1. ELT through
Rhythm and Rhyme
Collocation, Critical Thinking,
and the 3Rs
-------
Jason R. Levine, English Specialist

13. The Case of Ji Yeon Lee
“Yesterday I go a movie”
A vicious cycle keeps students
on the “intermediate plateau.”
Low input ➔ Low comprehension ➔
Low confidence ➔ Low motivation ➔
Low input

14. The FLUENT Cycle!
high input ➔ high comprehension ➔
high confidence ➔ high motivation ➔
high input

15. “Kids are like sponges.”

16. “Kids are like sponges.”
• Age
• Brain physiology
• Large amounts of repetitive input
• Relaxed
• Interested and engaged
• Not concerned with errors
• Can’t think analytically

17. Lola
“Play it again! Read it again!”
Reciting the alphabet, numbers,
and the days of the week.
Phrasal verbs and negative
questions.
“It’s not my fair!” “I do a mistake.”
“I brung you a present.”

18. QuickTime™ and a
H.264 decompressor
are needed to see this picture.

20. The Lexical Approach
“Language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not
lexicalized grammar.” - Michael Lewis
The fundamental building blocks of lexis are
collocations.
However: textbooks, worksheets, and flashcards
do not provide enough repeated exposure to
collocations.

21. Collocation =
A high-frequency
CHUNK of language
Collo =
Collocation

25. Two Important Types of Collos
(1) Verb + (Preposition) + Complement
fly a plane decide to study
listen to music give up smoking
(2) Adjective + (Preposition) + Complement
heavy traffic so much information
jealous of her happy to help

26. Mis-Collos
take the phone eat medicine have hunger
listen music ask to someone make a boyfriend
Hollow Collos
a tall mountain a bad noise
do a picnic clothe myself awake and arise

27. Make ______

28. Do ______

29. “What’s an uncountable noun?”
Teaching Collos can help teach
the grammar that native
speakers never learned.

31. Names and numbers Collo,
too!
Khartoum _____
Michael _____
8 x 7 = ______

33. Always ______
Just ______
Kentucky ______
I had to get Collos
stuck in their heads!

34. ColloCards

35. ColloTunes

36. When you
your time with
it’s easy to

37. The Baby and the Bathwater
• In its response to the Audio-Lingual Method,
Communicative Language Teaching ultimately
“threw the baby out with the bathwater.”
• An EFL student who lacks the ability to
automatically recall Collos, lacks the foundation
on which to build accurate and fluent
communicative skills.

38. Collo and SPARK!
Super-
Powered
Automatic
Recall of
Knowledge!

39. Collo
• An intuitive concept for students to grasp
• The bridge from words to sentences
• Leads to less analyzing and monitoring
• Promotes accuracy AND fluency
• Lays a foundation for critical thinking skills
• Fun to identify Collos and discuss them in class
• Students notice immediate improvement
Success is contingent upon sufficient input/intake
through repeated exposure.

40. It’s all about the 3Rs:
Relax
Repeat
Remember

41. Rehearsal
• Select the Collos your students need most to achieve
communicative goals.
• Rehearse Collos in class and assign as homework.
• Rehearse anytime, anywhere-a little bit each day (like
doing sit-ups!)
• Ideas to try: marking stress, using recorders, shadowing
native speakers’ speech
• Promote acquisition through meaningful repetition,
NOT memorization!
• Design communicative activities to get students building
sentences with the Collos they have rehearsed.

43. “Let’s build a base
to support higher thought
and hold on to all of the
things that we’re taught.”
-Fluency MC, “More of America”

44. Colloandspark.com Youtube.com/collolearn
Facebook.com/fluencymc
Twitter.com/fluencymc
Facebook.com/groups/improvespoken Linkedin.com/in/jaselevine
Facebook.com/englishlanguageteachingvideo collolearn@gmail.com