Collocation pelmanism

Collocation pelmanism

Submitted by TE Editor on 3 October, 2006 - 13:00

This activity follows on from the Think article Lexical exploitation of texts. It is often necessary to recycle new words several times in class before they become part of learners' active vocabulary, and the same is true of collocations. Whether the collocations are introduced through a text, as described in the article, or explicitly taught, the memory game pelmanism can provide a useful review activity in a later lesson.

Preparation
Three example sets of collocations are included below, as well as a template for producing your own. I have found that about twelve collocations (i.e. 24 cards to match in pairs) works well.

Procedure

• Give students, in groups of 3-4, a set of cut-up cards, and instruct them to place all the cards face-down and spread them out on the table.

• The first student turns over two cards. If the two cards form a strong collocation, he keeps the pair and has another go.

• If the cards do not collocate, he turns them over again, leaving them in the same position on the table, and the next student has a turn.

• The winner is the person who has most pairs at the end.

• In order to collect pairs, learners need to remember the position of the cards as well as the collocations, so it's important that they do not move the cards around too much. It's also a good idea to demonstrate the game with a strong student the first time you use it in class. If you later use the same activity again, you'll probably find that learners remember what to do.

Downloads
Blank template 179k
Tip: When producing your own sets of cards, make sure there are not too many possible collocations other than the ones you intend to practise. It can be very difficult to include only one possible way of combining words, so tell students to look for common collocations, or specifically those covered in the previous class.

Verb-noun collocations for routines (Elementary) 157k
L1 interference can often lead to incorrect verb-noun collocations such as 'take a cup of coffee'. This set of cards practises common verb-noun collocations for routines.

Business English collocations (Intermediate+) 184k
In the business world, there are a huge number of collocations which express specific ideas very succinctly, for example, 'customer service','quality control'. If learners are not familiar with these collocations, they will be forced to explain the concept, which is likely to lead to errors and puts a strain on the listener. This set focuses on business-related noun-noun collocations, which can be particularly problematic for learners.

Collocations with phrasal verbs (Higher / advanced) 150k
Advanced level learners may be aware of the meanings of many phrasal verbs, but are not always able to use them appropriately. This is partly because phrasal verbs often have very specific connotations and much narrower collocational fields than the 'synonyms' we use to help learners understand their meaning. For example, if we tell learners that 'turn up' means 'arrive', this can lead to inappropriate utterances like 'What time did you turn up?', implying criticism where this may not be the intention. For this reason it's a good idea to introduce phrasal verbs in context, e.g. through a text, with their common collocates. This set of cards gives an example of how to revise such collocations in a subsequent lesson.

Catherine Morley, Teacher, Teacher trainer, Mexico 

Vocabulary activities

Spot the vocabulary

Submitted by TE Editor on 2 September, 2009 - 15:56

This is a visual activity which helps make the process of recalling vocabulary motivating and memorable. My students enjoy the 'suspense' aspect at the start, which really gets them involved. I find this short activity works well particularly with lower levels, for vocabulary that has been studied thematically. It can be used at any point in a lesson, as a warmer, filler or lead-in.

Preparation
You will need a picture (this could be an illustration from a book, from the web, a photo, even your own sketch!) that depicts 'things' on a particular theme which your students have recently learnt (ex: furniture/ food/ in the classroom).
Prepare one copy per group of two or more students.

Sample flashcard photos (each zip file contains a collection of images)

• Pictures of rooms 680k zip
• Food flash cards 576k zip

© All images are copyright Chris Tribble, King's College, London University and used with his kind permission.

Procedure

• I hold up the picture so that the students cannot see it, and start building up interest by saying, 'Hey, this picture is interesting, isn't it?', 'Can't you see it?'.

• I then ask students if they want to see the picture, turning it round for them to see just for a couple of seconds. I find my students are really eager to see more of it!

• I then 'accept' to let them see it for a bit longer, walking round the class for each person to see the picture for a few seconds.

• After this first 'suspense' stage, I hand out a copy of the picture to students in pairs/small groups. I tell them they have two minutes to identify and remember as many things as they can see from the picture, without writing anything down!
  (Of course you may find your students trying to 'cheat' by writing things down - which of course is fine, as this is likely to help their learning, without their realising!)

• Once the time is up, I take back the pictures and ask students to write a list of everything they can remember.

• I then pin up a few copies of the picture around the class for students to go up and check their list.

• Whole-class feedback can then involve one of various possibilities, depending on the students' mood by this stage and how much more exposure to the vocabulary items the teacher feels they need:
  • students call out the items and the teacher writes them up
  • the group with the most items reads out their list for the others to check against
  • each group contributes one item/ the item that forms the longest word on their list. They can come up to the board to write this
  • the teacher and/or students pick out any items that they found difficult to remember/pronounce and try to improve their knowledge of these items.

• A variation of this adds a 'grammar' component to the listing of the vocabulary items. Following a focus on 'There is/ There are', for example, students can write their list under these two headings. Other grammar features that work well are headings for singular/plural, countable/uncountable or adjectives.