Collocations are words which if combined together, sound “ right ” to native English talkers, e.g: “ Fast nutrient ” . Any other combination may sound incorrect and unnatural, e.g: “ speedy nutrient ” . “ Collocations are non words which we ‘put together ‘ . They co-occur of course. Collocation is the manner in which words co-occur in natural text ” . ( Lewis,2000:132 ) .

For Thornbury, collocation is a “ continuum that moves from compound words ( second-hand ) , through lexical balls ( spots and pieces ) , including parlances ( out of the blue ) and phrasal verbs ( make up ) , to collocations of more or less fixedness ( put a new universe record ) ” ( Thornbury S. 2002, How to learn vocabulary, Longman ) .

Collocations have different strengths: Weak collocations involve words which can coincide with many other words, e.g: ruddy shirt. One can use the coloring material red or the shirt with many other words, e.g: ruddy auto, little shirt. Strong collocations have words with a much more limited sum of possible combinations, while highly strong collocations have words which about ne’er occur individually, e.g: “ spik and span ” and “ rancid butter ” . Unique collocations e.g, shrug shoulders are ‘unique ‘ because the verb ( shrug ) is non used with any other noun. Hill arguesthat medium-strength collocations e.g: “ a minor operation ” , are the most of import for the EFL schoolroom because they make up a greater portion of what we say and write. In fact, most scholars know the words ‘make ‘ and ‘mistake ‘ , but do non hive away ‘make a error ‘ in their mental vocabularies as a individual point. ( Lewis.M, 2000: 63 )

Thornbury added that collocation is “ non a frozen relationship ” and two collocates may be separated, eg: “ lay off ” : The company is puting more workers off. Lewis divides collocations into two. Grammatical collocations e.g: keen on, are lexical words such as an adjectival, noun or verb ( acute ) , combined with a grammatical word ( on ) . Lexical Collocation e.g: black java, include two lexical words which on a regular basis and of course happen together. Bahns ( ELTJ 47/1 1993 ) stated that some lexical collocations are rather obvious in their significance while others are non. E.g: black java clearly indicates no milk in the java but “ lay off ” is one which may do most jobs to scholars since its significance is hidden.

The importance of collocations in L2 acquisition:

Many agree that collocations are of import in linguistic communication acquisition. 1 James Carl ( 1998 ) stated that utilizing collocations right “ contributes greatly to one ‘s idiomaticity and nativelikeness. ” 2 Lewis stated that “ eloquence is based on the acquisition of a big shop of fixed or semi-fixed prefabricated points. ” 3 Sonaiya ( 1988 ) went even further, stating that “ lexical mistakes are more serious because effectual communicating depends on the pick of words. ”

Collocations, found in most of what we say, hear, read or write are fixed looks we store and memorise ; ready to be used when needed. To recover these ready-to-use phrases, lexical points are acquired by exposing scholars to them for a figure of times. In theory, good quality input might take to good quality retrieval. This helps scholars to be more fluid because they can recover and bring forth multi-word units instead than interpret word for word. The Lexical Approach helped to foreground the importance of collocation and its deductions for foreign linguistic communication acquisition.

The Lexical Approach and collocations:

The lexical attack encourages scholars to place and larn collocations as lexical points instead than single words. ‘Catch a cold ‘ , is seen as a individual unit of significance ( or multi-word unit ) and non as three single words with three single significances. Harmonizing to Schmidt ( 2000 ) , treating words in lexical phrases instead than separately reflects the manner the head shops and balls linguistic communication to do it easier to treat.

One of the beliefs behind the Lexical Approach is that linguistic communication is non made up of lone traditional vocabulary and grammar but prefabricated multi-word balls where linguistic communication consists of grammaticalized lexis and non lexicalised grammar. Rather than holding a course of study which is merely grammar based, the lexical attack emphasises that lexis should be at the Centre of linguistic communication acquisition.

The lexical attack postulates that an indispensable portion of geting linguistic communication is to grok and bring forth lexical balls. These balls help scholars make forms of linguistic communication traditionally thought of as grammar ( Lewis, The Lexical Approach 1993:95 ) . Language lumping hence is believed to assist linguistic communication eloquence by uniting other balls to make longer ready-to-use phrases. When they understand the significance behind the phrase, scholars store it in their mental vocabulary. If used on a regular basis, there is a high possibility it will assist eloquence and cut down mental processing clip when speech production.

1 James, Carl. ) . Mistakes in linguistic communication acquisition and usage. London: Longman ( 1998

2 Lewis, M. Implementing the lexical attack. Hove: Language Teaching Publications. ( 1997 ) .

3 Sonaiya, C. The vocabulary in 2nd linguistic communication acquisition: A lexical attack to error analysis. PhD Thesis. Cornell University. ( 1988 ) .

Delexicalised Verbs:

Every linguistic communication has basic verbs which are often used. The English linguistic communication is no exclusion and we can happen assorted frequent verbs ( Svartvik and Ekedahl 1995 ) ( The Verb in Contemporary English: Theory and Description, CUP 1995 ) :

E.g:

Make

Make

Have

Take

Get

Such high frequence verbs are frequently used as Delexicalised Verbs. Delexicalised verbs have small intending entirely but if joined together with other words, they can bring forth a wider assortment of new significances:

E.g:

make your best

do your bed

have tiffin

take a shower

get dressed

Although de-lexicalised verbs normally have a remarkable significance, ( e.g: do = industry, take= conveyance ) they are elements of many multi-words such as phrasal verbs ( to do an alibi ) .

While their significance is crystalline, altering any of the constituents is rather restricted, e.g. “ to do a statement ” , but non “ to make a statement. ”

Delexicalised verbs ‘make ‘ & As ; ‘do ‘

Mc.Carthy & A ; O’Dell ( 2005:6 ) depict these two verbs as ‘everyday verbs ‘ and give a whole page on to them bespeaking their high frequence in English. In their book ‘s index, both verbs have more than 60 different collocates each. The verbs ‘make ‘ and ‘do ‘ in fact, like many high frequence verbs, enter into legion collocations and parlances. “ Make your bed! ” is a unitization of two words: Verb+Noun ( Make + possesive pronoun+ bed ) . This delexicalised verb is a pre-fabricated linguistic communication ball stored as a individual lexical unit and non two single units.

Moment

Problems scholars have with delexicalised verbs:

Although they come of course to native talkers, collocations formed with delexicalised verbs can be slippery. Some of the chief jobs that low degree scholars experience are as follows:

They have ne’er been exposed to or made cognizant of collocations in their acquisition experiences.

Learners frequently have jobs with these collocations formed with delexicalised verbs because they are arbitrary.

They frequently struggle to happen the right collocation, frequently interpreting possible equivalents from their ain linguistic communication. E.g: do a exposure.

Learners find it hard to memorise collocations because they are arbitrary.

Teachers are partially to fault for this job. McCarthy tells us that “ in vocabulary instruction there is a high importance of collocation ” ( 1990:12 ) . The deficient collocation input of the mark linguistic communication may be a ground why scholars lack cognition of collocation. One ground why instructors do non give such importance to collocation is that possibly they feel learning grammar is safer because they feel they know the regulations and can explicate them. Collocations are “ arbitrary ” and this leads us to the 2nd job:

Collocations are arbitrary and decided by convention alternatively of regulations. Many scholars have been exposed to larning linguistic communications in a systematic manner i.e there is an account, regulations and concluding behind each grammar point eg: the first conditional: [ if + present simple ] , [ will + infinitive ] . Because they are used to larning linguistic communications in a grammatical manner, scholars find it hard to accept that some words collocate while others do non and that there is no ground for this other than it is what native talkers say.

As native talkers we would n’t state: “ I am traveling to travel to the canteen and imbibe a java ” but “ I am traveling to the canteen and have a java ” . Learners have jobs with this because since “ java ” collocates with the verb “ drink ” , they think that it is hence natural to state “ … and imbibe a java ” . This arbitrariness causes jobs because scholars can non come up with the right collocation on their ain.

McCarthy said that “ cognition of collocational appropriacy is portion of native talker ‘s competency ” . ( McCarthy, M.1990Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.1990:13 ) . Therefore, being cognizant of collocations and accepting them as a window to the natural manner of talking the linguistic communication is indispensable in larning a linguistic communication. Benson ( 1985 ) stated that “ collocations are arbitrary and non-predictable ” and so some are non so easy to larn.

When scholars are confronted with collocations like “ to do a error ” , learners resort to translaA­tion from L1 to understand why we use ‘make ‘ and non ‘do ‘ as in many other linguistic communications. However this leads to misapply of the collocation or creative activity of word combinations which are non-existant in English. Eg: My Italian scholars sometimes say “ do a error ” because Italian has merely one verb, “ menu ” , which resembles “ do ” or “ make ” . Literally translated, “ menu una torta ” is “ make a bar ” from Italian to English. Lexis is an country where actual interlingual rendition of collocations is frequently impossible.

Lexical verbs such as “ do ” or “ do ” necessitate memorising whole lists of words that can collocate with them. Learners have to confront many complicated and hard lexicalized verbs, which have intending differences in assorted contexts. Furthermore, combinations of delexicalised words are less likely to explicate clearly what they mean in interlingual rendition and therefore are more erring in scholar linguistic communication ( Lewis 1993, Nesselhauf 2005 ) .

When my scholars tell me: “ it ‘s impossible to larn all of these phrases by bosom! “ , I have to acknowledge that I understand them. Collocation books like McCarthy & A ; O’Dell ‘s ‘English Collocations In Use ‘ ( CUP:2005 ) , present the delexicalised verbs “ do ” and “ make ” in a manner that makes a scholar feel that he/she has to larn the phrases by bosom. E.g:

To do breakfast

To make the wash

To do your bed

To make your best

Learners need ways to retrieve the significances of the lexicalized verbs. It is hard plenty seeking to believe of grammar needed, word sentence structure, vocabulary and so on when building a sentence in L2 acquisition, allow entirely seeking to retrieve and recover the right collocation needed. Since there are tonss of collocations as the 1s in the illustration, it is rather hard to retrieve them. To do things even more complicated, some instruction stuffs merely present lists – which make it dashing for scholars, particularly lower degree 1s.

Solutions:

Making scholars cognizant of delexicalised verbs:

By assisting scholars to detect collocation, they can get vocabulary edifice accomplishments like being able to name and categorise lexis. It besides encourages them to go independent scholars. One manner of assisting scholars develop the wont of paying attending to balls instead than merely single words, is by assisting them notice and procedure what word goes with “ make ” and “ brand ” .

Inside Out Elementary ( Macmillan:16 ) presents “ a twenty-four hours in the life ofaˆ¦ ” a adult male and a adult female. Having guessed who does what, learners read the text to look into if they guessed right. The text includes a batch of collocations with “ do ” or “ make ” . Learners so are asked to organize common looks with “ do ” or “ do ” from the text:

The most homework the beds

The shopping dinner

The rinsing up the most noise

Learners have a speech production pattern with “ do ” or “ make ” by stating who does or makes what in the house, utilizing the same prompts from the old exercising. Eg: “ Mum does the shopping and we… ”

Making scholars familiar with collocations:

McCarthy & A ; O’Dell in “ English Collocations in Use ” ( CUP2005: 18 ) present us with a list of collocations which they call “ Everyday verbs ” of “ do ” and “ make ” with illustrations on the side. Eg:

Collocation

Example

Make an alibi

I ‘m excessively tired to travel out tonight. Let ‘s do an alibi and remain place!

Make your hair

I ‘m non ready! I have n’t done my hair yet!

To assist scholars notice these collocations formed with delexicalised verbs ‘make ‘ and ‘do ‘ , I give my pupils a text about a hubby and married woman who portion house jobs. In the text there are collocations with verbs ‘make ‘ and ‘do ‘ e.g: he makes the beds in the forenoon while she does the cookery. Before passing it out, I ask my scholars to detect what verbs collocate with the activities mentioned e.g: does + the cookery and remind them to retrieve who does what. Having read it, I give them a worksheet from “ A manner with words – Resource Pack 1 ” 4 and I ask them to finish the chart with the right verb ‘do ‘ or ‘make ‘ and who does each activity. Once the worksheet is completed, we correct it. As a speech production activity, I ask my scholars to discourse who does what in their places, reminding them to utilize the right collocations:

— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —

4 S.Redman, R.Ellis, B.Viney, “ A Way With Words Resource Pack 1 ” , Cambridge ( 2000:59 )

Trying to happen the right collocation to utilize:

To assist scholars pattern and be a spot more confident in their usage of collocations, I use an activity which Lewis proposed in “ Teaching Collocation ” ( Hove:112 ) in which scholars have to set in the losing verb in the collocations. This will assist them to minimise their errors as our Italians made: “ I do a error ” .

… … … ..a error 2… … … ..your prep

a statement your hair

an observation what you have to make

Alternatively, I can give the activity some context by giving scholars the activity found on page 100 in “ Language to travel ” Intermediate. Here scholars have to finish the text utilizing “ do ” or “ make ” . This will assist them to see how the collocation is used in a context.

Helping them to retrieve the collocations:

To remember what they ‘ve learnt, scholars need to retrieve what they ‘ve learnt. Thornbury 3 provinces that “ acquisition is retrieving ” , which clearly shows how of import memory is in larning a linguistic communication. The same rule applies to collocations.

One manner of assisting scholars to retrieve the collocations is by frequently revising them. One peculiar activity to recycle collocations that were antecedently encountered is ‘Run n Grab ‘ . I divide scholars into squads and I read out the terminal of the collocation eg: an apology. I write down ‘Do ‘ and ‘Make ‘ on the board. Learners have to run to the board to circle the one which collocates with the stoping. Whoever gets most points wins.

Decision:

I feel the Lexical Approach has given me a new perceptual experience of collocations. Collocations are no longer deadening lists which need to be learnt because they are portion of a course of study. Collocations are balls of natural and natively spoken linguistic communication which can assist scholars to better their L2 production. To larn them, scholars need frequent exposure to them, helped to detect and given activities which can assist memorising them. Above all, I am more cognizant when taking activities that deal with collocations because in order to be more good, they have to be directed toward of course happening linguistic communication and must assist raise scholars ‘ consciousness of the lexical nature of linguistic communication.