Learning collocations to increase students’ word power in academic writing

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LEARNING COLLOCATIONS TO INCREASE 
STUDENTS’ WORD POWER IN ACADEMIC WRITING 
Nguyen Thi Anh Nguyet 
Hanoi Metropolitan University 
Abstract: One of the common frustrating experiences that most English as a foreign 
language (EFL) teacher share in teaching writing classes is students’ poor lexical 
resource leading the recurrence of students’ lexical errors, e.g., incorrect or improper 
usage of lexicon, regardless of repeated correction or feedback. An important aspect of 
native speakers’ language competence is collocational competence which involves 
knowing which words usually come together and which do not. This paper investigates 
the importance of learning collocations in increasing vocabulary resource in academic 
writing because collocational knowledge distinguishes native speakers and foreign 
language learners and is a significant factor in productive skills especially writing. This 
article also examines the notion of collocations, differentiates definition and collocation 
in vocabulary learning, explores the chief reasons why English learners need to learn 
collocations and suggest some techniques to study collocations and use them effectively 
in academic writing. 
Keywords: lexical resource, collocation, academic writing, vocabulary learning 
Nhận bài ngày 15.3.2020; gửi phản biện, chỉnh sửa, duyệt đăng ngày 28.3.2020. 
Liên hệ tác giả: Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt ; Email: ntanguyet@daihocthudo.edu.vn 
1. INTRODUCTION 
It cannot be denied that academic writing can be one of the most difficult skills that 
English learners face to. It requires not only a deep understanding of the subject they are 
writing about or perfect grammar, but also pin-point vocabulary usage. The fact is that 
without a wide range of vocabulary, grammar does not help learners much because being 
unable to find the words we need to express our idea is the most frustrating experience 
in writing in another language. However, second language learners often rely on their 
native language in trying to communicate or translate. They assume that there always 
exists a one-to-one correspondence between their mother tongue and the second language 
lexical items. This strategy may be of some help to the learner at the beginning levels of 
language learning, but it is also a major cause of errors because even equivalent lexical 
items do not always convey the same sense in two languages for various reasons, including 
cultural differences which are reflected in the vocabulary of every language. This false 
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assumption causes the learners to make collocational errors. For example, the 
adjective fast collocates with cars, but not with a glance. 
The notion of collocation has been widely discussed in the field of language teaching 
for decades. It has been shown that collocation, a successive common usage of words in a 
chain, is important in helping language learners achieve native-like fluency. In the field of 
English for Academic Purpose, more and more researchers are also recognizing this 
important feature in academic writing. It is often argued that collocation can influence the 
effectiveness of a piece of writing and the lack of such knowledge might cause cumulative 
loss of precision (Howarth, 1998). Therefore, to increase word power in academic writing, 
students should be encouraged to study collocations instead of learning vocabulary in 
isolation. 
2. CONTENTS 
2.1. What is collocation? 
According to Wikipedia ‘a collocation is a sequence of words or terms that co-occur 
more often than would be expected by chance’. They are pairs of words that occur 
regularly together, with a high degree of probability. They do not have to be used next to 
one another, but they just have to occur in the same environment. Here are some examples: 
She has blond hair His hair is dyed blond. 
She drives a beige car. His car is a sort of light beige. 
The internet has played a crucial role in globalization. The role played by the 
internet in globalization has been crucial. 
We say that blond collocates with hair and words connected with hair (tresses, curls). 
Beige can collocate with lots of nouns (car, jacket, wallpaper, floor-covering, etc.) where 
blond does not (we do not say a blond car or a blond jacket). On the other hand, we don’t 
say beige hair. We say that decisions, roles, factors can be crucial, but we do not normally 
say a crucial man/woman. Collocations reveal restrictions on which words can go together 
and which words do not. 
Collocations are not like grammar rules; they depend on probability rather than being 
absolute and fixed. They are examples of how languages normally or typically put words 
together. 
2.2. Definition plus Collocation in Vocabulary Learning 
Definition and collocation are both important in vocabulary learning and teaching. 
Definition is concerned with establishing a single word's meaning, whereas collocation 
takes definition for granted and is concerned with the words that typically appear with any 
particular word: the verbs that might occur with a noun, for example. Such collocational 
information often enables a word to be used. 
2.2.1. Statements 
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When our focus is on definition, we might explain a noun like dream as follows: "A 
dream is like a film in your head that you sometimes have when you are asleep." When 
learners hear a statement based on definition, their main purpose is to decode the stream of 
words with the goal of matching an L1 translation equivalent to the new word in their 
minds. They are less likely to notice and retain a collocating verb, and afterwards they are 
unlikely to come up with collocating adjectives like bad or scary on their own, much less 
with an expression like, "Sweet dreams!" When our focus is on collocation, we might say 
something like the following: An important verb for dream is "have". Two frequently 
appearing modifiers for dream are bad and recurrent, and two prepositions that often occur 
with dream are about and in: 'I had a dream about... and 'In my dream, I was ...' In addition, 
dream can be used as a modifier in words like dream catcher and dream diary. When we 
put a child to bed at night, we often say, 'Sweet dreams!'" 
Both definition and collocation have their limitations. A statement based only on 
collocation might enable a student to say, "I had a bad dream," but not know what they are 
saying. And a statement based solely on definition would allow a student to match an L1 
translation to dream, but perhaps not be able to use it. Definition plus collocation, on the 
other hand, makes for a complete statement that allows for meaning and use. 
2.2.2. Dictionaries 
To find a word's definition, teachers and students can look it up in any number of 
definition-based dictionaries. In addition, there are bilingual dictionaries that provide 
translations, and picture dictionaries that supply pictures. Bilingual electronic dictionaries 
exist that will not only provide a translation, but pronounce the word and save it for 
download to a computer later. Using such resources, students can look up a word and find 
a definition, translation, or picture, and even hear the word pronounced. 
To find a word's collocates, teachers can look it up in dictionaries of collocations such 
as the LTP Dictionary of Selected Collocations (Hill and Lewis), or the Oxford 
Collocations Dictionary (2002). And this is a very good thing, because we are simply not 
very good at coming up with a word's collocates off the top of our heads (Fox). 
2.2.3. Explaining Words 
When our focus is on definition of single words, we commonly do things like provide 
a picture of a word, or bring realia to class to show students the object itself, or mention a 
synonym, opposite, or superordinate (Gairns and Redman). Or we might explain it by 
saying, "Best is the superlative of good." We might ask students to learn "word families" 
like grow, growth, grower in the hope that this will spur rapid acquisition. (DeCarrico). 
When our emphasis is on collocation, we immediately encounter some problems with the 
above practices. 
2.2.4. Opposites 
A word might have two opposites: the opposite of short might be long or tall, 
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depending on if we are referring to a person's hair or a person's height. The opposite of a 
bad case of poison ivy is not a good one, but a mild one, and the opposite of rock-hard 
would not be rock-soft, but might be expressed as baby-soft. 
Also, it is hard to say what an opposite is. Is enemy the opposite of friend? Friend 
might be contrasted with enemy in a proverb like, "A thousand friends are not enough, one 
enemy is too many." But in naturally occurring language friend is more often connected 
with words like the following: "family, friends and acquaintances," "friends, neighbors, co-
workers," "friends and acquaintances," etc. Hopefully, the new dictionary of collocations 
will contain series like these. 
2.2.5. Synonyms 
In certain contexts, earth and world might be roughly synonymous, but when we use 
those words for expression we say, "the largest airport in the world," or "the largest airport 
on earth," not "the largest airport on world," or "the largest airport in the earth." Gairns and 
Redman (1986) point out that while break out may have the meaning of start in a sentence 
like, "A fire broke out," it would be quite wrong to say, "Class breaks out at 7:30 every 
morning," even if it seems like it. 
2.2.6. Superordinate 
Boxing is often categorized as a sport, but it is a particular kind of sport, and might 
just as well be categorized as entertainment, business, a skill, art or a science. 
Providing examples of words as they naturally occur in the frame, "X, Y and other / 
similar / related Zs" is a better way to provide hyponyms and superordinate for words. If 
we type "waterfalls and other" in a computer browser, we find things like, "beaches, lava 
flows, waterfalls, and other scenic attractions (Hawaii)" or "canyons, mountain ranges, 
waterfalls and other natural features," and "waterfalls and other obstacles (salmon)." 
Naturally occurring usages like these remind us that a waterfall can be many things, 
including a scenic attraction, a natural feature and an obstacle to fish. Hopefully, the 
dictionaries of collocations produced in the future will include examples of words being 
used in these frames. 
2.2.7. Word families 
A word like grower is regularly derived from the verb, but is almost always 
premodifier, and students need examples like "peach growers" and "sugar growers," and 
"chicken growers," if they are to actually use the word. The idea that you can "grow" 
chickens might surprise many students! 
In general, the ways we mention opposites, synonyms, superordinate and word 
families are useful for grouping words, or establishing sense relations, but like all 
definition-based strategies, don't really teach words for use. When our emphasis is on 
collocation, we might start out our explanation of better by saying, "Well, better is the 
comparative of good," or "Better is the opposite of worse," but we would go on to mention 
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such exemplifications as "a better world / future / job" or expressions with verbs like "feel 
better" and "look better" and "get better" and "make something better," or modification 
with adverbs like, "a little / somewhat / quite / much / significantly better," etc. 
2.2.8. Definition versus Exemplification 
When our focus is on definition, we commonly define a word by using it in the subject 
position (An X is...), often supply a superordinate, and supply a picture if possible. The 
following definition of donkey from the Collins Cobuild New Student's Dictionary 
contains all these features: "A donkey is an animal like a small horse with long ears => see 
picture on page 815." When we focus on collocation, we are more interested in 
exemplifications, both for analysis and production, as illustrated by the following sentence: 
"My donkey helps me carry water four times a day." Definitions are rather formal 
affairs. An exemplification, on the other hand, is an example of the word in use, may 
embody almost any thought, is conversational, and more revealing in terms of a word's 
collocates. 
In the exemplification for donkey, the possessive adjective + noun collocation ("My 
donkey...") reminds us that someone usually owns a donkey, and the collocating verb ("My 
donkey helps me...") reminds us of the important role that donkeys play in many societies. 
Exemplifications like these can be thought provoking (Fox), and affect the way we 
think about things. In many societies, for example, a woman without a donkey must be a 
donkey herself. Definition cannot provide such an insight, but exemplification can. 
2.2.9. Comprehension Questions 
When our focus is on identification or definition of single words, our comprehension 
questions mirror our focus. And so, after presenting a word like friend, we test 
comprehension with questions like, "What's a friend?" or "What's the opposite of friend?" 
or "What's friend in your language?" 
When our focus is on collocation, our questions also mirror our focus, but we ask 
different kinds of questions. We might ask things like, "What are some verbs used with 
friend used as an object?" or "What kinds of friends are there?" or "What would I call I 
friend whom I met in the army or college?" or "Give me some modifiers for friend that 
relate to nationality," or "Give me some modifiers for friend that relate to the length of the 
relationship," or "what words often occur with friend in a series?" or "I'm a friend of Ali's 
... now spell 'Ali's.'" 
2.2.10. Notes 
In classrooms and courses that emphasize vocabulary as the definition of single words, 
students typically make an alphabetized list of new L2 words with their L1 translations, 
and study it before a test. 
In classrooms and courses that emphasize collocation, students are far more likely to 
highlight a collocating verb, or circle a collocating preposition. And their notes will look 
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quite different. They might write down a noun along with five or six verbs. Or an adjective 
and five or six things it can modify. Or a verb, followed by five or six collocating adverbs. 
Such notes generally include few or no L1 translations. 
In a curriculum that emphasizes collocation, no opportunity is missed to recycle a 
vocabulary item from the start of the course to the end. This level of recycling is quite 
different to what most of us are used to. For example, heed and ignore would not simply be 
mentioned in the context of advice, but recycled when we introduce warning, order, 
recommendation, suggestion, etc. Constant recycling is a hallmark of collocation, and an 
important reason why students end up using and learning words. 
2.3. Why is using collocations highly recommended in academic writing? 
There are some reasons why collocations play an integral role in academic writing. 
The first reason is that knowledge of collocations is a good indication of general ESL 
proficiency. Research suggests that natural use of collocation is a distinguishing feature 
when native-speaker texts are compared with texts written by expert users or near-native 
speakers. Therefore, we can say that acquiring collocations is an integral part of acquiring 
proficiency in the target language. 
Another important point is that, if we had to create every word, one single word after 
another, every time we write, we could never achieve fluency. Fluency depends on being 
able to produce combinations of words automatically. Collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms 
and everyday chunks such as bitterly cold, set off, get rid of and at the moment, are used as 
ready-made pieces of language. They are not assembled every time we use them; they have 
‘addresses’ in our minds that we can access quickly when we need them. 
The final reason is that collocations are regarded as one of the marking criteria 
indicated clearly in the public band descriptors of official English writing examinations 
such as IELTS or V-STEP. 
2.4. How should students learn collocations? 
Every language has thousands of collocations, but how do we know which ones are the 
most commonly used and most useful for learners? And how can we discover the sorts of 
problems learners experience with collocations? To find the most common collocations, 
we need good, up-to-date corpora of written language, and to know more about learners’ 
use of collocations, we need corpora of learners’ language. 
Corpora show us that English has a set of verbs that are extremely common, such as 
do, make, get, have, go, etc. and it is precisely these verbs that often cause learners 
problems with collocation. The Cambridge Learner Corpus shows that learners often 
say get a baby/an accident/fun instead of have a baby/an accident/fun, and make some 
shopping/research/work, instead of do some shopping/research/work. 
There are several ways of approaching this common problem with collocations. One is 
to say that learners must simply learn each new collocation as they encounter them. To do 
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this, vocabulary notebook strategies are important, and a good rule of thumb is when you 
learn a new word, write down not just its meaning or translation, but also its common 
collocations (e.g. have an accident, go for/take a stroll). 
Another way to approach the problem of these common, everyday collocations is to 
group together the collocations of individual verbs: make often collocates with something 
that has a result (make a cake, a mistake, a plan, a list). Do often collocates with activities 
and emphasizes actions (do the shopping, business, exercise, research). Get often 
collocates with adjectives that indicate that something has changed (get better, get old, get 
ready, get tired). By grouping the collocations together, learners can develop a better ‘feel’ 
for what is appropriate. 
Above all, in the language class, we should (a) raise learners’ awareness of collocation 
(e.g. by asking them to think of their own language or other language(s) they know) and 
(b) give learners repeated exposure to typical collocations in written texts. Good teaching 
materials take collocation seriously and offer examples and practice in using collocations. 
If we teach vocabulary but don’t pay attention to collocation, we are giving learners an 
incomplete picture of how the language works. 
2.5. Recommended resources. 
Students can also consult online collocation dictionaries. Two of my favorite 
collocation dictionaries are: 
Free Online Collocations Dictionary 
ozdic.com 
Besides, website drillpal.com is also a very good online resource for studying 
collocations. In this website, there are exercises that help learners remember how they are 
used in context and many of the topics presented are connected to academic writing topics. 
If students really want a much deeper understanding of collocations with many practice 
exercises, they can get the book 'English Collocations in Use' from Cambridge and they 
can get this book on Amazon. 
3. IN CONCLUSION 
Learning collocations should be encouraged among students because of its undeniable 
importance in improving lexical resource for academic writing. It is the responsibility of 
English teachers to give importance to the studying of collocations while teaching 
vocabulary and get the students to pay attention to the new word used in the exact context. 
Learners have to realize that the learning