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Collocations that go with 'take' from Tim's English lesson Plans.

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Collocations that go with 'take' from Tim's English lesson Plans.

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Here's the HO for the lesson on the right.

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Task 2: Look at the lesson plan for the collocations that go with ‘take’ in the link here (Tim’s free English Lesson Plans) and make a comment about its usefulness for teaching collocations

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Task 2: Look at the lesson plan for the collocations that go with ‘take’ in the link here (Tim’s free English Lesson Plans) and make a comment about its usefulness for teaching collocations

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1. How useful is the lesson plan to teach collocations? consider: meaning & use, and grammar & form.
2. Would you use this with your students? Why/Why not?
3. What are your suggestions to learn and teach collocations?

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This is the first in a series of guest posts by my friend and colleague Josh Widdows, an English teacher and teacher trainer at International House Barcelona.

This is a vocabulary lesson plan for strong intermediate/upper-intermediate students based on the idea of meeting your partner's parents for the first time. It highlights the importance of strong collocations that are rich in the English language, using 'take' expressions. A fun and discussion based lesson that allows students to create their own 'guide' for meeting the parents for the first time.

Download the PowerPoint, lesson procedure and handout below.
Meet The Parents Presentation Meet The Parents Task Sheet Meet The Parents Lesson Procedure Meet The Parents Lesson Procedure

( Slide 1): Film poster of 'Meet The Parents'. Ask: Have you seen it?
What's it about? Why can this be a difficult situation?
Ss read the article and decide on best 'tip'.

Ss compare and debate which 'tip' is the best. Facilitate and direct conversation.

Answer any questions about other lexis.

Topicalise lesson and activate schemata about the first meeting of your partner's parents.

Reason to read and gather ideas.

Allow them to share ideas and debate the items.

Highlight the first tip's take expression and get them to underline the other 9. Encourage noticing of whole lexical chunk.

Monitor and mediate.

Project article ( Slide 2) with underlined expressions. Ss check and notice full form of the expressions.

Ss discuss the meaning of each identified item. Model first in o/c.

(Slide 3); Ss match the 'take' expressions to their meaning. Do first one in o/c and then encourage autonomy.

Write up answers and check. Notice the ones they have difficulties with and clarify any misunderstandings.

Allows ss to notice the multiple expressions in the text.

Notice all particles of the expressions.

They work out meaning from context.

Notice their 'meaning gap' and leads them to understanding the true meaning.

Allow ss to check their understanding and question any uncertainties.

Focus ss on the form of the first 'take' expression and discuss form together, eg. take+prep+noun. They then highlight and discuss the forms of the others: NB Poss. Adjs

( Slide 4): Project form table, focusing on 'singular nouns' and other patterns.

Elicit the meta-language from ss. Talk about plurals and ask queries.

Notice which phoneme areas they struggle with and highlight weak forms.

Ss mumble practice the phrases. Notice any problem areas and then top-up in o/c.

Model: Give definition of one expression in o/c and elicit the take expression: 'Which take expression means "to participate"?'

One student has the definition table and the other folds theirs in half. The one with open paper, gives the definition, the other gives the take expression. Monitor pronunciation.

Get them to identify and notice the different forms of the expressions.

Allows them to notice that some of the expressions are fixed that some particles cannot be changed.

Highlight the connected speech and word stress.

Lets ss practice the expressions and notice problem areas.

Reinforce form and recycle/practise meaning.

Testing encourages more clarity and cognitive depth.

SS complete 10 sentences with the noun extracted.

( Slide 5) Project up the full sentences and ss check. Discuss any uncertainties or queries.

Draw attention to the lexical value and evaluate the form.

Clarify answers.

In small groups students discuss and share their own ideas and experiences about 'How to Survive Meeting Your Partner's Parents for The First Time and ss decide on best tips.

Monitor and ensure ss are using the target language appropriately. Feed in and shape any extra language.

Ss decide on best tip(s) and then feedback in open class. T reformulates language and ss debate their ideas.

Feedback to whole group and discuss best tips and personalised ideas that have come up.

Top-up on learning and answer any queries.

Ss gain cognitive depth through personalised answers and practice.

Allows T to check ss are using the items correctly and reinforce confidence in the ss.

Further cognitive depth by learning others' use of the expressions.

Shared learning opportunities expands knowledge.

Barcelona based English Teacher, blogger and sometime actor and director. View All Posts

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Guest Post: Meet the Parents - Expressions with "Take"

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Image credit: Neatorama Follow me on twitter @RobbioDobbio This is the first in a series of guest posts by my friend and colleague Josh Widdows, an English teacher and teacher trainer at International House Barcelona. This is a vocabulary lesson plan for strong intermediate/upper-intermediate students based on the idea of meeting your partner's parents for the first time.

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1. How useful is the lesson plan to teach collocations?
- I think the lesson is quite successful in terms of meaning & use since it provides most of the collocations of "take", which is the lesson itself though, and asks students to discover them. In addition, students are also asked to work out their meanings of these collocations. However, the lesson plan lacks necessary input and activities regarding other aspects of Meaning & Use such as register and style. As for Grammar & Form, I think it provides a good insight about the grammar with the help of the grammar activity provided. On the other hand, the lesson plan does not include any specific focus on pronunciation and stress.
2. Would you use this with your students? Why/Why not?
I would definitely use this lesson as it is a good and contextual way of introducing collocations with take. However, I would also include the points that I mentioned in the previous question in my lesson plan.
3. What are your suggestions to learn and teach collocations?
As a visual learner, I would suggest learners to create a word map / diagram including different collocations of a word. This way it would be easier for learners to remember them. In addition, contextualizing them just like in the lesson plan is also a very effective method to learn and retain the meanings and usages of different collocations.

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1. I think it is very useful because there are different and useful collocations of 'take' is given in the worksheet. I think before letting the students complete their task, we can allow them to use dictionary to guess the possible meanings of collocations one by one. Maybe we can make them use synonyms for that.
2. I think the activities are quite useful because the first there is a matching activity so that the students can have something in their hand to get help. Then the activities get more challanging and requests more from the students, I liked it as well. I think I would use it.
3. As I said above, I would use dictionary and guessing, also I would talk about the register of all the collocations and I would also inform them which of those are more frequently used so that they could know how frequently they can meet with them.

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My reflections on the lesson plan- Başak BİRCAN

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My reflections on the lesson plan- Başak BİRCAN

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According to the full lesson plan, the T starts the lesson with a class discussion to activate schemata which gives ss a reason to read and gather ideas. As a next step, ss are encouraged to find and underline the expressions with "take" which raises awareness. Then, ss discuss the meaning of each expression and they work out the meaning from context. Also, T raises another topic for ss to discuss the form during which ss identify and notice the different forms of the expressions. However, this activity requires a high command of language and awareness of metalanguage. The latter activity where ss practice, reinforce and recycle what has been taught is a good way of ss assessing themselves. At the end of this activity, ss will probably have gained more cognitive depth and reinforced confidence.

I could use this lesson plan with an appropriate class and level of ss but I would still make some changes and additions:

·      The plan lacks extension and production. To extend, first I could ask ss to brainstorm and prepare a mind map and would use the mind map as a reference for ss for further study. After that, I would ask them to use their dictionaries to find more collocations and add to the map. Dictionary work would promote autonomy and that would be a more meaningful for of teaching. As a final activity, I could have asked ss to create their own dialogue, text, etc in pairs/groups to produce their own sentences in context. When in pairs/groups, we could make use of peer learning as well.

·      Sometimes it is really difficult for learners to make connections as their understanding of the language might hinder learning. Therefore, I could have used L1 as a reference if I felt necessary and found it helpful.

·      I think “collocations” is a difficult area and the learners would need more practice. As an extra practice, I could prepare a few sentences that had “collocational errors” for ss to correct.
Başak BİRCAN

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