This small-scale study aims to examine the appropriacy of collocation treatment, both in global-market coursebook materials and easily accessible online sites for the study of English lexis at advanced levels. Because of the constraints of the research project, assessment is limited to studying one online site and one unit of the coursebook Speakout Advanced, taking into account materials design and appropriacy of collocation selection. The main question was originally how appropriate the treatment of collocation was in teaching materials for C1 level learners, prompted by the realization over the years that collocation in English is a problematic area for advanced undergraduates studying a foreign language at Verona University. The research question, however, became slightly modified during the course of the study to how appropriate the selection of collocation was in these materials, and how to develop a series of filters to aid authors when they develop pedagogical materials to teach English collocation explicitly. To study this, initially, frequency was measured across the COCA and BNC corpora and then further filters were added to examine the nature of the collocations themselves including restriction, transparency and relevance for the specific context. In trialing these filters, the secondary aim was to test their effectiveness as measures that could enhance the process of materials development.

Selecting collocations for explicit teaching at advanced levels in ELT materials

Sharon Hartle
2018-01-01

Abstract

This small-scale study aims to examine the appropriacy of collocation treatment, both in global-market coursebook materials and easily accessible online sites for the study of English lexis at advanced levels. Because of the constraints of the research project, assessment is limited to studying one online site and one unit of the coursebook Speakout Advanced, taking into account materials design and appropriacy of collocation selection. The main question was originally how appropriate the treatment of collocation was in teaching materials for C1 level learners, prompted by the realization over the years that collocation in English is a problematic area for advanced undergraduates studying a foreign language at Verona University. The research question, however, became slightly modified during the course of the study to how appropriate the selection of collocation was in these materials, and how to develop a series of filters to aid authors when they develop pedagogical materials to teach English collocation explicitly. To study this, initially, frequency was measured across the COCA and BNC corpora and then further filters were added to examine the nature of the collocations themselves including restriction, transparency and relevance for the specific context. In trialing these filters, the secondary aim was to test their effectiveness as measures that could enhance the process of materials development.
2018
collocation; advanced learners; ELT digital and print materials; explicit collocation teaching; materials development and evaluation
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/1011289
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