The Lexical Approach And Collocations

The Lexical come along And collocationsCollocations be delivery which if wee-wee together, lead right to native side of meat speakers. Eg Fast food. Any distinguishable combination may sound wrong and unnatural. Eg quick food. Collocations be non wrangle which we put together. They co-occur natur whollyy. Collocation is the bearing in which spoken communication co-occur in natural text in statistically solid ways. (Lewis, Teaching Collocation 2000132).For Thornbury, juxtaposition is a continuum that moves from compound says ( southward-hand), through and through lexical chunks (bits and pieces), including idioms (out of the blue) and phrasal verbs (do up), to collocations of more than or less rooted(p)ness (set a new world record) (Thornbury S. 2002, How to teach phrase, Longman).Collocations have different strengths Weak and absolute collocations. Weak collocations involve actors line which back co-occur with umteen other(a) intelligence agencys. E.g Re d shirt. They can apply the colour red to m whatever other words eg red car, red door. Strong collocations have words which near never occur separately much(prenominal) as the collocation spic and span and rancid butter. There ar also Unique collocations e.g, shrug shoulders. These ar unique because the verb (shrug) is not utilise with any other noun.Medium-strength collocations coincide a conversation, a minor operation. Hill argued that medium-strength collocations be most alpha for the ESL classroom. (Lewis, M., 2000 63)Thornbury widens the definition of collocation, labeling that collocation is not a frozen descent and both collocates may even be separated from each other, eg mystify off The company is laying more workers off. Lewis and other writers divide collocations into two types grammatical collocation and lexical collocation. (Lewis2000)Grammatical Collocation Eg step intoIn the warning above, a verb collocates with a preposition. Therefore grammatical colloc ations are lexical words such as an adjective, verb or noun (in our case step), which are unite with a grammatical word (preposition into).Lexical Collocation Eg b overleap chocolateLexical collocations are items where two lexical words regularly and naturally occur together. Bahns (ELTJ 47/1 1993) stated that although some lexical collocations are quite direct and obvious in their blottoing, others are not. In our congressman, black coffee berry clearly indicates that there is no milk in the coffee but Bahns states that collocations which are not direct eg lay off are the mavens which cause the most problems to non-native speakers since their meaning are hidden.The importance of collocations in L2 eruditionMany agree that collocations are important in address swindleing. crowd together Carl (1998) stated that employ collocations the right way contributes greatly to wizards idiomaticity and native the likeness. 6 Lewis stated that articulateness is based on the acquis ition of a large stash away of resolved or semi-fixed prefabricated items. 7 Sonaiya (1988) went even further, saying that lexical errors are more serious because effective communication depends on the choice of words. 8Collocations, are found in most of what we say, hear, call for or write. All of these fixed expressions are stored and memorised empathizey to be used when necessitate. If we want to retrieve these ready-to-use expresss, lexical items must be aqcuired first by being exposed to, plow and reading them for a government issue of times. In theory, good quality remark might lead to good quality retrieval. This in return leave dish learners to be more fluent because they can recognise multi-word units quite than word by word.A lexical item, which is any item that functions as a single meaning unit, regardless of its different derived forms, or of the number of words that bump off it, has an important role in learnedness a wording. (Thornbury, An A-Z of ELT (Oxford Macmillan, 2006), pg120).The importance of collocations in L2 learning was a concept that the Lexical Approach had proposed.The Lexical Approach and collocationsThe lexical approach encourages learners to identify and learn collocations as lexical items rather than individual words. For example catch a cold, is seen as a single unit of meaning (or multi-word unit) and not as common chord individual words with three individual meanings. According to Schmidt (CUP,2000), having words in lexical phrases rather than individually, reflects the way the mind stores and chunks language to reach it easier to process.The lexical approach influenced the way we perceive lexis, the way we teach it and how we encourage learners to learn it . Vocabulary choice in language, is not haphazard but predictable. Lewis gives an example of drinking, telling us that the speaker may use the verb have. The amountener can predict several words which collocate with it tea, coffee,orange juice and so forth simply on the other hand, the magnetic inclinati acener does not predict words like shampoo. 9One of the beliefs behind the Lexical Approach is that language is not made up of only traditional expression and grammar but prefabricated multi-word chunks. In other words, language consists of grammaticalized lexis and not lexicalized grammar. Rather than having a program which is only grammar based, the lexical approach emphasises that lexis should be at the centre of language learning.The lexical approach posits that an congenital part of acquiring language is to comprehend and produce lexical chunks. These chunks help learners to baffle patterns of language traditionally eyeshot of as grammar (Lewis,The Lexical Approach 1993, p. 95)._____________________________________________________________________________________6James, Carl. (1998). Errors in language learning and use. capital of the United Kingdom Longman.7 Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the lexical approach. Hove diction Teaching Publications.8 Sonaiya, C. (1988). The lexicon in arcsecond language acquisition A lexical approach to error analysis. PhD Thesis. Cornell University.9, 10 Lewis, Michael, Teaching Collocation (Hove Language Teaching Publications, 2000) pg5Different types of Collocation taken from Howert (1996), Carter(1987) and Mc.Carthy ODell(2005), here are types of collocationsFree CombinationThe verbs can collocate with more words to form different meanings.Example hitI result render it clear from the beginning ( relieve oneself something clear)I will dupe him apt ( support happy)In this case, they may consist of modal verbs such as make,do, have, get,take + any type of word.Restricted CombinationThese collocations are typically nouns, adjectives or verbs which go to together with particular words. Using other words with them make them sound incorrect to the native speaker.(i) Adjective + noun E.g Her condition was a major problem.(ii) Adverb + verb E.g He cheekily repl ied I dont care(iii) Verb + noun E.g Weve decided to move house.(iv) Noun + verb E.g The brakes screeched as he tried to stop the car.(v) Noun + noun Usually these collocations have the pattern a.of E.g She was property a basket of eggs.Delexicalised VerbsEvery language has basic verbs which are oftentimes used. The English language is no exception and we can find dissimilar frequent verbs (Svartvik and Ekedahl 1995) (The Verb in Contemporary English Theory and Description, CUP 1995)DoMakeHaveTakeGoGetE.gIt is interesting to mark that these high frequency verbs in the examples are often used as Delexicalised Verbs. These delexicalised verbs have meaning when combined with other words. In other words de-lexicalised verbs have little meaning alone but if joined together with other words, they can generate a wider variety of new meaningsEgdo your bestmake roomhave lunchtake a showergo for a walkget dressedDelexicalised verbs make doWhat is interesting to the highest degree these t wo verbs is that, Mc.Carthy ODell (20056) describe these two verbs as everyday verbs and dedicate a whole page on make and do. This clearly shows that they are very high frequency verbs in English and they probably cause a lot of confusion to learners as closely In their books index, both verbs have more than 60 different collocates each. The verbs make and do in concomitant like many high frequency verbs, enters into numerous collocations and idioms.Language ChunkingMake your bed is a pile up of two words Verb+Noun (Make + bed). This delexicalised verb is a language chunk which is a pre-fabricated language item in a formulaic way, which is indeed stored as a single lexical unit (and not two individual units). By storing as a single lexical unit, it is believed to quicken the mental bear on of the speaker when speaking, reading and when acquiring language. The designer why it quickens this mental impact when producing language is because rather than having to connect indiv idual word units together one by one (do and bed), the speaker can retrieve the chunk needed at one go and reduce mental processing time.Language chunking therefore is believed to help language fluency by combine other chunks to create longer ready-to-use phrases. I tend to agree with this onus belief of the Lexical Approach because when I give a phrase to learners such as Make a list of things or have in mind to do your homework learners seem to retrieve and use these given ready-to-use phrases correctly to create their consume decrys and meanings. Once learners understand the meaning behind the phrase, they store it in their mental lexicon. If used regularly, there is a high adventure it will help fluencycy and reduce mental processing time when speaking.Problems learners have with delexicalised verbsAlthough they come naturally to native speakers, collocations formed with delexicalised verbs can be rather tricky. Some of the main problems that low level learners experience are as follows (go to 11. Coll pg4) (12.Coll pg4)They have never been exposed to or made aware of collocations in their learning experiences.Learners often have problems with these verbs because they try to find a familiar meaning.They often struggle to find the right collocation, often translating possible equivalents from their own language. E.g make a photo.Learners find it difficult to goldbrick collocations because they are arbitrary.Teachers are partly to blame because as Carter and McCarthy post out, vocabulary study has been overleap by linguists, applied linguists and language teachers(1988 1). Therefore teachers need to return collocations such as delexicalised verbs to learners to help them become more and more familiar with the different uses of make and do for example.In fact, McCarthy tells us that in vocabulary pedagogy there is a high importance of collocation (199012). The way collocation teaching is neglected in ESL classroom and the insufficient input of the come out language may be a reason why learners lack a knowledge of collocation. One reason why teachers do not give such importance to collocation is because they pure tone safer when they teach grammar because they feel they know the rules and can explain them. Collocations are arbitrary and this leads us to the second problemCollocations are arbitrary and are decided by assemblage instead of rules. Many learners have been exposed to learning languages in a systematic way i.e there is an explanation, rules and reasoning behind each grammar point eg the first conditional if + present simple, will + infinitive. Because they are used to learning languages in a grammatical way, learners find it difficult to accept that some words collocate while others do not and that there is no reason for this other than it is what native speakers say.Many learners ask me Why cant I say make a photo instead of take a photo? I used to feel rather unprofessional having to say because thats the way it is. Now I say because take goes together with a photo make does not. That is the way language is naturally and natively spoken as I have already commented in section A.In fact, McCarthy verbalise that knowledge of collocational appropriacy is part of native speakers competence. (McCarthy, M.1990Vocabulary. Oxford Oxford University Press.199013). Therefore, being aware of collocations and accepting them as a window to the natural way of speaking the language is all important(p) in learning a language. One has to admit that some are not so short to learn. In fact, Benson (1985) clearly stated that collocations are arbitrary and non-predictable, so much so that even native speakers sometimes have to double check before deciding if a word collocates with a particular word or not.When learners are confronted with collocations like to make a err, learners resort to translation from L1 to understand why we use make and not do as in many other languages. until now this leads to mi suse of the collocation or creation of word combinations which are non-existant in English. Eg My Italian learners sometimes say do a mistake because in their language they only have one verb, fare, which resembles make or do. literally translated, fare una torta is do a cake from Italian to English.Lexical verbs such as make or do require memorising whole lists of words that can collocate with them. I sympathise with learners, who have to face many complicated and difficult lexicalised verbs, which have meaning differences in various(a) contexts. Furthermore, combinations of delexicalised words are less likely to explain clearly what they mean in translation and thus are more error-prone in learner language (Lewis 1993, Nesselhauf 2005).When my learners tell me its impossible to learn all of these phrases by heart, I have to admit that I understand them. Collocation books like McCarthy ODells English Collocations In Use (CUP2005), present the delexicalised verbs make and do in a way that makes a learner feel that he/she has to learn the phrases by heart. A similiar example of such a list is one belowTo make an apologyTo do your homeworkTo make a cakeTo do the dishesTo make breakfastTo do the airstreamTo make your bedTo do your bestTo make a listTo do your nails and hairTo make a mistakeTo do the ironing, washing, cooking, etc.To make plansTo do a jobLearners need ways to record the meanings of the lexicalised verbs as the ones above. It is difficult enough difficult to think of grammar needed, word syntax, vocabulary and so on when trying to construct a sentence in L2 learning, let alone trying to bring forward and above all retrieve the right collocation needed.Problems learners have with delexicalised verbsMaking learners aware of delexicalised verbsBy helping learners to notice collocation, they can acquire vocabulary building skills eg big businessman to list and categorize lexis. It also encourages them to become autonomous learners. One way of he lping learners develop the habit of paying attention to chunks, rather than still individual words, when reading is by helping them make informed guesses about what word goes with do or make.Inside Out Elementary (Macmillan16) presents a day in the life of a man and a woman. Having guessed who does what, learners read the text to check if they guessed correctly. The text includes a lot of collocations with make or do. Learners then are asked to form common expressions with make or do from the textThe most homework the bedsThe shopping dinnerThe washing up the most noiseLearners have a speaking practice with make or do by saying who does or makes what in the house, apply the same prompts given in the above exercise. Eg My mother does the shopping and we make our beds etc move to make sense of make and doAlthough it is not easy to learn collocations of make and do, McCarthy ODell in English Collocations in Use (CUP2005 18) present us with some of the most common phrases with these two delexicalised verbs. In fact they call them Everyday verbs. It includes a list of collocations of make and do and an example on the side. EgCollocationExampleMake an excuseIm too jade to go out tonight. Lets make an excuse and stay homeDo your hairIm not ready I havent done my hair thoTo practice them, I would cut out the collocations and examples into separate strips. In pairs, learners would then have to try to put the example and collocation together, by trying to make sense of them. Once they have been corrected in class, I would give them a questionnaire from Collocations in Use (pg19). Having been exposed to the collocations needed in the previous activity, they have to fill in the question with either do or make, answer it and then go round and ask the questions to their classmates.Trying to find the right collocation to useTo help learners practice and be a bit more confident in their use of collocations, I like to use an activity which Lewis proposed in Teaching Coll ocation (Hove112). fundamentally learners have to put in the missing verb in the collocations. This will help them to minimize their mistakes as our Italians made I do a mistake...a mistake 2. .your homeworka statement your hairan observation what you have to doAlternatively, I can give the activity some context by giving learners the activity found on page 100 in Language to go Intermediate. Here learners have to complete the text using make or do. This will help them to see how the collocation is used in a context.Helping them to recommend the collocationsTo recall what theyve learnt, learners need remember what theyve learnt. Thornbury 3 states that learning is remembering, which clearly shows how important memory is in learning a language. The same principle applies to collocations.One way of helping learners to remember the collocations is by revising them as much as possible . one particular activity that I like to use to recycle collocations that were met in class is Run n G rab. I divide learners into teams and I read out the end of the collocation eg an apology. I write down Do and Make on the board. Learners have to run to the board to circle which one they think goes with the ending of my collocation. Whoever gets most points wins.ConclusionPersonally, I feel that the lexical approach has taught me a lot about vocabulary. Rather than seeing vocabulary as individual items, I can now help my learners with vocabulary by using chunks. In this case, collocations which are in themselves chunks, are essential in language learning. By frequently exposing, raising -consciousness and helping them to memorize collocations, I feel that I am appreciating more the importance of lexis in language learning.