1) Collocation describes the relationship between words that often appear together in certain patterns or combinations. 2) There are strong, weak, and medium strength collocations, and learners may have problems with collocations due to their native language or learning words in isolation. 3) Teachers can help students learn collocations by making them aware of collocations in texts, teaching individual collocations, and providing activities that involve practicing collocations.

2. Lexical Approach
Choosing our words carefully in certain
situations is more important than choosing
grammatical structures (Harmer 1991).
We cannot use structures
correctly if we do not have
enough vocabulary knowledge.
Collocation describes the relationship between
words that often appear together. They include
structural patterns that resemble traditional grammar
and combinations of words that simply go together.

3. Types of Collocations

4. Categories for collocations
Strong Weak Medium strength
A large number of These are words which These are words that
collocations are strong co-occur with a greater go together with a
or very strong. For than random greater frequency
example, frequency. than weak collocations.
we most commonly talk Many things can be Some examples
of rancid butter, long or short, cheap are: hold a meeting;
but that does not mean or expensive, good or carry out a study.
that other things bad.
cannot be rancid.

5. Learners’ difficulties with collocations
1. Learners may have intralingual problems. For
example, instead of many thanks, they might incorrectly
use several thanks.
2. Learners may make negative transfer from their mother
tongue. For example, become lovers instead of fall in love.
3. When students learn words through definitions or in
isolation, their chances of using appropriate collocations or
remembering the words decrease.
4. When students read texts, they may not recognize
collocations as meaningful phrases, which would inhibit
their understanding of the text.

6. Teaching collocations
Make students aware of collocations.
Teaching individual collocations.
Storing collocations.

7. Activities to raise students’
awareness of collocations
1. Ask 2. After they have read a
learners to text, learners can be given a set of
underline incomplete phrases taken from the
chunks they text and asked to complete them by
can find in a scanning the text again. This can be
text. done at any level.
5. Give
3. To 4. After they
students
encourage have seen
phrases in
student certain
their native
autonomy, collocations in
language and
have a text, learners
equivalent
students do can be asked
phrases in
dictionary to find pairs of
English, and
work to find collocations
ask students
certain arranged
to match the
collocations. randomly.
phrases.

8. Activities to practice collocations
Learners of Learners can be given a Intermediate and
different levels text or some sentences higher-level
can be given that include collocational students can try to
gapped texts to errors and asked to find synonyms
fill in with the correct them using which can
correct collocation dictionaries. collocate with
collocation. certain words.
Students from A brainstorming
different levels activity can be
can create gap- done to let
fill or matching students revise
exercises for collocations
each other. containing a
particular word.