SÁNG KIẾN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO NAM ĐỊNH TRƯỜNG THPT CHUYÊN LÊ HỒNG PHONG SÁNG KIẾN DỰ THI CẤP TỈNH BÁO CÁO SÁNG KIẾN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS Tác giả: Phạm Kim Anh Trình độ chuyên môn: Thạc sỹ Chức vụ: Giáo viên Nơi công tác: Trường THPT chuyên Lê Hồng Phong NAM ĐỊNH, THÁNG - 2016 THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN Tên sáng kiến: How to teach English collocations effectively Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Sáng kiến viết nhằm áp dụng cho đối tượng người học tiếng Anh Riêng học sinh lớp 10 chuyên Anh, báo cáo giúp tạo tảng vững cho em từ giai đoạn đầu học viết để sau em tự tin thi học sinh giỏi Quốc gia Bên cạnh đó, sáng kiến đặc biệt có ích lĩnh vực dạy viết đoạn văn cho học sinh lớp 12 toàn quốc ôn thi kì thi trung học phổ thông Quốc gia Các em học sinh lớp 12 thấy sáng kiến hữu ích để làm tập trắc nghiệm Ngoài ra, sáng kiến áp dụng cho việc dạy viết đoạn văn cho học sinh lớp ôn thi học sinh giỏi thi vào lớp 10 chuyên Anh; cho học sinh lớp 12 ôn thi học sinh giỏi phổ thông toàn quốc Thời gian áp dụng sáng kiến: Sáng kiến áp dụng cho lớp 10 chuyên Anh, lớp 11 lớp 12 suốt năm học, đặc biệt giai đoạn ôn thi học sinh giỏi Quốc gia; ôn thi kì thi Quốc gia trung học phổ thông ôn thi học sinh giỏi lớp 12; lớp giai đoạn ôn thi học sinh giỏi thi vào lớp 10 chuyên Anh; Tác giả: Họ tên: Phạm Kim Anh Năm sinh: 1977 Nơi thường trú: Thành phố Nam Định Trình độ chuyên môn: Thạc sỹ Chức vụ công tác: Giáo viên Nơi làm việc: Trường THPT chuyên Lê Hồng Phong- Thành phố Nam Định Địa liên hệ: Trường THPT chuyên Lê Hồng Phong, số 76-Vị Xuyên - thành phố Nam Định Điện thoại: 0917835620 Đơn vị áp dụng sáng kiến: Tên đơn vị: Trường THPT chuyên Lê Hồng Phong Địa chỉ: số 76-Vị Xuyên Điện thoại: 03503640297 Điều kiện hoàn cảnh tạo sáng kiến: Do yêu cầu ngày cao học sinh chuyên, đổi kì thi Quốc gia trung học phổ thông năm 2015 yêu cầu thực tế môn kì thi học sinh giỏi, thi tuyển sinh vào lớp 10 chuyên; bên cạnh đó, thực trạng dạy học viết đoạn văn gặp nhiều khó khăn nên muốn góp phần nhỏ bé nhằm cải thiện thực trạng Sáng kiến giúp giáo viên dạy viết tìm cách dạy phù hợp với đối tượng học sinh phù hợp với yêu cầu cụ thể mục tiêu đề TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION I Rationale II Aim of the writing III Scope IV Methods DEVELOPMENT I An overview of English collocations Definition of collocation 2 Distinction between a collocation and an idiom Importance of learning collocations II Common errors from students’ writing III How to teach English collocations effectively Introduction of a collocation How to learn collocations effectively Collocations concerning some familiar topics for students from 10th English classes CONCLUSION 16 INTRODUCTION I Rationale Writing has always been an interesting but demanding task This is also true of students from English classes in Le Hong Phong school I have been exposed to many of students’ writings, some of which are quite easy to follow but the rest are not As far as I am concerned, the major problems students encountered are: They cannot express exactly what they really mean They find it difficult to have good word choices, so it is common to repeat familiar words such as good, nice or help II Aim of the writing: In view of what have been mentioned earlier, I carry out this little study with an aim to: help students get an overview of English collocations help them improve their range of vocabulary so that they can write in a more accurate and natural way III Scope: Learning English collocations are part of learning English vocabulary and learning writing It is difficult to cover so many collocations here Therefore the study will focus on only the collocations belonging to some very familiar topics that are suitable for pre-intermediate level (10th Engligh classes) IV Methods: - literature review - analysis students’ errors in using collocations DEVELOPMENT I An overview of English collocations Definition of collocation Collocation means a natural combination of words; it refers to the ways English words are closely associated with each other For example, and homework go together, as make and mistakes; tall goes with man/ woman and high goes with mountain Distinction between a collocation and an idiom Idioms are groups of words in a fixed order that have a meaning that cannot be guessed by knowing the meaning of the individual words For example, a storm in a tea cup is an idiom meaning “a lot of anger or worry about something that is not important” The meaning of collocations can be easily guessed by the meaning of the individual words, which is different from idioms Collocations are pairs or groups of words that often go together naturally Importance of learning collocations Learning collocations will help students: - speak and write English in a more natural and accurate way You will probably make yourself understood when you say “making your homework” or “ My uncle is a very high man” but these will sound unnatural and might confuse This can be understood in two different ways: Either your uncle is quite tall or he has a high position in government or business - increase their range of English vocabulary For example, it will be easier for them to avoid words like very or nice or get by choosing a word that fits the context better and has a more precise meaning This is particularly useful for students of English classes in writing II Common errors from students’ writing Students often find it hard to produce a good writing One of the reasons for that is they cannot find the right word Another lies in the fact that they cannot write in as accurate a way as they expect because they fail to get an adjective or an adverb to collocate with the noun or the verb used Let’s have a look at the following sample writing by a student of 10 English classes In our busy life today, playing sports plays an important role because of many benefits it brings to us The very first advantage of playing sports is that it gives us healthy and beautiful bodies As we all know it, sports can help us feel stronger and provide us with enough energy to work hard all day Moreover, playing sports makes it possible for us to have an attractive appearance For instance, swimming can help you be taller, dancing can make you slimmer It is widely known that playing sports reduces our stress Research on sports shows that it can help us relax, therefore, we can study better What is more, we can improve our flexibility and activeness by playing sports It is more effective than sitting in the room and playing games One more thing should be mentioned here is that playing sports gives us more opportunities to take part in sports competitions or sports clubs By this way, we can make friends and enjoy our social life It also makes us more confident to prove ourselves In conclusion, playing sports is very beneficial and necessary for all ages so it is indispensible in life In general, the writing is quite easy to understand However, it is strongly advisable to make some changes in terms of collocations, regardless of others aspects, so that the paragraph will sound more natural, accurate and impressive to readers as examiners Some shortcomings can be seen as follow: - repetition of words and phrases: playing sports, gives us, helps us, makes us - some words and phrases are a little too common: important, beautiful, necessary - Inability to give a strong argument of the importance of doing sports because the writer did not succeed in using the right intensifiers or in using enough impressive words: many benefits, enough energy, beautiful body, necessary, beneficial, and so on Because of the above weaknesses, the writing sounds like a list-type paragraph rather than an argumentative one III How to teach English collocations effectively Introduction of a collocation It is important for students to have an overview of English collocations and the reasons why they should learn them Therefore, teachers should present the concept of collocations first We say…… Fast cars We don’t say…… Quick cars Fast food A quick glance Quick food A fast glance A quick meal A fast meal It’s also for students to know that learning collocations is an important part of learning the vocabulary of a language Some collocations are fixed, or very strong, for example take a photo, where no word other than take collocates with photo to give the same meaning Some collocations are more open, where several different words may be used to give a similar meaning, for example keep to/ stick to the rules Teachers should also lead students to the belief that learning collocations is necessary because that will help students: - have the most natural way to say or write something For example: smoking is strictly forbidden is more natural than smoking is strongly forbidden - Find alternative ways of expressing something, which may be more impressive or precise For instance, instead of It was very cold and very dark, they can say It was bitterly cold and pitch dark In fact, students very often work with collocations without any recognition It is, therefore, advisable for teachers to introduce some exercises in which their students will recognize natural combinations of words and produce their own collocations Here are some examples Exercise Underline the collocations in the following text When I left university, I made a decision to take up a profession in which I could be creative I could play the guitar, but I’d never written any songs Nonetheless, I decided to become a singer-songwriter I made some recordings but I had a rather heavy cold so they didn’t sound good I made some more, and sent them to a record company and waited for them to reply So, while I was waiting to become famous, I got a job in a fast food restaurant That was five years ago I’m still doing the same job Exercise Make ten collocations from the words in the box An effort ancient bitterly make breakfast cold Engine forbidden mistakes have make meal monument Pitch powerful strictly substantial dark TV watch * Types of collocations Students should know that there are many different types of collocations Type 1: Adjectives and nouns For example: Jean always wears red or yellow or some other bright color We had a brief chat about the exams but didn’t have time to discuss it properly Type 2: Nouns and verbs For example: The economy boomed in the 1990s (the economy was very strong) The company has grown and now employs 50 more people than last year The company launched the product in 2002 (introduced the product) Type 3: Noun and noun For example: I felt a pang of nostalgia when I saw the old photos of the village where I was born Every parent feels a sense of pride when their child does well or wins something Type 4: Verbs and expressions with prepositions For example: I was filled with horror when I read the newspaper report of the explosion When she split juice on her new skirt, the little girl burst into tears Type 5: Verbs and adverbs For example: She smiled proudly as she looked at the photos of her new grandson “I love you and want to marry you”, Derek whispered softly to Marsha Type 6: Adverbs and adjectives For example: They are happily married I am fully aware that there are serious problems Harry was blissfully unaware that he was in danger How to learn collocations effectively Apart from classroom lessons, teachers should to learn collocations by themselves Students should get the habit of finding, recording and afterwards learning them How to this well ought to be instructed by teachers as follows a Finding collocations: There are two ways in which collocations can be found: - students can find them in any text in English they read or hear and then make a note of good collocations In the short text below, there are 12 collocations After giving Mark a lift to the airport, Cathy made her way home What an exciting life he led! At times, Cathy felt desperately jealous of him She spent her time doing little more than taking care of him and the children Now her sister was getting divorced and would doubtless be making demands on her too Cathy had promised to give her sister a call as soon as she got home but she decided to run herself a bath first She had a sharp pain in her side and hoped that a hot bath might ease the pain 10 - students can also find collocations in a good learner’s dictionary, like Oxford Collocations Dictionary for students of English For example, when they look up the word use , they will find many combinations with it, some of which are: considerable/ extensive/ great/ full use make use of/ come into use/ ban the use of medicinal / intended/ potential use b Recording collocations When students record a collocation, it is a great idea to it in a phrase or a sentence showing how it is used Then, highlight the collocation by underlining it or by using a highlighting pen For example: I don’t have access to that kind of secret information Jim gave me a very useful piece of advice c Learning collocations Learning collocations is not so different from learning any vocabulary item Teachers should remind students to: - regularly revise what they want to lean - Practise using what they want to learn in contexts that are meaningful for them personally - Learn collocations in groups to help fix them in students’ memory Students might together collocations relating to the same topic Or they can group collocations based on the same word, for example: I must find a way to help him Can you find your way back to my house? I learnt the hard way that Jack can’t be trusted Please tell me if I’m getting in your way You must give way to traffic from the left You’ve tried every possible way to get him to change his mind 11 Collocations concerning some familiar topics for students from 10 th English classes a Leisure and lifestyle Exercise Complete the sentences with do, play or go in the correct form New Sports Club Opening Next Week You can …………….judo! You can………… badminton! You can …………….swimming! You can ………… weightlifting! You can ……………circuit training! You can………….table tennis! You can………… skateboarding! You can even ………darts! In fact, you can …………almost any sport you can think of So join now! Exercise Make ten collocations by matching a word from box A with a word or phrase from box B A Personal B The lead Blow Best Bring on A substitute Fail A record Enter A whistle Set A competition Achieve Your Train performance Enhance a drugs test take hard your ambition Exercise There are six verbs + noun errors in this email Find and correct them Hi, Jose, 12 Do you fancy coming on a sporting weekend with me next month? It sounds great-would make a change from playing computer games You can make lots of different activities You could even fishing, I think You can’t go skiing at this time of the year but you can make water skiing, if you like Everyone has to make general exercises first thing in the morning and then you can make whatever sport you like, more or less I’ve never practised badminton so I think I am going to that Then in the afternoon I’m looking forward to the chance to practise my tennis serve with their professional coach Please try to come! Giogio b Houses, flats and rooms *Presentation Teachers should provide students with some collocations of accommodation Here are some sample texts with such collocations Short-let accommodation available near university Rooms and studio flats Tel : 899544 Are you looking to move into a flat or house next term? The Harmer Agency has a wide range of suitable accommodation Call us on 4446677 Fully furnished flat available to rent from 1st September Quiet residential area $800 per calendar month Tel: 896749 at 5p.m Newly-built apartment available soon Spacious accommodation , fully fitted kitchen Off road parking To let furnished or unfurnished Would suit single academic or mature student Tel: 321986 13 There are many collocations in the following descriptions of houses Hi Mave, Luke and I have just moved into Hi, Julia, our dream home It is a big, old You are so lucky I’d love to move four – storey house It’s got out of my awful one – room flat spacious living room which has a It’s in such a dilapidated building wonderful view of the park, and a You go into a draughty hall, down cosy study where we can both work a chilly corridor and into this really and there are some lovely light, airy cramped room I want to buy a bedrooms place of my own but there is a which overlook the garden shortage of affordable housing here There is a separate basement flat, and I don’t want to take out a big which we might turn into a granny mortgage I’d love to see your flat for my mother And if we want house I hope you will invite me to to add an extension there is room your house-warming party for that, too It needs to be Big hug, completely refurbished, but Luke Mave and I have always wanted to up an old house Come and visit Love, Julia 14 * Practice: Exercise Match the beginning of each sentence on the left with its ending on the right We want to turn our garage into a a house-warming party b mortgage You have invited me to her c my own Next week I have to move out d granny flat of e my flat Karl makes a business out of doing up g old houses Our bedroom overlooks Our house f the garden needs h refurbished to be completely I hope that one day I will have a place of The bank can help us if you want to take out a Exercise Correct the collocation errors in these sentences We live on a busy road, but we’re lucky because we have off road park Gemma has moved off from her old flat and has now got a new place in Wall Street We’re building an expansion to our house which will give us a bigger kitchen The flat is totally furnished, which is good because I have no furniture of my own She has to get out a big mortgage as the house was very expensive 15 There is no buyable housing for young people in this area; prices are ridiculously high Key to exercises: Exercise You can judo! You can play badminton! You can go swimming! You can weight lifting! You can circuit training! You can play table tennis! You can go skate boarding! You can even play darts! In fact, you can do/play almost any sport you can think of So join now Exercise Personal best Blow a whistle Bring on a substitute Fail a drugs test Enter a competition Set a record Achieve your ambition Train hard Enhance your performance Take the lead (take a drugs test is also possible) Exercise Hi, Jose, Do you fancy coming on a sporting weekend with me next month? It sounds great-would make a change from playing computer games You can lots of different activities You could even go fishing, I think You can’t go skiing at this time of the year but you can go water skiing, if you like Everyone has to general exercises first thing in the morning and then you can do/play whatever sport you like, more or less I’ve never played badminton so I think I 16 am going to that Then in the afternoon I’m looking forward to the chance to practise my tennis serve with their professional coach Please try to come! Giogio Exercise We want to turn our garage into a granny flat You have invited me to her house-warming party Next week I have to move out of my flat Karl makes a business out of doing up old houses Our bedroom overlooks the garden Our house needs to be completely refurbished I hope that one day I will have a place of my own The bank can help us if you want to take out a mortgage Exercise We live on a busy road, but we’re lucky because we have off road parking Gemma has moved out of from her old flat and has now got a new place in Wall Street We’re building an extension to our house which will give us a bigger kitchen The flat is fully furnished, which is good because I have no furniture of my own She has to take out a big mortgage as the house was very expensive There is no affordable housing for young people in this area; prices are ridiculously high Now we should have a look back at the writing by the student of 10 th English classes The phrases in bold are those that can be replaced with new ones In our busy life today, playing sports plays an important role because of many benefits it brings to us The very first advantage of playing sports is that it gives us healthy and beautiful bodies As we all know it, sports can help us 17 feel stronger and provide us with enough energy to work hard all day Moreover, playing sports makes it possible for us to have an attractive appearance For instance, swimming can help you be taller, dancing can make you slimmer It is widely known that playing sports reduces our stress Research on sports shows that it can help us relax, therefore, we can study better What is more, we can improve our flexibility and activeness by playing sports It is more effective than sitting in the room and playing games One more thing should be mentioned here is that playing sports gives us more opportunities to take part in sports competitions or sports clubs By this way, we can make friends and enjoy our social life It also makes us more confident to prove ourselves In conclusion, playing sports is very beneficial and necessary for all ages so it is indispensible in life Order Original phrases plays an important role many benefits The very first advantage Replaced with plays a substantial role many huge benefits The first enormous/ considerable advantage perfect bodies boundless energy striking appearance you dancing can keep you in shape beautiful bodies enough energy attractive appearance dancing can make slimmer reduces our stress alleviate / relieve stress therefore, we can study which leads to better schooling 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 better improve our flexibility increase our flexibility playing sports doing exercises is more effective than is incredibly effective in comparison to playing sports doing whatever sports you like very beneficial potentially beneficial necessary absolutely necessary life our whole life As a result, the above paragraph can be rewritten as follow: 18 In our busy life today, playing sports plays a substantial role because of many huge benefits it brings to us The first enormous advantage of playing sports is that it gives us healthy and perfect bodies As we all know it, sports can help us feel stronger and provide us with boundless energy to work hard all day Moreover, playing sports makes it possible for us to have a striking appearance For instance, swimming can help you be taller, dancing can keep you in shape It is widely known that playing sports alleviate stress Research on sports shows that it can help us relax, which leads to better schooling What is more, we can increase our flexibility and activeness by doing exercises It is incredibly effective in comparison to sitting in the room and playing games One more thing should be mentioned here is that playing sports gives us more opportunities to take part in sports competitions or sports clubs By this way, we can make friends and enjoy our social life It also makes us more confident to prove ourselves In conclusion, doing whatever sports you like is potentially beneficial and absolutely necessary for all ages so it is indispensible in our whole life 19 CONCLUSION In brief, as discussed earlier, collocation plays a huge role in producing a perfect writing It contributes to the success of a writing, which then goes smoothly and can express the writer’s point of view in an exact way It also helps to make an excellent impression on readers In addition to creating effective academic writings, collocations also help a lot in improving students’ speaking naturally and accurately It has also been mentioned that there are various ways to teach and learn collocations as effectively as expected The activities range from individual words to a whole paragraph Therefore, students will have chances to be exposed to different types of exercises in different topics These exercises can be used as classroom activities as well as self – study They are of great importance for both students and teachers as well With this little study, I hope to provide readers with an overview of collocation and the importance of teaching and learning collocations in improving writing skill However, in difficult timing condition, mistakes are unavoidable Therefore, any suggestions and remarks from readers will be highly appreciated TÁC GIẢ SÁNG KIẾN Phạm Kim Anh 20 CƠ QUAN ĐƠN VỊ ÁP DỤNG SÁNG KIẾN (xác nhận, đánh giá, xếp loại) 21 22 ...THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN Tên sáng kiến: How to teach English collocations effectively Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Sáng kiến viết nhằm áp dụng cho đối tượng người học... than an argumentative one III How to teach English collocations effectively Introduction of a collocation It is important for students to have an overview of English collocations and the reasons... to teach English collocations effectively Introduction of a collocation How to learn collocations effectively Collocations concerning some familiar topics for students from 10th English classes