Semantics Collocation in vocabulary teaching

Nguyễn Thị Thủy Tiên K18C Viet nam national university, ha noi University of languages and international studies Department for post graduate studies ASSIGNMENT TOPIC Collocation in vocabulary teaching SEMANTICS ( FINAL ASSIGNMENT) Student Nguyễn Thị Thủy Tiên Group K18C – English Department Supervisor Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm Time of submission 2862010 hµ néi 6 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS I The theoretical overview of collocation 3 1 Definition of collocation 3 2 Characteristics of collocation 3 3 Classifi.

Viet nam national university, ha noi University of languages and international studies Department for post-graduate studies

ASSIGNMENT

TOPIC : Collocation in vocabulary teaching

SEMANTICS

( FINAL ASSIGNMENT)

Student :Nguyễn Thị Thủy Tiên Group: K18C – English Department Supervisor : Dr Hà Cẩm Tâm

Time of submission :28/6/2010

hµ néi 6 / 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I The theoretical overview of collocation ……… 3

1 Definition of collocation……….3

2 Characteristics of collocation………3

3 Classification of collocation……… 5

II The importance of collocation in vocabulary teaching ……… 6

III The example of teaching collocation for 10th grade students…… 8

Reference ……… …13

I The theoretical overview of collocation

I.1 Definition of collocation

- According to Moira Runcie (2002), collocation is word combination in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing

- Lewis (2000) defines collocation as the way in which words co-occur in natural text in statistically significant way (p 132)

- According to Mc Carthy (1990), collocation is the likelihood of corruption-occurrence between words

- According to Chitra Fernando (1996), collocation is defined as the company words keep

- According to Howard Jackson (1990), “collocation is a lexical relationship of mutual expectancy, the presence of a particular lexical item gives rise to the greater chance likelihood that other lexical items belonging to the same area

of meaning will also occur.”

- Oxford Collocation ( 2002) defined collocation as “the way words combine

in a language to produce natural-sounding speech and writing”

- Halliday and Hasan (1976) treat collocation as words used in lexical cohesion

of text and contain a cohesive force.”

- According to James (1998), collocations are the other words any particular word normally keeps company with (p 152)

I.2 Characteristics of collocation

I.2.1 No rule

Native English speakers make correct collocations because of experiences in daily communication and the reading of word combination in their culture However, non-native speakers have limited chances to experience real word combination in the culture of target language and thus, create word combination

in a way that sounds strange to native speakers because of using the way to collocates words in mother tongue In fact, there are no absolute rules for collocation

According to Gains and Redman [1986: 37], there is no absolute rule for collocating words because word combination simply reflects a common real

world state of affairs For example, “shrug one’s shoulder” describes an action in

real world McCarthy [1990: 18] said that knowledge of collocation is a question

of typicality which is very important for recognizing untypical collocations

In summary, there is no absolute rule of collocation Whether a collocation is acceptable or not in target language depends on notion of typicality

I.2.2 Language specific

Each language has its own language convention which governs the collocating of word As Zughoul (1991) points out, different languages have different collocation modes; what collocates in one language does not necessarily

collocate in another language For instance, a clear road in English is a free road

in Greek or a heavy drinker in English is a strong glass in Greek That is the

reason why non- native speakers make mistakes in collocation In other words, English learners use their first language convention to collocate words For

example, ăn sáng is correct in Vietnamese but eat breakfast is unacceptable in English It must be have / has breakfast in English

I.2.3 Variable scope

Collocation has very strict syntactic features but there may be some

non-adjacent words between collocates For example, I break down doors, I broke

down the doors and I broke down the battered, old door These examples

illustrate the combination of break, down and door with different words among

collocates

I.2.4 Idiomatic

According to Fernando Chistra [1996: 45], both collocation and idiom have idiomacy because of the habitual and predictable co-occurrence of specific words, thus English native speakers are able to learn collocations through

life-time experience However, that is the disadvantage for English learners who

study English in non-English speaking environment

However, there is distinction between collocation and idiom Meaning of collocation can be inferred from the meanings of the separate words but idioms have meanings which are quite different from the meanings of their components

I.3 Classification of collocation

- According to Benson, M., Benson, E & Ilson, R (1986), there are two ways of classifying collocation:

- Grammatical collocation:

learning English

- Lexical collocation:

make an appointment, set a record In many cases, the collocation

incorporates an idea of eradication for example : Override a veto

wolves, a swarm of bees

 Adverb + adjective : Closely acquainted, utterly abhorrent; patently/

totally/ utterly absurd

sincerely, very much; argue bitterly, heatedly, passionately, strenuously, vehemently

- Jimmie Hill (2000) offers the following schema for pointing out collocations to

students:

+ Unique collocations: Foot the bill, shrug your shoulders (These are unique

because foot (as a verb) and shrug are not used with any other nouns.)

+ Strong collocations: Trenchant criticism, rancid butter (There are other things

that can be trenchant or rancid, but very few.)

+ Weak collocations: A tall woman, a red shirt, an expensive car, a loud noise

(These combinations are entirely predictable to most students and not worth

focusing on.)

+ Medium-strength collocations: Hold a conversation, a major operation,

expensive tastes, a loud shirt (Note that words such as expensive and loud can

form both weak and medium-strength collocations.)

Hill argues that it is the medium-strength collocations which are most important for the ESL classroom

II The importance of collocation in vocabulary teaching

together in a predictable pattern Examples range from two word combinations such

as problem child to extended combinations such as He’s recovering from a major

operation These language patterns comprise much of speech and writing But there

are many more collocations than words, since many words occur in several different collocations Consequently, semantic errors in the use of lexical collocations make

both oral and written communication difficult Thus, in teaching vocabulary, teaching collocation is a vital part Teaching collocation plays an important role in order to help students write and speak English naturally In addition, reading and listening skills can be enhanced if students can acquire lots of collocations Hill (2000) states that collocation should play an important part in our teaching from lesson one (p 60).We have to accept the fact that collocation has been an undervalued aspect of productive vocabulary, despite its significance in EFL learning (Wei, 1999) Native-like proficiency of a language depends crucially on knowledge of a stock of prefabricated units (Cowie, 1996, p 389) Therefore, EFL learners should have a number of collocations in stock to communicate fluently and accurately

the increasingly important role of Lexical Approach - a good way to acquire English vocabulary knowledge The approach has encouraged learners to see larger units of the language and focus attention on naturally occurring expressions rather than rule-generated sentences Furthermore, the Lexical Approach puts communicative power

in the center of language teaching, with the knowledge of ready-made chunks; students may learn how to communicate fluently and naturally, because fluency is based on the acquisition of large store of fixed and semi-fixed prefabricated items

Celce-Murcia and Diane Larsen-Freeman point out that “it would be useful for ESL/EFL learners to have access to the significant collocates of all the lexical items they are expected to acquire and use” (1983:55) Another EFL researcher, Joanna Channell, has not only stressed the importance of collocation properties but also put the semantic theory of vocabulary learning into practice Together with three researchers, she integrated semantic field theory, componential analysis, and the

collocation approach into her unique workbooks for advanced EFL learners (Rudzka

et al., 1981a, 1985)

III The example of teaching collocation for 12th grade students

III.1 Because of the reasons mentioned in part II, collocations should be paid

attention in teaching vocabulary which is an inevitable part of teaching all English skills such as reading, speaking, listening and writing There are some general suggestions for teaching collocation:

● In the first place, teacher should explain the importance of collocation in learning English and advise learners to use collocations in their communications to have native-like communications

● In the second place, teacher should encourage learners to pay attention to collocations whenever they learn English Consequently, students are able to improve their knowledge of collocations The collocation awareness-raising process (CAR) proposed by Ying and Hendricks (2004) suggests four steps in teaching collocations First, make students understand what collocations are Second, raise collocation awareness by introducing materials for target collocations Third, teach the students the steps of noticing and noting collocations, followed by the step of incorporating the learnt collocations in tasks Lastly, examine and give feedback on students’ work

● In the third place, teacher should think carefully about collocations to teach Collocations should be active and appropriate for learners at different stages (Hill, 2000)

●In the fourth place, teacher should repeat and recycle the collocations already learnt every now and then in class activities to help learners register those learnt in their memory The same thing twice activates collocations (Hill,Lewis & Lewis,

2000, p.90)

● In the fifth place, teacher should have students’ work corrected by their friend Peer correction is recommended since it is a means to get feedback and instant reinforcement (Wei, 1999)

● In the sixth place, teacher should take advantage of group work to help fostering learning interdependence, especially in vocabulary work Learners can exchange knowledge and ask others to explain unknown items Group work is a motivating factor, which involves trying to remember details together, explaining impressions and building good memories (Moudraia, 2006)

- The lesson: Unit 3: Daily activities

page 32

- Teaching collocation:

 Reading : Teaching collocation ( task 1, 2) is used as the final part of while –

reading step and task 3 is used as the beginning of post –reading step:

- Task 1: Read the reading “A worker’s typical day” quickly and find out collocations in the text and make a list of collocations

Answer: There are collocations in the reading text:

- Task 2: Provide further exercise of collocations related to daily

activities:

Fill in each blank with a suitable word

1 _ a train

2 _ a taxi

3 _ a bus

4 _a ferry

5 _ a boat

6 _the train

7 _the bus

8 _the ferry

9 _ up

10 _a shower/bath

11 _ breakfast/lunch/dinner

12 _seafood/ Japanese food

13 _ to school

14 _ homework

15 _TV

16 _to music

17 _to the radio

Answer:

1 take a train

2 take a taxi

3 take a bus

4 take a ferry

5 take a boat

6 on the train

7 on the bus

8 on the ferry

9 get up

10 have a shower/bath

11 have breakfast/lunch/dinner

12 have seafood/ Japanese food

13 go to school

14 do homework

15 watch TV

16 listen to music

17 listen to the radio

- Task 3: Make a list of collocations about the importance of college

education

Suggestions:

- Well-paid job

- Do work better

- Get promotion

 Listening

- Teach some collocations in listening text for students and refer to some

relevant collocations before students listen to the interview in while-listening step:

- Ask students to provide relevant collocations and then give suggestions :

- Provide some collocations about daily activities at the beginning of

while-speaking step help students to do task B “You are a TV reporter Interview your partner, a business man or a singer and then report his/ her routines to your class”:

 Having meetings/ business

lunch

Before students write, ask them to list some useful collocations for their writing “Your class took a tour of Ha Long last month but the tour was very poorly run Write a letter to the travel agency to complain about the tour (the hotel, the meals, the tour guide)

Here are some suggestions:

- Uncomfortable bed

- Comfortable bus

- Small room

- Dirty room

- Insufficient meal

- Poor food

- Spacious hotel

- Fresh fish

- Tasty food

- Poorly served

- Ill-informed tourist guide

- Unfriendly tourist guide

- Look into matter

- Convincing explanation

English Amesterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins

Dictionary of English: A Guide to Word Combinations Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins (abbrev as BBI)

ESL/EFL Teacher’s Course Cambridge: Newbury House

 Halliday, M A K., and Hasan, R., 1976 Cohesion in English London:

Longman

success In M Lewis (Ed.), Teaching collocation: Further development in the lexical approach Oxford: Oxford University Press

exercises In M Lewis (Ed.), Teaching collocation: Further development in the lexical approach Oxford: Oxford University Press

Teaching collocation: Further development in the lexical approach Oxford: Oxford University Press

Limited

analysis New York: Addison Wesley Longman Limited

Retrieved April 26, 2006 from the World Wide Web

<http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_pric/is_200106/ai_

2842056330/>

Need London: Macmillan

Need Teacher’s Book London: Macmillan

Need London: Macmillan

development Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Teachers of

English to Speakers of Other Languages New York

 Ying, Y & Hendricks, A (2004) Collocation awareness in the writing process Reflections of English Language Teaching, 3, 51-78