Selecting English collocations for explicit teaching in pedagogical materials at advanced levels
Selecting English collocations for explicit teaching in pedagogical materials at advanced levels

Summary/Abstract: This small-scale study aims to examine the appropriacy of collocation treat- ment, both in global-market coursebook materials and easily accessible online sites for the study of English lexis at advanced levels. Because of the con- straints 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 stud- ying 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 se- ries 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 ex- amine the nature of the collocations themselves including restriction, trans- parency and relevance for the specific context. In trialing these filters, the sec- ondary aim was to test their effectiveness as measures that could enhance the process of materials development.

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