Table Of Content

Contents Contents 3.7 \\ tr J.6 Lol 3.9 Tea INTRODUCTION ... . 8 3.10 Chc PART 1 - IN THE CLASSROOM 3.1i Ped 3.12 Sun Chapter 1: There is nothing as practical as a good theory. . . . . . . . 10 Chapter.l Morgan Lewis 1.1 Introduction .... 10 4.1 Bacl I.2 Learnersdon'tleamwhatteachersteach ....... 11 ^ - I.3 Knowingawordiscomplicated... ....I2 +.2 I ne 4.3 Etp I.4 Theintermediateplateau .......14 4.4 The 1.5 The grammar-vocabularydichotomyisin valid . . . . . . . . 15 4.5 The 1.6 AdvancedEnglish .....17 4.6 \Iak 1.7 Leave'used'languagealone. ...18 4.7 Reri 1.8 Someclassroomactivities .....20 4.8 Conr 1.9 Actionresearch .......27 4.9 Cont 1.10 Cdnclusion .....21 Chapter 2: Collocation- encouraging learner independence. . . . . 28 Chapter 5: George Woolard 2.I Introduction ....28 5.1 Intro 2.2 Collocation .....28 5.2 Gene 2.3 Raisingawarenessofcollocation... ...30 5.3 Actil 2.4 Highlightingandteachingcollocation ........31 5.4 Actii 2.5 Choosingk ey words . . . .32 5.5 Exeri 2.6 The independentlearnerandleamers trategies . . . . . . . . 33 5.6 Your 2.7 Resourcedsi:c tionaries ........36 5.1 Sumr 2.8 Resources:corporaandconcordancers ........39 Chapter 6: 2.9 Lexicalnotebooks .....43 2.10 Wordgrammar... .....44 2.lI Summary ."....46 PART 2 - Chapter 3: Revising priorities: from grammatical failure to Chapter 7: collocationalsuccess ...47 Jimmie Hill 7.1 Descr 3.1 Languageandlexis .....47 7.2 Intuiri 3.2 Languageandlearning ........48 7.3 Termi 3.3 Whatiscollocation? ....48 7.4 From 3.4, Collocationalcompetence... ...49 7.5 Collor 3.5 Collocations,idiomsandphrasalverbs. .......50 7.6 Collig 3.6 Collocationsandsrammar... ........52 7.7 Other Contents 3.1 Whyiscollocationimportant? ........53 3.8 Collocationintexts ....56 3.9 Teachingc ollocation . . .59 8 3.10 Choosingw hich collocationst o teach . . .63 3.11 Pedagogicalimplications ......65 3.12 Summary-lessgrammar,more.le xis ........67 . . . . . . . 1 0 Chapter 4: Integrating collocation into a reading & writing courseT0 Jane Conzett . . . . . . 1 0 . . . . . 1. 1 4.1 Background ....70 . . . . . . t 2 4.2 The needt o build vocabulary . . .7I 4.3 Explicitvocabularystudy. .....72 . . . . . . 1 4 4.4 Themissinglink:collocation.. .......73 . . . . . . 1 5 4.5 The needf or guidancef rom the teacher . . . . . . .j4 . . . . . . 1 7 4.6 Makestudentsawareofcolloca.t.i.o n .......-15 . . . . . . 1 8 4.1 Reviewandtesting .....83 . .. . .. 2 0 4.8 Concordancesforteachersandstudents .......85 . . . . . . 2 7 4.9 Conclusion .....86 . .. . . . 2 1 e . . . . . 2 8 Chapter 5: Classroom strategies,a ctivities and exercises. . . . . . . . 88 Jimmie Hill, Morgan Lewis and Michael Lewis .. .. . . 2 8 5.1 Introducingcollocationtoleamers .....88 . . . . . . 2 8 5.2 Generalstrategies ......90 . . . . . . 3 0 5.3 Activities-exploitingatext. . ....98 .. . . . . 3 1 Activities-usingacollocationdictionary ......99 - . . . . . 3 2 5.5 Exercises ..... 106 . . . . . . 3 3 5.6 Yourownexercises ....116 . . . . . . 3 6 5.7 Summary ...... .....116 . . . . . . 3 9 Chapter6: Calloway'sCode. .....118 . . . . . . 4 3 A short story by O. Henry LL . . . . . . 4 6 PART 2 - BACKGROUND THEORY ) Chapter 7: Language in the lexical approach . . . . .126 4'7 Michael Lewis 7.1 Descriptionosf English ......126 . . . . . . 4 1 7.2 Intuitionandevidence... ....126 " . . . . . 4 8 1.3 Terminology . . .129 . . . . . . 4 8 7.4 From idioms to idiomaticity . . . 130 . . . . . . 4 9 7.5 Collocation ....I32 . . . . . . 5 0 7.6 Colligation ....136 . . . . . . 5 2 7.7 Other multi-word expressions . . 138 Contents 7.g words . .142 Chapter 11 7.9 Thecentralroleof'of.' .....I45 7.10 Grammar .....147 1.tI Lexis. .......I49 11.1 Lear 7.12 Collocationandtesting .'..."150 11.1 \\ hr 1.13 Necessityfo r change . . . 151 11.3 The 7.14 Summary ..'..153 ll.+ Semi Chapter 8: Learning in the lexical approach . . . . . . i55 11.5 ColU 11.5 Conl Michael Lewis I1,7 Surru g.1 Introduction ...155 8.2 Twokindsofknowledge.... ..156 Bibliograpl 8.3 Acquisitionandnoticing .....158 8.4 Noticing ......161 8.5 Theimporlanceofexamples... .-----163 8.6 Acquisitionisnon-linear ....'.168 8.7 Which is fundamenta-l lexis or structure? ' . . .I7I 8.8 Thelexicalchallengetomethodology'. ... ' '.173 '1eve1'? 8.9 What do we meanb y . .I14 8.10 Teachingp aradigms . . .177 8.11 The Lexical Approacha nd the NaturalA pproach . . . . . 181 8.12 Towardsaleamingtheory .'...182 8.13 Summary .'.'.184 Chapter 9: Materials and resources for teaching collocation. . . . . 186 Michael Lewis 9.1 Choosingtexts. ......186 9.2 Genre ..188 9.3 Subject-specificlanguage.... .......i89 9.4 Languagecorpora .....191 9.5 Concordances... .....198 9.6 Referencematerials. .'.2O0 9.7 Summary .. -. '203 Chapter L0: Collocation and testing . .205 Peter Hargreaves 10.1 Introduction ...205 I0.2 How do we define differentl evels? . . . .206 10.3 Testingvocabularyknowledge .......208 10.4 Grammatical patterns and collocations in testing . . . . .215 10.5 Sources- native-speakecro rporaa nd dictionaries.. . - '217 10.6 Sources- the learnerc orpus( CLC) . . . ZI8 10.7 Approachest o testingc ollocation - - - - -220 10.8 Summary. .-.'.22I Contents . . . . . . r 4 2 Chapter LL: A world beyond collocation: new perspectiveso n . . . . , . 1 4 5 Yocabularyteaching ....224 . . . . . . t 4 7 Michael Hoey . . . . . . t 4 9 11 .1 Leaming new words . . . 224 . . . . . . 1 5 0 llz Why word lists ared angerous . .227 . . . . . . 1 5 1 11.3 Thei mportancoef context. . . . ......230 . . . . . . 1 5 3 11.4 Semanticprosody .....232 . . . . . . 1 5 5 11.5 Colligation ....233 ll.6 Concordancing.. .....238 . . . . .. 1 5 5 ILl Summary .....242 . . . . . . 1 5 6 Bibliography . .244 . . . . . . 1 5 8 . . . . . . 1 6 1 . . . . . . 1 6 3 .... .. 168 . . . . . . f l r . . . . . . r 1 3 . . . . . . 1 7 4 . . . . . . r 7 7 . . . . . . 1 8 1 . . . . . . 1 8 2 . . . . . .1 8 4 )n.....186 . . . . . . 1 8 6 . . . . . . 1 8 8 . . . . . . 1 8 9 , . . . . . 1 9 1 . . . . . . 1 9 8 . . . . . . 2 0 0 . . . . . . 2 0 3 . . . . . . . 2 0 5 . . . . . . 2 0 5 . . . . . . 2 0 6 . . . . . . 2 0 8 . . . . . . 2 1 5 . . . . . . 2 t 7 . . . . . . 2 t 8 . . . . . . 2 2 0 . . . . . . z 2 r Introduction Introduction rnto ihe size, or-eru'hein -l 'r'ocabuian' 'Without As David Wilkins observedm any years ago, grammar little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.' The single most Er en thing ir important task facing language learners is acquiring a sufficiently large teacherse n,i. 'vocabulary' vocabulary.W e now recogniset hat much of our consistso f Developing I prefabricated chunks of different kinds. The single most imporlant kind of Tlrc Le:;!tt;i - chunk is collocation. Self-evidently,t hen, teachingc ollocation should be a top language iru; priority in every languagec ourse. \\'as. as 1is l1 The centrality of lexis lin_euisticsT. arise not tton Increasingly, languaget eachersh ave turned to the question of how language are alreadr I is stored in the brain. If native speakerss tore large amounts of language in radical. inrol chunks, what strategiess hould language teachers adopt if they are to help chan_sesln. , learnersb uild mental lexicons which are similarly phrasal? From a teaching point of view, argumentsa bout exactly what types of multi- Increasing ur word item make up the mental lexicon are unfruitful. It is clear that the Ser eral conr:i learners'taski n acquiringa sufficientlyl arge mental lexicon is considerably The basic rdr greater than we previously thought. Although grammar remains an important rr ar.s.B ul a gt part of language acquisition, the lexical memory load, even for an da-r'r.i s quit; intermediate leamer, is enormous. We now recognise that the principal most liequen-j:l difference between intermediate and advanced leamers is not complex u'ho have a cl grammar, but the greatly expanded mental lexicon available to advanced to heip leamel learners.F ailure by some teacherst o recogniset his simple fact can condemn teachersd er er their learnerst o a lifetime on the intermediatep lateau. From pracfic A modified role for grammar Books of rhis The centrality of lexis means that the teaching of traditional grammar order. Ihe aur sffucturess hould play a less important role than in the past. Recognising that as a result rf every word has its own grammar,h owever,m eanst hat any approachb asedo n Part I descntt the central role of lexis is in many ways more grammatical than any lan_eua_uaen d I traditional grammar syllabus. Part 1. and i', ! - to Chapters Three themes teaching. or ttril Three themesr e-occurr egularly in this book: first. belore rei . The mental lexicon is larger than we previously thought. The contrihrLlt': ' . The prefabricatedc hunks stored in our mental lexicons ready for use are learirers nrenli often larger than previously recognised. ranse oi liti-ct . Really 'knowing a word'involves knowing its grammar- the patternsi n l,Iiclrce! Le.,rr: which it is regularlyu sed. The contributors all argue that expanding learners'phrasal lexicons and knowledge of word grammar are the two most important elements of any languagec ourse.T here is a seriousc hallengef or teachersif our new insights Introduction into the size, importance and nature of the mental lexicon are not simply to overwhelm students. Mike Mccarthy once eloquently described the 'vocabulary'part 'the of languagele arninga sm astering chaoso f the lexicon'. iittle can be Everything in this book is designedt o help bring order to that chaosf or both srngle most teachersa nd, more importantly, their learners. :iently large consistso f Developing the Lexical Approach tant kind of The Lexical Approach (1993) was a combination of applied linguistics and ould be a top languaget eachingm ethodology.I mplementingt he Lexical Approach (199j) was, as its title suggests,m ore practical; methodology,r ather than applied linguistics.T he first half of this book is even more practical.T he chapters arisen ot from what teachersc ould do in their classrooms,b ut from what they orv language are already doing. Some of the suggestionsa re modest; others are more languagei n radical, involving a reversal of traditional priorities. Introducing modest are to help changesi,n a climate of actionr esearchi,s surelyt he best way forward. peso f multi- Increasing understanding lear that the Severalc ontributorss tresst heir own increasingu nderstandingo f collocation. considerably The basic idea is extremely simple - some words co-occur in interesting an important ways.B ut a greatd eall ies behindt hat formulation.F requentc ollocation( nice .'ven for an day), is quite different from strong collocation (wage war); bfi neither the the principal most frequent nor the strongesta re the most useful for learners.o nly teachers not complex who have a clear understandingo f different kinds of collocation will be able to advanced to help learnersin the bestp ossiblew ay.p art 2 of this book is designedt o help can condemn teachersd evelop this clearer understanding. From practice to theory Books of this kind tend to go from theory to practice; this book reversest hat nal grammar order. The authors in Part 1 describe how what they do in class has changed :ognisingt hat as a result of their developing awarenesso f the lexical nature of language. rachb asedo n Pafi 2 describes in more detail the present state of our understanding of cal than any languagea nd acquisition.T eachersw ho havet ried someo f the suggestionsin Part l, and want to take their understandingf urlher, should turn particularly to chapters 7 and 8. Teachersw ith a lot of experienceo f lexically-based teaching,o r thoseo n in-servicec oursesm ay prefer to readt heset wo chapters first, before returning to the more detailed practical suggestionso f part 1. The contributors to this book have one principal objective - to develop for use are learners'mental lexicons, and with that, to give those leamers a far wider rangeo f life-choices.I t is a worthwhile objective. : pattems in Michael Lewis, Hove, January 2000 iexicons and lments of any r new insights 10 There is nothing as practical as a good theorl Chapter I J ' There is nothing as practical as a good theory -. - -- 'l 'J Morgan Lewis -, .. , t - Morgan Lewis describes how his initial teacher training led him to value grammar and explaining, and to believe both in the importance of a good lesson . . : - . - . , , plan and the close relationship between what he taught and what his students learned. Experience led him to question these ideas and, as a result of more theoretical study of the nature of both language and learning' to change his classroom priorities. A better understanding of language means he gives much more attention to collocation in all his classesl a better understanding of language acquisition means consciously bringing more language into every class, while accepting that the teacher cannot be sure exactly what learners will do with the language which is presented to them. He believes many teachers with a few years experience behind them will recognise the story he tells' 1.1 Introduction Seeing the title of this chapter,y ou might have assumedt hat the chapter was written by an applied linguist who will lemove you from the classroom into the far off land of academia.I n fact, I am a regular classroom teacher with about ten years' experienceo f teachingm ostly multi-lingual classesi n the UK. Perhapsl ike you, after afew years in the classroom,I begant o question some of the received wisdom of my initial training. The Present-Practise-Produce paradigm I startedw ith seemeds uch a neat, tidy and sensiblew ay to go about teaching.I increasingly found, however,t hat leaming did not follow the same tidy model. I seemedt o have less control over what studentsw ere learning than my initial training had led me to expect.I began asking myself questions - some more explicitly than others - such as: . Why is it that what my studentsle am doesn'tm ore closelyr esemblew hat I teach? . Should I spend so much time trying to achievea ccurateg lammar from my students? . Shouldm y lessonp lan rule the proceedings? . What is the most efficient way of improving students'p erformance,g iven they don't have a lot of time to leam the language? 'intermediate . What can you really do for those plateau' studentsw ho need a breakthrough and a feeling of progression? . What can you do for advanceds tudentsa fter they have met the third 'advanced' conditional?A nd what is English anyway? Therei s nothing as practical as a good theory 11 I began an extendedp eriod of extra study free from the constraintso f day-to- day lesson planning and thinking about my particular students.T his allowed me to stop being preoccupied with my teaching for a while and as a result, I reory found myself drawn more and more to considering the nature of language itself and the nature of languagel earning - what the processi n which I was engageda nd for which I was trained was really all about. Surprisingly, my initial training had not included study of this at all. It was concerned him to value exclusively with how the teacher should teach; learners and leaming were I a good lesson hardly discusseda t al-. lt his students result of more Tlsr to change his Whatp ercentagoef thet imei n yourt rainingw ass penlto okinga t he gives much Ierstanding of teaching and what percentage was devoted to learning? nto every class, After a lesson now, do you tend to think mostly about what you did, rarners will do or about the leamers? .eachersw ith a I very soon came to two broad conclusions.F irstly, there was no guarantee thai leamers learn what teachers teach. Secondly, the grammar/vocabulary '3ichotomy was spurious, and the central role of grammar, at least as defined ,',i,t hin my training, probably neededt o be re-evaluated. re chapter was :lassroomi nto \faking slightm ethodologicacl hangesin the light of thesec onclusionsw ould n teacher with not have satisfied me. I needed to get below the surface, explore the theory ciassesi n the ,'*h, ich lies behind classroom procedures, and decide what the real implicationsf or the classroomc ould be. Let me explain in more detail how I rame to these conclusions and show how they relate to the importance of questlons ome teachingc ollocationi n the classroom. rctise-Produce /ay to go about 1.2 Learners don't learn what teacherst each r11owth e same u'ere leaming {lthough it is hard for many teacherst o accept,i t simply is not true that our l,self questions srudentsn ecessarilyl earn what we teach them. Teachingi s, on the whole, organised,l inear and systematic,b ut it is a mistake to think that leaming is the 'esemblew hat same.L eaming is complex and non-linear, and although the result may be a s] stem,i ts acquisition is far from systematic.W e cannotc ontrol what students nmar from my ieam. in what order they will learn and how fast they will learn. As Diana Larsen-Freemanw rites in a disconcertingf ootnote to an article in the journal 'I -\pplied Linguistics: am constantly reminding students, audiences and mance, given rnr self that teaching does not causel eaming.' This has had an important implication for the way I teach: I no longer expect entsw ho need srudentst o mastera n item or items of languageb efore exposing them to more. Erpecting mastery in the immediate shorl term is an unrealistic expectation. the third The fact is, they may or may not acquire what you teacht hem. If they do, they mav acquire it immediately, later or only partially. 12 There is nothing as practical as a good theory means indi\ have alreadl Tlsr Shouldl earnersm ore or lessm astero ne new item or areab efore learner re-ot being exposedt o more, or are you happy introducingn ew points do not realh eveni f learnersm ay, ln the shortt erm, find this more confusing? simple and t thesed iffere isolation frc Whathasthistodowithteachingcollocation?Imagineastudentproduces He's a strong smoker'You could simply supply the student with the t'"19*i pafiicular tel collocate _ heavy - and move on. But an ideal opportunity to activate it used or n tenses. languageontheedgeofthestudent'slexiconhasbeenmissed.Itrequiresvery little extra time or explaining to add: occasional' chain and non as more The same B collocates of smoker' Given that you cannot know whether students will 'negative' c remember and use heavy smoker, you might as well give them three more' alternatives- They might remember none' one' two of them or all of them' Adding can be undet collocation to your teaching by consciously introducing one. or two new fine until th words and re-activating other half-known words in this way increasest he assessw hat chanceo f acquisition titi"g place, though you cannotbe at all sure what the teacherm a1- the dffircnc acquisitionencouraged(bu"tnot.caused')bythisparticularbitofteaching willbe. training - lr difference bre oneofthequestionslposedformyselfafterteachingforanumberofyears are at best wastheextenttowhichmylessonplanshoulddominateproceedings.These days, I am less concemed about achieving the languagea ims in my plan and dictionary d< more concerned about spotting and responding to opportunities like the injury, and t smoke' scenario - whether prompted by a collocationa heavy/occasional/chain/nin- studente rror or finding a collocation in a text to which I can add a handful of or rather mor other useful collocateslT his mindset is perfectly capturedb y Peter wilberg's discussion of responsibility in One to One' andq uoted by Michael Lewis at Tnsx thebeginningofTheLexicatApproach:..Theteacher'smainresponsibilityis Look at response-abilitY." lt'Of hou, und, Tlsr How much control do you think you haveo ver what your students Can yor learn? Can 1,or Do you still try to follow your lessonp lan fairly rigidly? want to How willing arey ou to forget your plan and responds pontaneously concord with unpreParedin Put? Which r or the li L.3 Knowing a word is comPlicated From the cXi evolving the Rfleaeactlr anttihneagdt i tsote thahocelhipsitnoicgin, ttcetyhncdalistcl eatola arbnneed relisnvdoeolavnre 'tsan onevdce esr ttseimspae-br' iyTly-hsleitsea pirs in nbw enhcaaatutuwsreeen, t eewwahc einhrpeisuattshe lmexeits w, itil lf owlloicr I