Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach

EFL Lexical Chunk Teaching in Chinese Senior High School: Current Practices and Challenges

“…These chunks have been shown to enhance authentic language input, memory, retention, and output. However, EFL students often struggle to produce chunks naturally, due to a lack of guidance from teachers and insufficient exposure to English (Lewis, 2000;Takač, 2008). The interview data in this study suggests that teachers in senior high school may only be superficially teaching lexical chunks, but this does not necessarily mean that the teachers are to blame.…”

“…However, this can discourage autonomous students from attempting to use lexical chunks. According to Lewis (2000), students' collocational mistakes provide teachers with an opportunity to effectively expand and organize learners' lexicons. Instead of spending a lot of time correcting students' spelling or grammatical errors, teachers can focus on collecting common collocational mistakes and using them to teach lexical chunks more effectively.…”

“…Vocabulary learning is a challenging and ongoing process that students must undertake on their own, with teachers assisting through "careful planning and well-directed teaching" (Nation, 2003, p. 150). While teaching can be organized in a linear fashion, learning is more complex and non-linear (Lewis, 2000). Therefore, it is important for teachers and policymakers to recognize that a strict adherence to certain rules and regulations may not align with the nature of learning.…”

“…To improve language learners' skills, it is necessary to provide them with exposure to idiomatic words and expressions. Lewis (2000) argued that the main distinction between intermediate and advanced EFL learners lies in the size of their mental lexicon, rather than their mastery of grammar. Therefore, the key to language learning is not simply acquiring the meanings of individual words or understanding grammar, but rather understanding the dynamic and inherent connections between separate words.…”

Are collocations worth teaching in adult learner English as a foreign language (EFL) classes?

“…60-63) recommends that the following aspects of a new vocabulary item must be taught to the students: 1 -form: pronunciation and spelling, 2 -grammar: if it is regular or irregular, transitive or intransitive, its plural and singular forms, etc., 3 -collocation, 4 -aspects of meaning: denotation, connotation, appropriateness, 5 -meaning relationships: synonyms, antonyms, co-hyponyms, superordinates, translation, and 6 -word formation: if it can be broken down to its components. In vocabulary teaching, Woolard (2000) gives collocations a special role and emphasizes that ,, learning more vocabulary is not just learning new words, it is often learning familiar words in new combinations" (p. 31). Correct collocating makes English more fluent and professional, and makes it easier for native speakers understand foreign language learners' speech.…”