Lexical Approaches Focused On Teaching Collocations to Teach Native-Like Speech and Writing to Korean General Education English Class Students

What is learned first? Words! And then, words in combination with other words. Also, a principal difference between pre-intermediate versus advanced speakers is amount of vocabulary known. However, course books and most teachers remain grammar-centered.Michael Lewis, author of The Lexical Approach, wrote the artificial distinction between grammar and vocabulary needn’t be made. Instead, teaching should focus on chunks - words in their typical collocations with other words. Most interestingly, it appears the command of collocations is a main difference between advanced and native speakers. This paper argues in favour of teaching such collocations from the very beginning, in order to accelerate the acquisition of native-like fluency in English. In this qualitative presentation, the presenter reports about his experiments at, and regular teaching of Korean university Practical English students using Observe-Hypothesize-Experiment (OHE) approaches focusing on lexis to teach common collocations with DO, HAVE, MAKE, GET, GIVE and TAKE. Knowing when and how to use them is a hallmark of native-like competency. It should be one of our aims to lead our students to notice and start using them.