One of the first things I ask my students is to tell me how they learned to ask somebody's name and their age? They learned by heart, without questioning. This can not apply to all learning leanring in chunks is indded very useful. Something like a chunk is a collocation: two (or more) words which sound natural in English like 'fast car' and 'fast food' but not quick car and quick food, or make a call instead of do a call. Why make and not do? Just because. ... (expand)
This may be handy for teachers, students and translators alike, and anyone who needs English.
You are not sure if two words can collocate, go together and sound natural in English, you can check whether they "collocate" using the following links:
You may want to use google and and type the words ensuring you type the words in quotations marks so you get the results with the two words in the order you want to know about.
Identify collocations:
American: http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/#/%22seating+capacity%22/
British: http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/
There are other corpus although they may not be free and offer free access.
Another website I have just discovered (6 March 2015) is www.just-the-word.com
Type a word, see collocations, click on them to see the in a corpora
http://oxforddictionary.so8848.com
http://prowritingaid.com/collocations-dictionary/button/Collocations-of-button.aspx
a blog: high frequency and low frequency collocaitons http://collocations.ooz.ie/
Collocation books:
Cambridge in Use, Key words for fluency.
List of frequent collocations: https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/collocations-lists.htm
Translations
www.linguee.com
and www.reverso.com although I don't usually resort to this one, some people like it.
Dictionarys can help sometimes too.
Questions of tricky areas:
https://www.englishforums.com/English/WayOfOrWayTo/dljkj/post.htm
Showing posts with label collocations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label collocations. Show all posts
Friday, 23 January 2015
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Teaching adults with
More and more I become aware of how teaching English is changing as we teachers become increasingly aware of how confusing English is for students. Ok, no news but over the past few yearsI have found myself trying to help students gain an awareness of the fact that words in English (or any other language for that matter, i'd dare to say) don't necessarily have a one word equivalent or meaning but rather one or more translations into another language. The way I see it, looking at words as concepts or metaphors should be encouraged when possible.
It is true, however, that not all words lend themselves to this sort of interpretation but many do. Traditionally schools gave a translation of a word, taken as its only meaning, to students and learners only to find themselves confronted to the word in another context and causing confusion. The last decade there's been an emphasis on collocations, great, that was an improvement, and a more real English as opposed to textbook English. Real English is not easy to acquire in places where English is a foreign language with no contribution from the "system" to actually learn it and use it but it's what should be taught.
I have noticed that just like i have been doing, teachers in online videos teach words and collocations and expressions. I think it's the way to go. It doesn't ensure they'll learn and remember all the translations but I hope this will contribute to a more open-minded approach to vocabulary and lexis learning little by little.
The example I often give them is the word meet translated into Spanish: quedar, encontrarse, ir a recojer, conocer (a alguien - primera vez), satisfacer, cumplir, entre otros. And the Catalan/Spanish word "deixar/dejar": leave, let, stop ing, lend, borrow.
There is also the fact that every single adult who studies English in Spain nowadays has studied English in the past, with little success in most cases. This means we don't have to go through teaching English as if they know nothing, our role is to tackle the very well-identified problem areas in their language if necessary and help them retain, activate and create new words. By creating I mean word formation, which luckily for them, just happens to be just like they do in Spanish. Adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. Most are unaware of the potential language they can understand and produce once they develop an understanding and an awareness of this fact.
Again, the example I usually provide in Spanish is acto, actuar, actuación, actor, actriz, activo/a, activamente, acción, accionar, etc. They all have the same root. We should aim at developing their intuition to learn to create adjectives, for examples with lots of input.
So let's all teach the differences but also the similarities...their prejudices, their prior knowledge, often weak but there, force us to have to teach them a different way of looking at language, and teach them based on what they know, which makes teaching English in Spain different from teaching a new language from scratch.
It is true, however, that not all words lend themselves to this sort of interpretation but many do. Traditionally schools gave a translation of a word, taken as its only meaning, to students and learners only to find themselves confronted to the word in another context and causing confusion. The last decade there's been an emphasis on collocations, great, that was an improvement, and a more real English as opposed to textbook English. Real English is not easy to acquire in places where English is a foreign language with no contribution from the "system" to actually learn it and use it but it's what should be taught.
I have noticed that just like i have been doing, teachers in online videos teach words and collocations and expressions. I think it's the way to go. It doesn't ensure they'll learn and remember all the translations but I hope this will contribute to a more open-minded approach to vocabulary and lexis learning little by little.
The example I often give them is the word meet translated into Spanish: quedar, encontrarse, ir a recojer, conocer (a alguien - primera vez), satisfacer, cumplir, entre otros. And the Catalan/Spanish word "deixar/dejar": leave, let, stop ing, lend, borrow.
There is also the fact that every single adult who studies English in Spain nowadays has studied English in the past, with little success in most cases. This means we don't have to go through teaching English as if they know nothing, our role is to tackle the very well-identified problem areas in their language if necessary and help them retain, activate and create new words. By creating I mean word formation, which luckily for them, just happens to be just like they do in Spanish. Adding prefixes and suffixes to roots. Most are unaware of the potential language they can understand and produce once they develop an understanding and an awareness of this fact.
Again, the example I usually provide in Spanish is acto, actuar, actuación, actor, actriz, activo/a, activamente, acción, accionar, etc. They all have the same root. We should aim at developing their intuition to learn to create adjectives, for examples with lots of input.
So let's all teach the differences but also the similarities...their prejudices, their prior knowledge, often weak but there, force us to have to teach them a different way of looking at language, and teach them based on what they know, which makes teaching English in Spain different from teaching a new language from scratch.
Thursday, 25 November 2010
està incompletoooo!
Hay que dejar de estudiar y hablar palabra a palabra. Es mucho más rapido y a la vez parecereis más naturales si os aprendéis el vocabulario junto a otra/s palabras:
ejemplo: cuando aprendais que make significa hacer, aprendedlo con todo lo que podéis "make", make a call, make coffee, make a mistake, make a change, make a difference, make me do sth, I can't make it, etc
Otro ejemplo muy interesante es con el verbo meet. Yo lo que recomiendo que no os miréis las palabras como "una palabra, un significado" para los que no podéis evitar traducir. Una palabra se puede traducir de muchas maneras.
I first met him at a party a while ago but i started to get to know him better when we happened to be in the same English class. Now I have known Micheal for a few years and I can say that he’s a great guy to meet up with!
(First) meet somebody – se usa para describir la situacion en la que hablas con alguien por primera vez.
Get to know somebody – Start to become friends with someone, by speding time or doing things together, more personally.
Know someone – conoces (des del momento que os conocisteis/ hablastéis por primera vez a menudo). Sabes bastantes cosas de él, quizás hablais a menudo (no necesariamente), quizás soys compañeros de trabajo, amigos, ...)
Meet somebody – quedar con
I am meeting my friends for a drink at 7pm
I meet my friends on the weekend cos i work till late during weekdays
I first met Peter a few years ago. Since then, we've met a few times but we've never had the chance to get to know each other.
When i went to Romania, my friend met me at the station.
Know se traduce:.. (incompleto)
Know somebody- conocer
Know something- saber
Ojo! Meet tiene muchas traducciones segun lo que lleve detrás!
Tambien tenemos el meet sth, as oposed to meet somebody, como veíamos arriba.
Meet your deadlines, meet the need for... , meet the demand, meet my objectives, meet the target, meet the expectactions, meet the standards, etc....
Cumplir o satisfacer ....
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