Sunday, September 20, 2020

Card Matching for Collocation Practice

(TESOL Worksheets--Collocations)
Google: docs, pub
[Notes: The cards are cut up and shuffled before class.  One set of cards per group of students.  The students are put into groups of 4 or 5.  Each group is given a set of cards and they have to arrange the cards into the correct collocations.  The students are told it's a competition.  The first group to get all the correct collocations is the winner. When a group thinks they have the right answers, the teacher goes over and checks.  The teacher tells them which ones are right, and which ones are wrong, and they try to re-arrange the wrong ones, until they have only the correct answers.  The teacher then announces the winner.
Expansion activities--a "grab the card" game.  The cards are reshuffled and spread out on the table.   The teacher says one half of the collocation, and the student has to grab the matching card.  Or, in small groups, one of the students can be given the list of collocations (page 3 of the worksheet) and they conduct the game in their group.
Further expansion activity: students pick a card, keep it hidden from their group, and must describe the meaning (without saying the words).  The group has to guess what collocation goes with the card they are holding.

When I was selecting the collocations, I did my best to avoid cases where multiple answers would be possible, but a couple slipped past me--"time limit", "bad traffic" and a couple others.  If students matched these collocations, I would simply tell them, "Yes, good job.  This is also right.  But there's another card that these will go with as well."  (It may at some point in the future be worth trying to adjust the collocations to try to avoid the multiple answers.)
I use this activity as an introduction to the concept of collocations.  After the activity is completed, we have a class discussion about collocations.  (What are collocations?  How can you spot collocations?  How do you learn collocations?  What happens if you get the collocation wrong? et cetera)
These particular collocations come from a quizlet I found here.  I made a copy of it and edited it slightly here.  As a further follow up activity, the quizlet can be assigned as homework, or you can play Quizlet live in class.

keep


a diary

get


divorced

kill


time

answer


the phone

blow


your nose

bad

breath

common


knowledge

heavy


traffic

make


your bed

pack


a suitcase

political


prisoner


quick



fix

return


ticket

solve


a crime

take


a long time

tell


the truth

tight


budget

upper


limit

wage


war

worth


a fortune


keep (a diary)

get (divorced)

kill (time)

answer (the phone)

blow (your nose)

bad (breath)

common (knowledge)

heavy (traffic)

make (your bed)

pack (a suitcase)

political (prisoner)

quick (fix)

return (ticket)

solve (a crime)

take (a long time)

tell (the truth)

tight (budget)

upper (limit)

wage (war)

worth (a fortune)


https://quizlet.com/526016117/collocations-flash-cards/

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