Lesson_Planning

Teaching Collocations for IELTS (International English Language Testing System) Exam A. Teaching Collocations No piece of natural spoken or written English is free of collocations. A student who chooses the best collocation will express himself more clearly and will be able to express not just a general meaning, but something quite defined. For passing IELTS it is paramount to use a variety of words with adequacy and appropriacy. One also needs the ability to equivocate (get round a vocabulary gap by using other words) without noticeable hesitation. According to Nation P. (2001) ‘Knowing words involves knowing what words typically go with it’. We can speak our first language fluently as we choose word sequences that make us sound like native speakers. A.1 Collocations and EFL Carter and McCarthy (1988) claim that 'vocabulary study has been neglected by linguists, applied linguists and language teachers’. Nevertheless, McCarthy (1990) tells us that 'in vocabulary teaching there is a high importance of collocation', and describes that 'the relationship of collocation is fundamental in the study of vocabulary, and collocation is an important organising principle in the vocabulary of any language’. The above quotes make two points relevant to the EFL learner. First, those collocational relations are an important part of the language to be mastered. Second, that it is an area which requires special, systematic attention. Apart from the unpredictability and low generalability of collocations, another factor that poses difficulties for learners is that “in many cases, one language will use a multi-word where another language employs a single lexeme” (Lyons, 1977).’(McCarthy 1990 and Lyons 1977 cited in Costas Gabrielatos (1994). A.2 Class Profile IELTS, the English proficiency test, consists of four parts that test your command over four basic aspects of English i.e. Reading, Listening, Writing and Speaking. You are gauged on a scale of 9, known as bands. The minimum band requirement differs for different countries and for that you need to check out the latest requirement with the embassies or the universities. More Information is available in APPENDIX A and on http://www.ielts.org IELTS tests the complete range of English language proficiency skills required by the students and those seeking immigration to English speaking countries. All candidates take the same Listening and Speaking Modules. There is an option of either Academic or General Training Reading and Writing Modules depending upon the reason of taking the test. Academic Module is suitable for candidates planning to undertake higher education while the General Training Module is suitable for candidates planning to immigrate or to work. IELTS is jointly managed by University of Cambridge ESOL (English Speakers of Other Languages) Examinations, British Council UK and IDP Education Australia. Cambridge ESOL is responsible for designing the test and evaluating the aspirants while the other two bodies administer the test because of their giant network all over the world. Countries that recognize IELTS are Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada, Various other commonwealth countries and USA. Reason for learning English: Want to score well in the Academic Training Module of IELTS. By scoring well in this exam the students want to get admission to undergraduate and post graduate courses in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK and USA. Course: IELTS Coaching Course Taught at Chandigrah in India Class Size: 20-25 Students Age: 21-23 years Gender: Mixed Class Education level: Graduates L1: Hindi, Thai, Urdu and Punjabi Level: Advanced Intermediate Course Duration: Six months (Intensive) - For teaching all the four skills of IELTS Reading, Speaking, listening and writing. Language Learning Experience: Most of them have learned another language like Sanskrit, Punjabi, and Malayalam. Motivation for students to learn English: To Score high in IELTS Aim for teachers: To increase the pass percentage  Family Background: The students are from affluent families as in India only people from affluent families can afford their children’s education abroad. A.3 Role of Collocations: The role collocations play, in second language teaching is integrally related with a concept introduced in the 1970s, according to which language is learned in a series of pre-fabricated blocks or chunks, defined by Lewis (1994) as ‘unanalyzed wholes’. These chunks are said to be the basic data, by which learners identify patterns in a language. Previously, this function was attributed to grammar, which was regarded a necessary condition for successful communication It was not however until over a century later that these observations were appreciated and applied in teaching vocabulary, featuring very largely in the ‘lexical approach’ theory. Both native speakers and second language learners are more prone to store and retrieve whole chunks rather than create them from scratch. Thus, collocation being a category of such chunks called ‘multi-word’ items plays a crucial role in acquiring foreign language. Lewis (1997) in his ‘lexical approach’ theory points out that fluency in a foreign language is conditioned by the acquisition of a number of pre-fabricated chunks. He also regards collocation as a central feature of a language production. Therefore, students’ attention should be fully directed to it. According to Pawley and Syder (1983) ‘Native speakers have hundreds of thousands of prepackaged phrases in their lexical inventory, the implications for second language learning is uncertain. How might second language learners, lacking the language experiential vase of native speakers, approach the daunting task of internalizing this massive inventory of lexical usage'’ Lexical Resource required in IELTS The resources required for passing the exam: need a range of vocabulary the candidate can use and how clearly meanings and attitudes can be expressed' This includes the variety of words used and the ability to get round a vocabulary gap by expressing the idea in a different way. Three positions on the role of collocations: Role of Collocational Knowledge Extent Range of Focus Prototypical Activities Language Knowledge=Collocational Knowledge Collocational Knowledge is the main knowledge All Language Items Unanalyzed chunks and dividing up texts Fluent and appropriate use require chunks Collocational Knowledge is additional Knowledge Many long stretches of items Fluency Activities Some words have a limited set of collocates Some words require collocational knowledge Many words Study of concordances Source: Nation P (2001) pg. 327 A.4 Importance of Collocations: IELTS is one of the fastest growing English language tests in the world. With over a half a million people taking the test every year, there is a high demand for IELTS preparation services and courses. (Source of information www.IELTS.org). Many students who join the preparation courses have insufficient vocabulary to speak, read, write and listen in relation to the topics used in the exams. Therefore, an aim of any preparation course should be to build vocabulary in the topic areas to enable students to comprehend vocabulary they encounter in the reading and listening sections and to correctly use vocabulary in the writing and speaking sections. For teaching vocabulary one aspect of teaching includes adding vocabulary to the students’ mental lexicons, and the other aspect is to re-teach vocabulary that students have learnt incorrectly. The reason students have not learnt vocabulary correctly can be attributed to: learning word lists by translation (when often there is no one-to-one relationship); learning English words and expressions without a context provided; not learning everything there is to know (grammatical form, e.g. noun and its sub-class countable/uncountable) and not learning a word’s frequency or importance. According to Jimmie Hill, chapter in teaching collocations M Lewis (2000) Importance of Collocation 1) Lexicon is not arbitrary: The way the words combine in collocations it is fundamental to all language use. 2) Predictability 3) Size of Phrasal mental lexicon: 2, 3, 4 and even 5 word collocations make up a huge percentage of all naturally occurring text. 4) Role of memory: We memorize these and when they need to be used they are taken out of the memory and used in the most natural way 5) Helps in fluency: These are ready made chunks 6) Complex ideas are often expressed lexically 7) Collocation makes thinking easier 8) Recognizing chunks is essential for acquisition. A.5 Difficulties in Teaching Collocations: Lewis (2000) ‘claims that the number of collocations understood as word combinations is greater than the number of all words because the same words can occur in various collocations’. Furthermore, grammar rules are too general to be of any help for students judging whether a collocation is admissible or not. In consequence collocations provide more practical and precise instructions than general grammar rules. Those collocational patterns exemplify some variants which grammar rules do not embrace, e.g. usually uncountable noun weather can appear in the collocation out in all weathers in plural. As a result, the usage of collocation determines precision and pertinence of the speech. The arbitrariness of predicting which word goes also creates a problem in teaching Collocations. According to Alan Davies, Liz Hamp and Charlotte Kemp (2003) ‘The specimen Material are wider than the TOEFL Samples: ‘Micro-plate’,’ tremor’, ‘volcanologists’ ‘spasmodic’ etc. as compared to less demanding lexical items in the TOEFL Samples. There is a need to have a strong vocabulary bank in order to achieve good grades’. The same logic applies to all proficiency exams. A.6 How it fits into the overall needs of the target competence' : Need for learning collocations in IELTS · To improve fluency · To focus on word combinations in addition to – and sometimes instead of – single words. · To provide ‘chunks’ of English that are ready to use as they need this for clearing their tests · To increase motivation among students: among various linguistic elements that contribute to fluency collocation help the students to speak in sentences more confidently. Knowing a word cannot be limited to merely knowing its meaning; what is crucial is to know it collocational range as well. Jimmie Hill (1999) coined the term ‘collocational competence’. Learners have considerable difficulty developing collocational competence unless they can use multi-words successfully. If in their lexical corpus there are no ready-made chunks at their disposal, they have to generate them from scratch on the basis of grammar rules. This then leads to numerous mistakes. A wide range of meaningful chunks and collocations in the learner’s mental lexicon makes it possible to quickly find the right word. In addition, collocational competence enables students to produce texts which not only are grammatically correct or merely probable or hypothetical but, authentic, which means it is this collocation which a native speaker would use in this specific situation. Lewis(2000) ‘comes to a conclusion that only by expanding a range of memorized whole word combinations it is possible to achieve proficiency level in mastering the syntax of a second language’.  As the need in this course has various aspects of language that need to be taught, it is difficult to stick to one course book. So, I will be evaluating one workbook, one course book and a dictionary, which will help to teach the collocation part of vocabulary.  B. EVALUATION The three books that I will be evaluating are: 1. Check your vocabulary for English for the IELTS examination (2001)Wyatt Rawdon, Peter Collins Publishing 2. English Collocation In Use (2005) Micheal Mc Carthy and Felicity O’Dell 3. Oxford Collocation- Dictionary for students of English(, 2002) Eds. Jonathan Crowther, Sheila Dignen and Diana Lea. Oxford:Oxford University Press About five years back it was very difficult to get course books in India. After the upsurge in the economy in 2000, there are over 100 books available for preparation of IELTS. I am concentrating on the topic of teaching Collocation as a topic to help the students to get a better score in the exams. According to the survey carried out by Terry M (2003) he mentions ‘that the best preparation books are those that develop the linguistic competencies that will be required of the learners in their target contexts, as well as helping them to acquire the test-taking strategies that will facilitate a good performance in the test.’ He has taken the following criteria: 1. How effective will they be in promoting learning (Language Skills Development Criterion)' 2. How informative are they with regard to the IELTS Test (Test Preparation Criterion) 3. How user-friendly are they towards students and teachers (Flexibility)’ B.1. Check your Vocabulary for English for the IELTS, Rawdon Wyatt (2001), Peter Collins Publishing. 1.1 Over all look and feel: The material is interesting as it has been reviewed again in 2004 the first edition was printed in 2001. The book is aimed for intermediate to upper-intermediate students. The visual are appropriate and modern. The cost of the book is affordable by students. This work book has been written for students planning to sit for academic module. 1.2 Appropriateness: This book covers the main vocabulary points that are needed for the listening, reading, writing and speaking sections. This book has plenty of collocations to practice but in most places the term used is expressions. There is also a record sheet which is used to record new words and collocations – which is reviewed so that it becomes an active part of the vocabulary 1.3 Educational quality: Each module has task-based activities which then presents each vocabulary item in a real context. The module has three tasks first two present vocabulary in context and the third gives the opportunity to review 1.4 Teachability: Each vocabulary area is presented in a form of a self contained module. It has a systematic approach – the course gradually builds up the skills, language and exam techniques the students will need to deal successfully. The material is suitable for both self study and for teaching in class. Through out the book the students get reminded about the record sheet for the new words and expressions. The main problem with this workbook is that the teacher will have to introduce the concept and a term of collocation to the students as this workbook does not include any definitions of multi-words like collocations, idioms, Polywords etc. 1.5 Contents: · Acknowledgement · About this Workbook · General Vocabulary · Topic Specific Vocabulary · Answers. (Some excerpt of this book is attached as APPENDIX B) B.2. English Collocation In Use, Micheal Mc Carthy and Felicity O’Dell (2005), CUP 2.1 Overall look and feel: The book takes a suitably topic-driven approach, with sixty units covering areas such as music, films, eating and time. Each topic has two-page units – with presentations and explanations on the left and practice exercises on the right. . (As Shown in APPENDIX C) This book is ideal for intermediate level students and above who want to take their English to the next level. Presents and explains over 1,500 word combinations in typical contexts using tables, charts, short texts and dialogues. 2.2 Appropriateness The variety of practice activities is impressive. English Collocations in Use presents and practices hundreds of collocations in typical contexts. This book is good for self-study and for teaching in the class. 2.3 Educational Quality. The tips on learning strategies are very useful for learners who are using this as a self-study material. This book also helps the students with ways of avoiding common mistakes. The texts sometimes seem slightly artificial but provide essential context. But as they need to use as many collocations as they can in that paragraph in which they are presenting them, it seems to become a very unreal context. 2.4 Teachablilty: The ‘collocation web’ diagrams are useful. This book contains a comprehensive answer key and full index for easy reference. Compared to the Oxford collocation Dictionary in this book the most frequent and useful collocations are presented. These collocations are informed by the Cambridge International Corpus. ‘The Cambridge International Corpus (CIC) is a very large collection of English texts, stored in a computerised database, which can be searched to see how English is used. It has been built up by Cambridge University Press over the last ten years to help in writing books for learners of English.’ (Source:http://www.cambridge.org/elt/corpus/international_corpus.htm) 2.5 Contents: · Acknowledgement · Learning about Collocation · Grammatical aspects about collocation · Special aspects of collocations · Topics · Basic Concepts · Functions · Key · Index (Some excerpt of this book is attached as APPENDIX C) B.3. Oxford Collocation- Dictionary for students of English Eds. Jonathan Crowther, Sheila Dignen and Diana Lea. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 3.1 Overall look and feel: The page layout is clear. Collocations are grouped according to part of speech and meaning, and helps users pinpoint speedily the headword, sense and collocation they need. This Dictionary is aimed for upper-intermediate- advanced level students. It is affordable by the students for 395 Rs. 3.2 Appropriateness: Ten illustrated topic pages pull together collocations from areas such as sport, computing, music, and meetings, which are needed for IELTS training for speaking and writing. 3.3 Educational Quality: The dictionary shows all the words that are commonly used in combination with each headword: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions as well as common phrases. As Mentioned in APPENDIX D, over 50,000 examples show how the collocations are used in context, with grammar and register information where helpful. The inclusion of special sections (‘usage notes’ and ‘special pages’) which groups together words specific to one semantic area followed by their collocates, and the addition of ‘study pages’ with abundant collocation exercises 2.4 Teachablilty: The entries are laid out logically and are relatively intuitive. The headwords are in bold type and stand out clearly. Where a word has several senses, each has a separate sub-heading. Collocates are then grouped by parts of speech, and further grouped by the meaning of the actual collocation. A special electronic version of this dictionary is also available: Oxford Phrasebuilder Genie CD-ROM Dictionary Includes the Oxford Collocations Dictionary for learners of English, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, and the Oxford Collocations Exercise Bank. Designed to help students write fluent, natural sounding English, this interface allows students to see word meanings and collocations by pointing at a word with their cursor. The problem this dictionary has is that it does not give occurrence information about words or collocations. This means that learners do not get an indication about the frequency of which collocations would be most useful to learn. 2.5 Contents: · List of usage notes and special pages · Preface · Acknowledgements · Introduction · Guide to the entries · The dictionary (pages 1-892) · Study Pages; Ideas into words, using a noun entry, using a verb entry, using an adjective entry, common verbs, natural disasters, criminal justice, education, driving, politics, jobs, money · Key to the study pages (pages 893-897) Inside front cover; key to abbreviations, symbols and labels (Some excerpt of this book is attached as APPENDIX D) A. Coverage and section: Check your Vocabulary English Collocation In Use Oxford Collocation Dictionary Level Intermediate - Advanced Intermediate Upper Intermediate-Advanced Collocations Yes Yes Yes Collocations Exercise Yes Yes Yes Self Access mode Yes Yes Yes Class Mode Yes Yes Yes Teachers Notes No Yes No Key Yes Yes Yes Practice Test Yes No Yes Cassette/ CD ROM No No Yes B. Evaluation Assessment Criteria Check your Vocabulary English Collocation In Use Oxford Collocation Dictionary Appropriacy Designed for Academic module. Collocation and Test Practice Designed with presentations and explanations. Plenty of exercises to practice Topic-based illustrations. Affordable. Helps to find the suitable words quicker. Teachability It has task based activities-works best with introducing authentic material related to the task Teachers notes are very effective and the collocation web diagrams are very useful. Explains the grammatical aspects of collocations. The collocations are very logically placed. It is clearly laid out with headwords and sub-headings Educational Quality Each module is self-contained with vocabulary being introduced in valid contexts. The contexts use tables, charts, short texts and dialogues to present and explain the collocations. Electronic version also available. 50,000 examples to show how collocations are used. Main Drawback The teacher has no notes and there is no definition given for explaining the concept of collocations. It does not have practice test relevant for this exam Would have been a great resource book if they could include the frequency of which collocations would be most useful BIBLIOGRAPHY Alan Davies, Liz Hamp and Charlotte Kemp (2003) Whose norms' International proficiency tests, World Englishes, Vol. 22, No4 pp571-584 Bahns, J. (1993). Lexical collocations: a contrastive view. ELT Journal, 47(1), 56-63 Carter, R. and M. McCarthy. (1988) Vocabulary and Language Teaching. Harlow: Longman. Gabrielatos, C. (1994). Collocations: Pedagogical implications, and their treatment in pedagogical materials. Unpublished essay, research centre for english and applied linguistics, University of Cambridge. Hill, J. (1999). Collocational Competence, ETP April 1999 Issue 11 Lewis, M. (1994). The Lexical Approach: The State of ELT And A Way Forward, Language Teaching Publications. Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into Practice, Hove: Language Teaching Publications Lewis, M. (2000). Teaching Collocation: Further Development in the Lexical Approach, Hove: Language Teaching Publications McCarthy, M.(1990)Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nation P. (2001) Learning Vocabulary in another Language, Cambridge University Press Pawley A & F Syder (1983) Two puzzles for linguistic theory: native like selection and native like fluency, in J Richards & R Schmidt (eds) Language and Communication. London: Longman. Terry M. (2003), IELTS Preparation Material ELT Journal 57 PP 66-76, OUP Appendix A UOBD Speaking and Writing