally different in 1panish or "apanese. +he uni,ue s ills of the non0native spea ing teacher must !e recognised in this area. :. +here are o!vious implications for grammar in the classroom. Ireater emphasis on le-is must mean less emphasis on grammar. Accuracy must !e treated as a late0ac,uired s ill. Ireater emphasis on 7larger chun s7 of language also means that grammar and voca!ulary merge into one another. +he dividing line is much less clear cut than teachers and te-t!oo s often pretend. 3'. Ainally$ and crucially$ all this raises the issue of what our model should !e. English is taught throughout the world$ predominantly !y non0native spea ers$ so that their students can communicate mostly with other non0native spea ers. 2et collocation is dictated !y the native0 spea er speech community. +he EL+ profession considers that the mista e in she wor in a hospital is something that teachers should !e concerned a!out. Does it matter if a student always uses a !ig5small operation and never uses a ma.or5minor operation@ 4s collocation worth learning@ 4s it the ey to fluency that 4 claim it is@ ;r is it yet another way the native spea er EL+ esta!lishment will force its methodologies and materials on non0native spea ers@ At present we have more ,uestions than answers. 4t is accepted that recent developments in corpus linguistics have forced us to change our view of language. +his means it is time for a re0 evaluation of many our accepted ideas a!out learning and teaching. Corpus linguistics is going to change the content of what we teach radically. +hese ideas on collocation are only the first rum!lings.

+his article first appeared in 4ssue 33 of English +eaching 6rofessional. 4f you would li e to receive a copy of L+67s complimentary !oo let Collocation E-ercises$ please fa- your re,uest to: Aa-: EGG.3&K).KKB)(3 e0mail: L+6sampleMaol.com or write to: L+6$ 33Ga Church Coad$ #ove$ 1usse- J/) &EJ$ =D. Cemem!er to send your full address

1ource : http:55www.disal.com.!r5nroutes5nr(5pgnr(N').htm

Collocation

Can )ou fill in the missing words in the following sentences(

3. Carl7s a NNNNNNNNNNsmo er 0 two pac s a day. &. #is wifeNNNNNNNNNNadmits to regularly hiding his cigarettes. ). +he storm moved in ,uic ly* a NNNNNNof lightning followed !y a NNNNNNNof thunder. G. +he NNNNNNNclad young women ran for cover. B. ;ff in the distance an owl NNNNNNNNNeerily.

Did you come up with: 3. heavy smoker &. freely admits ). bolt of lightning, clap of thunder G. scantily clad B. owl hooted?

What are collocations and wh) should we teach them(

Collocations are conventional word com!inations 0 idiomatic e-pressions in a sense. +hey7re easy to understand$ !ut not so easy for a learner to produce correctly. >e can thin of many ver!s that might !e used with lion to descri!e the sound it ma es 0 for e-ample$ bellow, shout

scream, yell, holler. 4t .ust happens that English spea ers have chosen to use roar, and one has to now this in order to e-press the idea correctly. A learner who uses the wrong words for an idea li e this may !e understood$ !ut he or she will not sound natural. 1ince there are no 7rules7 of collocation and it is difficult to group items !y their collocational properties$ they are !est dealt with in isolation or as they arise. Collocation is useful for e-panding students7 nowledge of a word. 1tudents at the intermediate level often now the words 7light7$ 7wea 7$ 7strong7 and 7heavy7 !ut fre,uently use them inaccurately 0 7wea 7 rain$ where 7light7 was intended.
Any comments or ,uestions@ >e invite you to send in ideas for future teachers7 teasers? E0mail me?

Also chec out some more teasers... 1pecially vs. Especially Aarther vs. Aurther 1top +al ing vs. 1top to +al %ost of$ Almost$ %ost 1ome$ Any

1ource : http:55www.winfieldcollege.com5teslNcollocation3.html

Collocations

>hat are collocations@ >hat are some characteristics of collocations@ >hy should we learn collocations@ Can you recogni9e collocations@

Jecoming aware of collocations is another way to improve your fluency.

What are collocations(

Collocations are collections of words that "fit together"; i.e. they are predictable patterns and phrases or groups of words that we typically use together. They include what have traditionally been considered vocabulary items, as well as structural patterns which may seem closer to traditional grammar and combinations of words that simply "go together". So idioms like "take a break", structures like "If I had the chance, I would . . . " and word combinations like "get on a bus get in a car" are all considered collocations.

What are some characteristics of collocations?

Collocations can be described in a number of ways !ne way of thinking about them is in terms of "fixedness" " in other words, the degree to which you can vary the basic pattern and still have a collocation. #e can only define the fi$edness or unfi$edness of collocations in terms of a continuum " all we can say is that some are more fi$ed than others but we can%t make a neat dividing line between "fi$ed" and "unfi$ed". & very fixed collocation is one in which the pattern has very few e$pected variations. So, for e$ample, the phrase "kick the bucket" is an idiom, a relatively fi$ed collocation meaning "to die". #hile we could substitute nouns and verbs in this sentence and get other meaningful sentences 'e.g. "kick the door", "lift the bucket"(, the word combinations in these other sentences are no longer cohesive patterns in the way that "kick the bucket" is. )ike "kick the bucket", most collocations which are very fi$ed form a particular e$pected meaning rather than a structure. Less fixed collocations are often more structural " common patterns that help structure a sentence but don%t carry as much specific meaning by themselves. *or e$ample a less fi$ed collocation might be something like+ Let's + verb which directs an audience%s attention + preposition + noun which describes an idea. This is a commonly used structural pattern into which you can insert a variety of words and still have commonly used patterns+ )et%s move on to the ne$t point.

)et%s go back to the last chapter. )et%s move away from this paragraph. )et%s look at tomorrow%s homework. )et%s go on to the main point."

,owever, there are still a limited number of words which will "fit" into this pattern. So, for e$ample, we don%t typically say ")et%s go out of this paragraph." !n the other hand, there are some less fi$ed collocations which are not as clearly structural. #ords that are commonly used with other words are e$amples of less fi$ed collocations which are not as structural in nature. So for e$ample, we use "bus" and "car" with only certain sets of other words+ #e say "-et on a bus" "climb on a bus" but usually not "enter a bus" or "get in a bus". ,owever, we say "get in a car". #e say "take the bus" "ride the bus" "go there on the bus " but usually not " #e can drive there on the bus". ,owever we say "#e can drive there in her car." It%s not important to be able to classify collocations according to their e$act degree of fi$edness. ,owever, it probably is helpful to know that some collocations are more fi$ed than others+ if you recogni.e a collocation as very fi$ed, you can learn it as one item; if you recogni.e it as less fi$ed, you understand that there%s a pattern there that you can use to build a collection of useful related phrases. It%s also helpful to pay attention to how collocations relate to the conte$t around them. In some cases, especially with structures and longer phrases, the use of a collocation depends very heavily on the situation in which it%s used. So for e$ample, you probably shouldn%t greet the president of the company you work for by saying, "#hat%s up/". !n the other hand, other collocations, like "get in a car" you can use almost anywhere.

Why should we learn collocations?

Our brain tends to store language in chunks, rather than individual words. Thus, when we speak or write, it is more efficient for us to remember and use phrases as chunks rather than constructing them one word at a time. This increased efficiency promotes fluency.

0ative 1nglish speakers will unconsciously predict what is going to be said based on their own use of these phrases. This increases the efficiency with which they are able to listen or read. Thus, if a speaker or writer uses uncommon phrasing patterns, a native 1nglish speaker may find him or her harder to understand. Conversely, if a non"native speaker of 1nglish uses fre2uently used phrasing patterns, this may make it easier for native speakers to guess what the non"native speaker is saying and may help compensate for other language issues such as pronunciation. *amiliarity with collocations and the resulting ability to make guesses about a speaker writer%s speech should increase a non-native speaker's efficiency as a listener or reader .

an you recogni!e collocations?

*ill in the blanks in the sentences below with words that you think might belong there. The blanks represent one part of a collocation. Some of these collocations are more fi$ed than others, so in some cases, there might be several words that could be used in the blanks. Example: He only sees his sister once in a _____________. &lmost every native speaker in the 3.S. would almost immediately write either "while" or "blue moon" in the blank. The phrases "once in a while" and "once in a blue moon" are collocations, learned as chunks of language. 0ow see what you can do with the following sentences+ 4. ,is angry e$"wife claims he has never 5555555555555555 his responsibilities to his children because he has not paid enough child support. 6. She was e$cused for being late due to e$tenuating 55555555555555555555. 7. "Can you give me directions to the freeway from here/" "89th Street is the ne$t left. If you follow 89th for about a mile, you can 555555555555555555 the freeway there." 8. "Can you give me a 5555555555 with this/ " 9. "I%m so hungry, I 55555555555555555555555555." &nswers+ 1) fulfilled, honored, carried out, met 2) circumstances 3) get on 4) hand ) could eat a horse

Principles and Activities For Improving English Language Fluency

o o o o o

Aluency practice on your own Developing and practicing voca!ulary on your own Collocations (words that "fit together") 6ronunciation practice on your own Ieneral resources for improving your English

1ource : http:55depts.washington.edu5cidrwe!54+A6A>fluencyG.htmlOC;LL;CA+4;/

Dim7s #ome
http+ stewardess.inhatc.ac.kr philoint usage collocation"8.htm