SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS

SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN HOW TO TEACH ENGLISH COLLOCATIONS SKKN 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 5 - 2016

THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN

1 Tên sáng kiến: How to teach English collocations effectively.

2 Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Sáng kiến này được viết nhằm áp dụng cho mọi đối tượng người học tiếng Anh Riêng đối với học sinh lớp 10 chuyên Anh, báo cáo sẽ giúp tạo nền tảng vững chắc cho các em ngay từ giai đoạn đầu học viết để sau này các em sẽ tự tin khi thi học sinh giỏi Quốc gia Bên cạnh đó, sáng kiến này đặc biệt có ích trong lĩnh vực dạy viết đoạn văn cho học sinh lớp 12 trên toàn quốc ôn thi kì thi trung học phổ thông Quốc gia Các em học sinh lớp 12 cũng sẽ thấy sáng kiến này hữu ích để làm các bài tập trắc nghiệm Ngoài ra, sáng kiến cũng có thể áp dụng cho việc dạy viết đoạn văn cho học sinh lớp 9 ôn thi học sinh giỏi và thi vào lớp 10 chuyên Anh; cho học sinh lớp 12 ôn thi học sinh giỏi phổ thông trên toàn quốc

3 Thời gian áp dụng sáng kiến:Sáng kiến này có thể áp dụng cho lớp 10 chuyên Anh, các lớp 11 và lớp 12 trong suốt năm học, đặc biệt giai đoạn ôn thi học sinh giỏi Quốc gia; ôn thi kì thi Quốc gia trung học phổ thông và ôn thi học sinh giỏi lớp 12; lớp 9 trong giai đoạn ôn thi học sinh giỏi và thi vào lớp 10 chuyên Anh;

Chức vụ công tác: Giáo viên

Nơi làm việc: Trường THPT chuyên Lê Hồng Phong- Thành phố Nam Định

Địa chỉ liên hệ: Trường THPT chuyên Lê Hồng Phong, số 76-Vị Xuyên

7 Điều kiện hoàn cảnh tạo ra sáng kiến:

Do những yêu cầu ngày càng cao đối với học sinh chuyên, những đổi mới về kì thi Quốc gia trung học phổ thông năm 2015 và yêu cầu thực tế của bộ môn trong các kì thi học sinh giỏi, thi tuyển sinh vào lớp 10 chuyên; bên cạnh đó, do thực trạng dạy và học viết đoạn

văn còn đang gặp rất nhiều khó khăn nên tôi muốn góp một phần nhỏ bé của mình nhằm cải thiện thực trạng đó Sáng kiến này sẽ giúp giáo viên dạy viết tìm được những cách dạy phù hợp với đối tượng học sinh của mình và phù hợp với yêu cầu cụ thể của mục tiêu đề ra

2 Distinction between a collocation and an idiom 2

3 Importance of learning collocations 2

II Common errors from students’ writing 2

III How to teach English collocations effectively 4

1 Introduction of a collocation 4

2 How to learn collocations effectively 6

3 Collocations concerning some familiar topics for students 8 from 10th English classes

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 restare not As far as I am concerned, the major problems students encountered are:

1 They cannot express exactly what they really mean

2. 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 studywith an aim to:

1 help students get an overview of English collocations

2 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 andlearning writing It is difficult to cover so many collocations here Therefore thestudy will focus on only the collocations belonging to some very familiar topicsthat are suitable for pre-intermediate level (10th Engligh classes)

IV Methods:

- literature review

- analysis students’ errors in using collocations

I An overview of English collocations

1 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, do and

homework go together, as do make and mistakes; tall goes with man/ woman and high goes with mountain.

2 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 theindividual words, which is different from idioms Collocations are pairs orgroups of words that often go together naturally

3 Importance of learning collocations.

Learning collocations will help students:

- speak and write English in a more natural and accurate way You willprobably make yourself understood when you say “making your homework” or

“ My uncle is a very high man” but these will sound unnatural and mightconfuse This can be understood in two different ways: Either your uncle is quitetall 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 forstudents 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 forthat 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 Englishclasses

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 stronglyadvisable to make some changes in terms of collocations, regardless of othersaspects, 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,

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 paragraphrather than an argumentative one

III How to teach English collocations effectively.

1 Introduction of a collocation

It is important for students to have an overview of English collocations andthe reasons why they should learn them Therefore, teachers should present theconcept of collocations first

Fast carsFast food

Quick carsQuick food

A quick glance

A quick meal

A fast glance

A fast mealIt’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 isnecessary 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 owncollocations Here are some examples

Exercise 1 Underline the collocations in the following text.

When I left university, I made a decision to take up a profession in which Icould 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 recordingsbut I had a rather heavy cold so they didn’t sound good I made some more, andsent them to a record company and waited for them to reply So, while I waswaiting to become famous, I got a job in a fast food restaurant That was fiveyears ago I’m still doing the same job

Exercise 2 Make ten collocations from the words in the box

An effort ancient bitterly make breakfast cold dark

Engine forbidden mistakes have make meal monument

Pitch powerful strictly substantial 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

2 How to learn collocations effectively

Apart from classroom lessons, teachers should to learn collocations bythemselves Students should get the habit of finding, recording and afterwardslearning them How to do 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 thenmake 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

- students can also find collocations in a good learner’s dictionary, likeOxford 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 do it in a phrase or asentence 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

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 forthem personally

- Learn collocations in groups to help fix them in students’ memory.Students might together collocations relating to the same topic Or they cangroup 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.

advice

3 Collocations concerning some familiar topics for students from 10 th

English classes.

a Leisure and lifestyle

Exercise 1 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 2 Make ten collocations by matching a word from box A with aword or phrase from box B

PersonalBlowBring onFailEnterSetAchieveTrainEnhancetake

The leadBest

A substitute

A record

A whistle

A competitionYour

performance

a drugs testhard

your ambition

Exercise 3 There are six verbs + noun errors in this email Find and correctthem

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