I've always been keen to train learners in developing noticing skills which will help raise their awareness of collocations. This has involved using texts and encouraging students to identify collocations using a range of techniques. One of the techniques involves isolating collocation and identifying the parts of speech so that they can start looking for collocations that adhere to a particular pattern, e.g. noun + noun; verb + adverb etc. I believe that this equips students with skills they can both in and out of the class to increase their personal vocabulary. However, this is the only reason I can find for training students, particularly at low levels, to identify which part of speech a word is. I was wondering whether anyone had any other reasons for doing this. Also, do you think it is benificial to start training low-level (Elementary / Pre-int) students to start noting collocations?
Charles Davis
Comments
Angela China
I think it can be very helpful, particularly if the first language operates very differently from English. For example. today I was reminding a class that success is a noun and we can use the adjective successful as in he was very successful or the verb succeed as in he succeeded (in doing something)
tamara
Hi,
I think that it can be useful for students to begin to understand the words that have crept from English into their mother tongue. Nouns like playground, football, workshop, etc. At least in Brazil (where I live) are in common usage.
I think that exploring such words can help beginners feel that English is accessible to them, that it is not so "foreign" (which can greatly boost their confidence), and also to grasp some basic structures (analytical and thinking skills), as you mensioned.
Tamara
speakup
Hi Charles!
If English is taught as a foreign/second language it's beneficial because it makes a parallel with the grammar rules of their native language. Especially the collocations, because some are the same and some are different and they should be aware of that. Surporisingly, they don't find it as hard as we think, sometimes they find it interesting. As for the parts of speech, if they're familiar with it in their native language, why not in English?
Concering teaching the parts of speech in a native language, I find it very useful. It improves their literacy.
Mirjana