SKKN Some experience in teaching students to learn collocations in the new 11th English textbook at Le Viet Thuat High School

ds that go with the phrases. eg: Verb + Nouns 
To make............./To do ............./To have ............./To take ................. 
............................. 
Therefore, it is easy for students to remember collocations they have learned and 
they can do exercises effectively. 
To make the lesson more effective, I used many methods to help students do the 
exercises easily by using software for students to do multiple-choice exercises, 
giving pictures, play kinds of games and giving handouts as well to students. 
However, in the limit of topic, I cannot represent all the methods specifically when 
teaching students to learn collocations. 
39 
IV. THE RESULTS OF THE STUDY 
Students who first started out with these types of collocations are very confused 
because the lessons in the new 11th English textbook have a lot of fairly advanced 
vocabulary. Once they have got used to the types of collocations, everything seems 
to be smoothly to them. 
As a result, from the post-test with collocations in units of the textbook (see 
appendix 1), students of class 11D2 scored higher than class 11A1. When asked 
about the difficulty level of the collocations, the students in grade 11D2 said that it 
was easier because they had the opportunity to become familiar with the types of 
collocations. Moreover, they love learning vocabulary much more, remembering 
words in context. Good study of collocations will help to learn skills effectively. 
Here are the statistics of the two classes. 
 Mark 
≥ 8.5 
Mark 
6.4 ─ 8.4 
Mark 
5.0 ─ 6.4 
Mark 
< 5.0 
Total 
11A1 
5 student 
accounting 
for 17 % 
7 students 
accounting 
for 24% 
13 students 
accounting 
for 44% 
5 students 
accounting 
for 25 % 
30 students 
accounting 
for 100 % 
11D2 
20 students 
accounting 
for 45% 
13 students 
accounting 
for 29% 
7 students 
accounting 
for 16 % 
5 students 
accounting 
for 10% 
45 students 
accounting 
for 100 % 
The table above shows us that the number of students getting excellent and 
good marks in Grade 11D2 have doubled those in 11A1. The marks around the 
average level seem to have risen. These figures prove that once thoroughly taught, 
students can perform remarkably better than before. 
C. CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS 
I. Meaning of themes for teaching and learning collocations 
This study gives our teachers more visibility into teaching collocations in 
English in a more effective way. Teachers can choose to adapt them to suit their 
abilities. Therefore, students will feel more excited and the quality of tests will be 
improved. 
In addition, the students no longer have as many difficulties as before, many of 
them are able to use collocations to learn any skills and communicate with each other 
naturally without being interrupted because they know how to use collocations in 
the cases. Students can apply collocations to the exercises and the tests effectively. 
40 
II. Experience - Development 
- Because using collocations is really difficult for all students and even teachers, 
teachers need to study carefully before planning a lesson and have to change the 
teaching ways to teach and help the students to overcome difficulties. 
- To gain the success, there have to require the efforts of teachers and pupils while 
there is still a lack of conditions for teaching equipment. Besides, the level, the art 
of pedagogy and the enthusiasm of the teachers will help them to overcome 
difficulties. 
- Each of us has to love this subject and study a lot of materials related to skills. 
Through teaching, we must learn to accumulate good experience for ourselves. 
- Through researching the topic, the author can be self-improvement, self-study and 
find the optimal materials in teaching. 
- This topic can be used to teach all students who want to take exams in order to get 
the international certificate. 
III. Recommendations 
After analyzing all activities carried out while teaching collocations for 
students and the results of pupils’ progress, various recommendations should be 
given as the petitions to the students, the English teachers, the school and Education 
and Training Department as follow: 
* For the students: 
- Watch English movies with subtitles regularly. They’ll help you understand 
English speech and even their accents. 
- Watching TV game shows in English. 
- Use mind map to learn vocabulary by topic. 
- When you learn a new word, write down other words that collocate with it. 
- Read as much as possible. Reading is an excellent way to learn vocabulary and 
collocations in context and naturally. Students can read sample essays, newspaper, 
magazines and fairy tales. 
- Revise what you learn regularly. Practise using new collocations in context as soon 
as possible after learning them. 
- Learn collocations in groups that work for you. You could learn them by topic or 
by a particular word. 
- Find information on collocations in any good learner's dictionary and find 
specialized dictionaries of collocations. 
- Use English - English dictionary when learning vocabulary. 
41 
- Apply to life: to practice writing and speaking every day to be able to use 
collocations to widen knowledge. 
* For the teachers: 
- Have students do exercises that contain words that are repeating collocations over 
and over. 
- Ask students to write them down alphabetically or by topic. 
- Guide students to learn collocations by mind map and by topic. 
- Have a rich vocabulary and have to explain its meaning in English, not Vietnamese 
- English translation or vice versa. 
- Practice writing and speaking using collocations on a regular basis to be effective. 
- When correcting lessons for students, teachers must explain in detail and clearly. 
* For the school: 
- Assign classroom teachers and teach all 3 classes in 3 years so that teachers 
accumulate experience and have instructional direction appropriate to the level of 
the student. 
- Create conditions for teachers to participate in study and improve their skills, 
participate fully in the training organized by the Department. 
- Create conditions for students to participate in extracurricular activities, 
competitions organized by English department. 
- The schools should organize English-speaking competitions (rhetoric) on the 
subject of study, at least once a year. This activity will stimulate students' learning 
English more. 
* For the Department of Education and Training: 
- Have a plan for professional training and professional training for teachers more 
often. 
- Provide more reference material, visual aids for the subject. 
- English competitions are mostly designed in the form of writing: semester exams, 
10th grade entrance exams, excellent students, Olympic exams, GCSE exams, in 
the following years 
- Organizing annual seminars on innovating teaching methods because this is an 
opportunity for teachers to exchange, learn, share experiences about effective 
teaching methods to improve the quality of lectures. 
- It is advisable to hold English Speaking/Writing Contests or English Olympic 
Contests so that students have the opportunity to apply their knowledge. 
42 
IV. Conclusion 
Using flexible collocation helps learners to have natural written and spoken 
language like native speakers, increase efficiency in expression, as well as identify 
information faster and more accurately. One of the most effective ways to learn 
collocations is to put them in a specific context, and learners should consider 
applying this method to be able to manipulate collocations correctly. 
Collocations are a fantastic way to bring the excitement of vocabulary building 
into our classroom. They help our students acquire real-world or academic 
expressions by helping them learn language in chunks, rather than individual words. 
Collocations also encourage students to focus on meaning and context, rather than 
memorizing endless lists of words and their strict definitions. Encourage the learners 
a little differently by helping them see the world not as individual bits, but as groups 
of information rich in nuance and understanding. 
With this little study, I hope to provide readers with an overview of collocations 
and the importance of teaching and learning collocations in improving writing and 
speaking skills as well as applying to the tests and the national examination. 
However, in difficult timing condition, mistakes are unavoidable. Therefore, any 
suggestions and remarks from colleagues will be highly appreciated. 
43 
D. REFERENCES 
1. Tiếng Anh 11- Student’s book - Education Publishing House and Pearson 
2. Tiếng Anh 11- Work book - Education Publishing House and Pearson 
3. Tiếng Anh 11- Teacher’s book - Education Publishing House and Pearson 
4. English collocations in use, Intermediate and advanced level by Felicity 
O’Dell and Michael McCarthy. Cambridge University Press. 
5. Understanding Vocab for IELTS Writing /Understanding Vocab for IELTS 
Speaking Zim – School of English test Preparation. Nhà Xuất Bản Dân Trí 
6. 2000 English Collocations and Idioms, Trang Anh – Phạm Thi Kieu Oanh. Nhà 
xuất bản Khoa học Tự nhiên và công nghệ 
7. Lewis, M. 2000. Teaching collocations. London: Language Teaching 
Publications. 
8. AN 
ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF COLLOCATION BY INTERMEDIATE EFL 
COLLEGE STUDENTS 
9. 
for-efl-learners/ 
10. 
11. 
mira-van/ 
12. 
13.
qua.htm 
14. 
collocations-in-the-efl-classroom/ 
15. 
16. Sách bài tập trắc nghiệm Tiếng Anh 11- Hoàng Thị Xuân Hoa (chủ biên) và 
nhiều tác giả - Nhà xuất bản giáo dục Việt Nam. 
Pl-1 
E- APPENDICES 
APPENDIX 1: QUESTIONNAIRE FOR STUDENTS ON USING 
COLLOCATIONS 
Please tick or circle or write answer where necessary. 
- Age:.................... 
- Class:.................. 
- Years of studying English: . 
1. Are you interested in learning English? 
 Yes No 
2. Do you think vocabulary plays an important role in learning English? 
a, Very important 
b, Important 
c, Normal 
d, Not very important 
e, Not important 
3. How do you feel about learning vocabulary? 
a, Very interesting 
b, Interesting 
c, Normal 
d, Not very interesting 
e, Not interesting 
4. How do you find the difficult level of the vocabulary in the new 11th grade 
textbook? 
a, Very difficult 
b, Difficult 
c, Normal 
d, It's not that difficult 
e, Not difficult 
5. Do you understand collocations in English? 
Tick the answers you think correctly 
 big rain 
 heavy rain 
Pl-2 
 make a progress 
 a decision 
 a box 
 be seriously affected 
 great importance 
6. Do you think it is important to learn collocations? 
a, Very important 
b, Important 
c, Normal 
d, Not very important 
e, Not important 
7. Does your teacher often teach you collocations when he/she teaches 
vocabulary? 
Always Often Sometimes Never 
8. Do you use technology to learn vocabulary? 
Tick the answers 
 Ipad 
 Smart phone 
 Computer 
Other technologies:......................................................... 
9. Do you have enough vocabulary? 
 Yes No 
Pl-3 
APPENDIX 2: A MULTIPLE CHOICE EXERCISE TO EVALUATE STUDENT 
RESULTS 
Full name: ..........................................................Class: ........... 
Choose the best answer 
1. Most of these students are interested in ___________undergraduate studies for 
bachelor's degrees. 
 A. achieving B. getting C. receiving D. pursuing 
2. Experiences at work ________ their knowledge and gradually mature them. 
 A. help B. make C. broaden D. take 
3. The archaeological ________will last for several years as scholars believe that 
there are still relics buried in this site. 
 A. excavations B. heritage C. nature D. geology 
4. In China, there are still a lot of _________families sharing the same house. 
 A. extent B. extension C. extended D. extensive 
5. Traffic congestion in large cities seems to be an ____________problem. 
 A. soluble B. insoluble C. solved D. resolved 
6. Due to financial conflict over years, they decided to get ____. 
 A. proposed B. engaged C. married D. divorced 
7. The increased ___________can be attributed to three main factors: healthier 
lifestyles, better nutrition, and advances in medical science and technology. 
 A. life expectancy B. ageing process C. nutritious diet D. stress lifestyle 
8. ___________ is an increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. 
 A. climate change B. global warming C. greenhouse gases D. emissions 
9. I'm in a _______ at the moment. 
 A. date B. relationship C. romance D. argument 
10. You should make a list of things to do and _________ them if you want to work 
effectively. 
 A. do B. arrange C. prioritize D. approach 
11. Effective ____ skills help you break each project down into the achievable tasks. 
 A. time-keeping B. time – consuming C. time- management D. Time-line 
12. Students with _________ impairments may suffer from difficulties with 
memory, self-expression, information processing, and other learning disabilities. 
 A. memory B. studying C. learning D. cognitive 
Pl-4 
13. We need to help many students with disabilities to become independent, integrate 
in the community and __________ success at school. 
 A. achieve B. lose C. have D. receive 
14. The right of every nation is to lead its national existence free from external ___ . 
 A. involvement B. prevention C. interference D. interruption 
15. Precisely when the first wheeled chairs were invented and used for ____ persons 
is unknown. 
 A. disabled B. poor C. unhappy D. unemployed 
16. He has not developed mentally as much as others at the same age. He's 
__________. 
 A. mentally alert B. mentally ill 
 C. mentally retarded D. mentally restricted 
17. Copenhagen has been voted the most __________ city in the world. 
 A. ecological friendly B. eco- friendly 
 C. ecologically soundly D. friendly ecologically 
18. He suggested playing sports when you're young, or ________yoga and t'ai chi... 
 A. doing B. taking C. following D. practising 
Choose the word(s) OPPOSITE in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the 
following questions. 
19. Many city dwellers, especially those in developing countries, still live in 
poverty. 
 A. residents B. migrants C. residers D. inhabitants 
Choose the word(s) CLOSEST in meaning to the underlined word(s) in each of the 
following questions. 
20. Sometimes, in order to get things done, you have to take the initiative. 
 A. make the last decision B. make important changes 
 C. raise the first idea D. sacrifice for others 
Answer: 
1.D 2.C 3.A 4.C 5.A 6.D 7.A 8.B 9.B 10.C 
11.C 12.D 13.A 14.C 15.A 16.C 17.B 18.D 19.B 20.C 
Pl-5 
APPENDIX 3: SOME PICTURES OF STUDENTS ‘S DOING 
COLLOCATIONS IN CLASS AND ON THE INTERNET THROUGH 
SOFTWARE 
Pl-6 
Pl-7 
Pl-8