Republic of the Philippines

Carcar City College

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BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURE

Subject : ENGLISH PROFICIENCY 1 Module No. 03

Class Schedule : BSA 1A: 4:00-5:30 MW
BSA 1B: 7:30-9:00 TTH
BSA 1C: 7:30-9:00 MW
BSA 1 D: 1:00-2:30 MW
Week 5 : COLLOCATIONS

LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of the lesson, students must have:

a. explained the importance of collocations in language;
b. classified different types of collocations; and
c. recognized common collocations in various contexts and linguistic registers.

A blessed morning to everyone! How are you? Well, we need to seek first the kingdom of God before
having our discussion. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen! Heavenly
Father as we start our responsibility being a student, and a facilitator, we praise and honor Your most Holy
name, Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord. Forgive all our lapses committed. Thank You for loving us
always. Remember our loved ones and those who are supporting us. Restore the planet earth, Lord God.
In Jesus Mighty name. Amen!

I. ACTIVITY :
Instruction: Before we start our discussion you will be having an activity entitled “Collocate
Me”. You need to create five groups and each group will be given one minute to guess each
picture below. Are you all ready?
 a.
source: dreamstime

b.

c.
d.

e.

II. ABSTRACTION:
Based on the words that you have decoded do you have any ideas on what will be our topic for today?
Very good! Those words that you have decoded/guessing your activity where a sample of collocation.
Now, who can define and explain the meaning of Collocation? Yes! That’s correct, Collocation in
English is a group of two or more words that are often found together in English speech or English
writing. For today's lesson, we are going to discuss the different types of collocation and it's
importance.
According to: (Meg Rose Cassandra Nocillo) It’s important to understand that the English language has
a large number of collocations, but they all fall into the following categories. Of course, there isn’t
enough room in this guide to list all possible collocations, but later on, we will discuss how you can
learn more for yourself. For now, here are the different types of collocations for you to consider.
 Adverbs and Adjectives These collocations relate to how you describe something in particular. Some
words could be used instead, but in English, we almost always see them like this: Happily married–if
we are describing a joyful marriage, we always say happily married. But what if we replace the word
happily with joyfully married, does it sounds good, what do you think might other people say if they
heard that? Whilst yes, it makes sense and everybody would understand what you meant, it falls
slightly odd on English speaker's ears because they are just so used to the adverb and adjective
collocation of 'happily married'. Have you experienced using some incorrect or uncommon set of
words? Very Good! That is right, also the word "traffic". Instead of saying "heavy traffic" Filipino often
say "it so traffic" which is wrong because the word traffic refers to all the vehicles that are moving along
the roads in a particular area. That is why it should be "heavy traffic" or "Traffic Jam" means no further
movement can be made. Other examples of collocations with adverb and adjective: fully aware, happily
married, highly controversial, highly effective, highly probable, highly profitable. I think that it is still
understandable ma'am, but if we use it and a native English Speaker heard us they will find it weird.
Ma'am! The word Nose bleed, It's not incorrect but I used it in the wrong way. Filipino use it as an
expression if they are trying to converse in English and get stuck.

The pictures that you have guessed are the following:

a. Break a leg
b. Swim fast
c. Pay attention
d. Take a break
e. Big disappointment
These are all Idioms. On one hand, the term collocation refers to set of words that regularly seem within
the same context. On the opposite hand, the term idiom simply means that an expression that functions as
one unit and whose meaning cannot be found out from its separate components.

Why Do Words Collocate? There is often no reason for a collocation. People just put certain words together
more often than they put other words together. In fact, the use of collocations has become popular in
English and language teaching because of corpus linguistics.

Collocation refers to a group of two or more words that usually go together. A good way to think of
collocation is to look at the word collocation. Co - meaning together - location - meaning place. Collocation
s are words that are located together. A good answer to "What is collocation?" is: Collocation is a group of
two or more words that like to hang out together. Here are some examples of common collocations that you
might know:

Examples:

make tea - I made a cup of tea for lunch.

do homework - I did all of my homework yesterday.

Even though it possible to use other word combinations, understanding collocations help English
learners improve their fluency because they are words that usually go together.
Make and Do

I begin with 'make' and 'do' because they provide perfect examples of why collocation is so important.
Generally, 'make' refers to things that are made that weren't there before. 'Do' refers to actions that we take
or do such as chores.

Collocations with 'Make'

make a cup of coffee / tea

make noise
make the bed
make a business deal
make a fuss
make sense
make time for someone

Collocations with Do

do the laundry
do the errands
do business with someone
do a chore
do the shopping

Make and Do are perfect examples of verbs that go together with specific nouns. A verb + noun
combination that always go together are considered collocations.

Why Do Words Collocate?

There is often no reason for a collocation. People just put certain words together more often than they put
other words together. In fact, the use of collocations has become popular in English and language teaching
because of corpus linguistics. Corpus linguistics study huge volumes of data of spoken and written English
to come up with statistics on how often people use certain words and word combinations. Through this
study, corpus linguistics has been able to define what are strong and weak collocations.

Collocations are used especially often in business English and there are dictionaries such as the Oxford
Dictionary of Collocations that can help you learn these common collocations.

Strong Collocations

Strong collocations refer to words that almost always go together. It's possible that people might
understand you if you don't use a strong collocation. However, if you do not use a strong collocation it will
sound funny to native speakers. Let's return to our example of 'make' and 'do'. If you say:

I did a cup of coffee.

native speakers will understand that you mean:

I made a cup of coffee.

Correct use of strong collocations shows an excellent command of the English language, and can certainly
help impress native speakers' of your ability to speak English well. Of course, if you are speaking to other
non-native speakers the ability to use collocations correctly all the time becomes less important. That
doesn't mean that correct collocation use is not important, it's just not AS important as something like
correct tense. Imagine for a moment that you are speaking about a future meeting:

Our meeting was on Friday at four o'clock.

I've done an appointment at four o'clock for the meeting room on Friday.

In both of these sentences, there are mistakes. However, in the first sentence instead of using a future
tense, the past tense is used. If you want your colleagues to come to the meeting, this mistake is very
serious and will lead to no one coming to the meeting.

In the second sentence 'do an appointment' is a misuse of a strong collocation. However, the meaning is
clear: You have scheduled a room at four o'clock. In this case, a mistake in collocations is not nearly as
important as a mistake in tense usage.

Here are examples of strong collocations that you might not be familiar with:

high earnings (not big earnings)

long-range planning (not long-time planning)
urban guerrilla (not city guerrilla)
More Information
Why are Collocations Important?

There is an entire world of collocations to explore. Learning collocations is important because you begin to
learn words in larger groups or 'chunks' of language. Putting together these chunks of language leads to
more fluent English.

Learning collocations is learning typical expressions in a language. Proper acquisition of

collocations makes learners competent socially at the level of personal and technical communications.

Types of Collocations
 adverb + adjective: completely satisfied.
 adjective + noun: excruciating pain.
 noun + noun: a surge of anger.
 noun + verb: lions roar.
 verb + noun: commit suicide.
 verb + expression with a preposition by its side: burst into tears.
 verb + adverb: wave frantically.

EXAMPLES:
adverb + adjective adjective + noun noun + verb
Absurdly easy Deep sleep Cats purr

Fully aware Low/high cost Dogs bark

Painfully slow Maiden voyage Engines roar

Widely believed Rich history Snakes hiss

III. ASSESSMENT:
Instruction: Give at least ten examples of collocations and explain each in the class.

IV. APPLICATION:
Instruction: Group yourselves into five and classify according to its type the collocations
given from the Assessment and write those in a sheet of paper and submit to your instructor.

 References:
 Sebastian E.,et al. (2013). English Proficiency 1, C & E Publishing, Inc., Quezon City
 Baraceros, E.L. (2015). English Grammar for College Freshmen, Rex Bookstore,
Manila, Philippines

GOOD LUCK AND GOD BLESS !!!

Prepared by;

GILNA D. CAVAN, MAEd.ET

Instructor

Checked by:

NOE NOLASCO, MSc

Program Head, BSA

DOLLY ANN D. CARACA, MAED-ET

Director Quality Assurance & IMDL Coordinator
Approved;

LEONARDO E. LACOSTALES, PhD.

Dean for Academic Affairs