macmillan grammar and vocabulary teacher book

With the second two verbs in this example, the unpredictability of the combination is also a factor. I feel that if there are enough potential frequent collocations of one of the nodes, it is worth spending some class time on: Nation also makes the point that, in a classroom situation, frequent collocations only deserve attention if: “their frequency is equal to or higher than other high-frequency words.” This puts a greater pressure on the teacher when making the decision about whether to spend time on a particular collocation. A strong/infrequent collocation may be worth mentioning to draw the learners’ attention to its existence, but little, if any, class time would need to be spent on collocations at the weak/infrequent end of the spectrum. The most useful combination for teaching purposes, then, seems to be a combination of strong (but not completely fixed) and frequent. In the same way, a particularly strong collocation may be used very infrequently (e.g. a warm day) is not necessarily strong, as either word in the partnership suggests a number of other collocates: There is also a difference between strong/weak and frequent/infrequent collocations. Strong/Weak and Frequent/Infrequent Collocations Nouns are also important because they are usually the words that carry the most meaning within a sentence. This is because the majority of general nouns usually require further qualification: I feel that it is very useful to teach learners those collocations with a noun as a key word. In my experience, a lot of mistakes in collocations are made with de-lexicalised verbs, probably due to L1 interference (see below). I have also found collocation useful in explaining the difference between opposites: It was immediately clear to me how helpful it was to use collocation to highlight the differences between the two verbs. After some discussion of contexts in which these words might be used, we produced the following:Īt the back cover of a book in a bookshopĪ woman’s shoulder as she’s getting changed on the beach I would argue that students at every level need to be aware of the importance of collocation, as I believe collocation can be used not only to help learners understand and manage lexis but also to communicate ideas more effectively.įor example, one of my learners recently asked the difference in meaning between glance and glimpse. How can I help my students with collocations? Advanced students need to be aware of the importance of collocation. Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship.

Macmillan grammar and vocabulary teacher book