Tag Archives: collocations

My story with collocations

BlackboardEnglish.comThis is a guest post by Halima from BlackboardEnglish.com.

If you would like to publish a guest post on PurlandTraining.com, please do get in touch!

I used to teach vocabulary differently than I do now. I taught single words and grammar. I had taught in a classroom setting before I started teaching online. My students learnt all the new words well. I even had tests to help them remember new words. They always did well when they did the tests. However, when they tried to use the vocabulary during a speaking or written activity, they would sound so unnatural. That’s when I started my collocations journey.  I started researching, and reading and I found out about the Lexical approach by Michael Lewis. A new approach to teaching vocabulary and grammar. It was the most exciting thing I had read about as a teacher. I started implementing its teachings straightaway.

These are some of the points I found most useful:

  • The brain stores and retrieves word chunks quickly
  • Collocations are words that sound natural together to native speakers of English
  • Collocations help you produce natural English
  • It improves your spoken and written fluency
  • It helps you to build a larger vocabulary bank
  • Successful language is more important that accurate language

What should you do now that you know this information?

  • Use a collocations dictionary online and if you can buy a hard-copy (watch my video to help you learn how to use a collocations dictionary)
  • Start taking notes of new word chunks
  • Start listening and reading more
  • Learn the seven different types of collocations and examples and start noticing them (download the poster to stick on your wall)
  • Don’t be afraid to start using your English!

I hope this article helps. Send me an email and let me know what you think! HS@BlackboardEnglish.com

Written by Halima from BlackboardEnglish.com.

References:

Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and the way forward. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.

My video:

https://youtu.be/k0_a-C6Vqho

The free poster link:

http://eepurl.com/cWbw0j

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100 Adjective + Preposition Collocations (Ordered by Preposition)

100 Adjective and Preposition Collocations – Free Worksheets

Purland on ELT: Episode 26 – 100 Adjective and Preposition Collocations. This is a free teaching podcast:

Find out about four new free printable grammar worksheets, which you can download here.

Learn how to put together adjectives with prepositions to make phrases, and download our four fabulous new free printable worksheets from http://purlandtraining.com!