Contrastive Exercises for Teaching Collocations

Abstract

It is generally accepted now that learners of a foreign language need to have command of different word combinations, particularly collocations. However, in spite of the fact that collocations have recently been discussed by many linguists, there is still a lack of understanding of how word combinations, and among them collocations, are learned. It is of great importance that collocations are taught intensively to students who have already acquired the basis of a foreign language they wish to master. Collocations are also of the utmost importance in the study of language for specific purposes. Teachers of a foreign language try to approach this issue in different manners. This paper addresses different ways of making students aware of word combinations and their importance. Moreover, teachers of a foreign language are provided with some ideas for teaching collocations and correcting collocational errors students of a foreign language make when they write or speak. Some mistakes made by Slovene speakers of English are listed. The paper also provides some examples of exercises that may be of help when correcting collocational errors made by Slovene speakers of English. Finally, there is some information about different types of dictionaries.