The Importance of Collocation in English Language Teaching - Anna Kozlowski and Linda Seymour

Kozlowski, A., & Seymour, L. (2003). The importance of collocation in English language teaching. From
Theory to Practice: Creating Intermediate ESL Reading Materials Based on Current SLA Research and
Theories, 41.

Every individual word in a language has its own range of collocates (i.e. words that often occur
together), which limits its meaningful usage. Equivalents in other languages rarely, if ever, have the
same range of collocates. Learners tend to subconsciously group foreign language words according to
the patterns of their native languages, producing unconventional, instead of conventional, word
combinations. This practice often results in incorrect and awkward language.

During the process of reception, meaning can be decoded from form and context; however, single words
adequate for reception are not enough to produce correct and fluent language because rules of
combining words are conventional. The store of receptive signs cannot be transformed into the store of
productive signs without adding thousands of matrices of such ready-made items as collocations and
sentences. Errors in transmitting messages are most often a consequence of insufficient knowledge of
longer word combinations.

In view of these facts, it was concluded that in order to prevent such mistakes and to diminish native
language interference, systematic vocabulary learning with an emphasis on unconventional word
groupings should be stressed. Under no circumstances can one attain proficiency in a foreign language
without extensive knowledge of its vocabulary.

The Importance of Collocation

Collocation constitutes a large part of our mental lexicons

Linguists and teachers now attach far greater importance to the role memory plays in acquiring
language. According to recent research, our mental lexicons are extremely large. First-language learners
have the ability to store in their heads huge amounts of memorized text, mathematical formulae,
addresses, telephone numbers, dates, poetry, proverbs, idioms, names and quotes to name but a few.
These can be quickly and easily retrieved when required. “Estimates vary but it is possible that 70% of
what we say, hear, read or write is to be found in some form of fixed expression………….two, three, four
and even five-word collocations make up a huge percentage of all naturally occurring text. “(Teaching
Collocation; Further Developments in the Lexical Approach by Michael Lewis)

Collocation enables students to express ideas clearly and accurately

Collocation improves writing

Second-language learners often produce language that is awkward and unnatural. One way of helping
students to improve their writing is to get them to focus on this awkward language and to replace it with
appropriate collocations. The following extracts were taken from TOEFL essays. While reviewing the
essays, students were asked to think of collocations that would replace the underlined parts of the
sentences with more natural language.
  According to Kozlowski, A., & Seymour, L. (2003), since L2 learners normally tend to produce
unnatural language, focusing on using appropriate collocations can help them improve their
writing and speaking as it makes the language sound more natural.
It has been shown that it would be a rapid progress in learning a language to beginners,
however, when they reach higher levels, it gradually has a tendency to become plateau and
having the ability to use wide range of collocations to produce accurate and natural language
can help L2 learners surpass this situation.

Collocation can help students surpass that intermediate plateau

Students often become discouraged at the upper-intermediate level. At the beginner level, progress is
often rapid. However, when they reach the upper intermediate level, what is required is not so much
mastery of grammatical structure but improvement of collocation competence. Being able to use a wide
range of collocations greatly improves what they can write and say. The ability to produce accurate and
natural language makes students excited and eager to learn, boosts learner confidence and allows
students to think quickly and communicate effectively.

Collocation improves rhythm and stress

When students memorize longer collocation patterns, they can also improve stress and intonation. This
is much more effective than practising the stress and intonation of individual words because it makes
language sound more natural. When native speakers listen to a play or a poetry reading of Shakespeare
or Chaucer, they may not understand what every word or phrase means. However, if the actors or
speakers can chunk the language correctly, it results in a general understanding of what is being said.
Being able to produce a large number of collocations and longer patterns enables students to learn the
stress patterns of whole phrases, and leads to better stress and intonation. Chunking language can be
practised in the classroom by reading aloud and also by using songs and jazz chants.

Collocation equips students for the future

It should be stressed that learning a language is a never-ending process. Training students to notice,
record and learn language habitually, as part of an ongoing learning strategy, will ensure that they
continue to improve and enrich their language long after they have left the confines of the ESL
classroom.

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Ünver, M. M. (2018). Lexical collocations: issues in teaching and ways to raise awareness. European
Journal of English Language Teaching.

Collocations, making an important percentage of written and spoken language, help speakers make
accurate choices (Ünver, 2018). Therefore, as Firth (1957) stated long ago, “You shall know a word by
the company it keeps.” (cited in Vasiljevic, 2014). Later, Lewis (2000) and Nation (1990) provide support
to this remark by stating that knowing a word includes knowing its collocations.
  As Firth (1957), who is considered the father of collocation, stated “You shall know a word by the
company it keeps.”
Collocations make up an essential part of written and spoken language ( Ünver, 2018).
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(McCarthy, 1990).

“Language are full strong collocational pairs and, therefore, collocation deserves to be a central aspect
of vocabulary study”

“Knowledge of collocational appropriacy is part of native speakers’ competence, and can be problematic
for learners in cases where collocability is language – specific and does not seem solely determined by
universal semantic constraints. Even very advanced learners often make inappropriate or unacceptable
collocations.”

 Collocational knowledge is recognized to play an important role in second language acquisition as

well as native speakers’ competence as collocational pairs appear with very high frequency in language;
therefore, it should be a core part of vocabulary study. (McCarthy, 1990)

Rao, V. C. S. (2018). The importance of collocations in teaching of vocabulary. Journal of research

scholars and professionals of English language teaching, 7(2), 1-8.

Learners of English are more concerned about how to expand their vocabulary in order to increase the
number of words they can remember. Learning collocations is inevitable part of vocabulary acquisition.
They should know the use and importance of collocations in language acquisition. By learning
collocation, they are able to: • Improve language use • Use native like expressions • Express their ideas
with greater power • Improve writing sophistication • Further develop their language proficiency

It is a widely accepted idea that collocations are very important part of knowledge of second language
acquisition and they are essential to non-native speakers of English in order to speak or write fluently
and accurately (Jaén, 2007).

Importance of Collocations

Learners should know the importance of collocations for the language acquisition and communicative
competence. James Carl (1998) stated that using collocations correctly "contributes greatly to one's
idiomaticity and nativelikeness." Lewis stated that "fluency is based on the acquisition of a large store of
fixed or semi-fixed prefabricated items." Sonaiya (1988) went even further, saying that "lexical errors
are more serious because effective communication depends on the choice of words." According to
Applied linguistics scholars, ‘A key element of natural fluency in English is mastery of collocations in both
their oral and written forms.’ Collocations are a class of idiomatic expression, containing two or more
words that commonly, and for arbitrary reasons, occurring together as a standard unit of meaning, such
as ‘heavy rain’ but not strong rain and ‘many thanks’ but not several thanks. Collocations are important
since they make English language sound natural and native-like.

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Although advanced learners are the ones that use more collocations, when compared to
native speakers they produce a bit over half of the amount of collocations used by native
speakers (Yoon, 2016; Laufer and Waldman, 2011). Therefore, these results sustain the
claim that collocations are an issue for L2 learners even in more advanced levels

 In some studies, it is proved collocations are still problematic for L2 learners since even
advanced learners produce a bit over half of the amount of collocations used by native speakers
(Yoon, 2016; Laufer and Waldman, 2011).

The first one is presented by Men (2018) and Revier (2008) which
shows that it seems that there is a bigger increase in the use of collocations between lower level
to intermediate level, than from intermediate to advanced. Another issue discussed in these
papers is that even though advanced students use more collocations than lower level students,
they do not show lexical variety (Wang & Shaw, 2008; Granger & Bestgen, 2014, Granger,
1998), this means that advanced students tend to repeat the same collocations

 Some studies has shown that there seems to be a greater increase in the use of collocations
between lower level to intermediate level than that from intermediate to advanced level. (Men,
2018; Revier, 2008)
 Although learners with high proficiency level use more collocations than lower level students,
they do not show the collocation variety (Wang & Shaw, 2008; Granger & Bestgen, 2014,
Granger,1998) and they even make inappropriate collocations (Laufer, 2011).

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Kjellmer, G. (1987). Aspects of English collocations. In Corpus linguistics and beyond (pp. 133-140). Brill.

Kjellmer (1987:133) stated that “collocations are indispensble and ubiquitous ellements of any English
text”

Apart from looking up collocations, learners utilize dictionaries for a variety of reasons,
including meaning, spelling, and part of speech (Nesselhauf 2005). However, checking
collocation only accounted for one-tenth of all dictionary usage, according to Atkins and
Varantola's research in 1997. According to Lew's (2004) study on the use of dictionaries by
Polish learners, 43.8% claimed that they hardly ever used collocation dictionaries for translation
tasks.
Yuzhen Chen (2016) discovered that dictionaries considerably increased the understanding of
useful collocations for Chinese English majors, however, much of what they had learned through
the dictionary was lost after one week. Furthermore, the participants had little understanding of
how to use online dictionaries effectively. They had trouble differentiating between entry
subsenses, tended to choose the sense that was stated first in the list, and were prone to losing
patience when they faced excessive entry information. Additionally, many were unwilling to use
the electronic dictionary's hyperlink feature to seek for additional relevant material or too
careless to notice it.

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Collocational knowledge is recognized as an important part in second language

acquisition as well as native speakers’ competence as collocational pairs appear with very
high frequency in language; therefore, it should be a core part of vocabulary study
(McCarthy, 1990). As Firth (1957), who is considered the father of collocation, stated
“You shall know a word by the company it keeps.” Kjellmer (1987) also claimed that
“collocations are indispensble and ubiquitous ellements of any English text”. Therefore,
Applied linguistics scholars recommend that a critical factor of natural fluency in English
is “mastery of collocations in both their oral and written forms”. According to Sonaiya
(1988), “lexical errors are more serious because effective communication depends on the
choice of words.”, however, learners normally tend to produce unnatural language, using
appropriate collocations can help them improve their writing and speaking as it makes the
language sound more natural (Kozlowski & Seymour, 2003). Kozlowski & Seymour’
study has also indicated that it is a rapid progress in learning a language to beginners,
nevetheless, when they reach higher levels, it gradually has a tendency to become
plateau. Having the ability to use wide range of collocations to produce accurate and
natural language is beneficial for L2 learners to improve their language expertness.

Besides that, collocational knowledge is one of the criteria of the disparity between native
speakers and foreign language learners (James, 1998). As depicted in some studies,
collocations are still problematic for L2 learners even advanced learners since they
produce a bit over half of the amount of collocations used by native speakers (Yoon,
2016; Laufer and Waldman, 2011). Hence, using collocation appropriately makes a great
contribution to one’s native – like ability (James, 1998). These literature seems to support
the view that by learning collocations, L2 learners can further enhance their native – like
language proficiency to express their ideas with greater power (Rao, 2018).

Kjellmer, G. (1987). Aspects of English collocations. In Corpus linguistics and beyond (pp. 133-
140). Brill.
Kozlowski, A., & Seymour, L. (2003). The importance of collocation in English language
teaching. From Theory to Practice: Creating Intermediate ESL Reading Materials Based on
Current SLA Research and Theories, 41.

Laufer, Batia, & Waldman, Tina 2011. Verb-noun collocations in second language writing: A
corpus analysis of learners’ English. Language Learning, 61(2), page. 647-672.

McCarthy, M. (1990). Vocabulary. Oxford University Press.

Sonaiya, O. C. (1988). The lexicon in second language acquisition: A lexical approach to error

analysis. Cornell University.

Rao, V. C. S. (2018). The importance of collocations in teaching of vocabulary. Journal of

research scholars and professionals of English language teaching, 7(2), 1-8.

Yoon, H. J. 2016. Association strength of verb-noun combinations in experienced NS and less

experienced NNS writing: Longitudinal and cross-sectional findings. Journal of Second
Language Writing, 34, 42-57.