This is a lesson that I had almost forgotten, until recently I taught a private student who wanted to focus on improving vocabulary to talk about art. Though the topic is art a lot of the collocations are more general than that and I think are a useful addition to students knowledge from B2 upwards.
This is a short little lesson, though there are undoubtedly ways in which you could stretch it, I’ll give you a couple of ideas at the end.
The lesson is based on a 9 minute film about art in Siena, so may not be to everyone’s taste, but it is nicely done and well-presented in my opinion, and features Andrew Graham-Dixon, who I am rather fond of. Students who I have used this with have found it relatively easy to understand what he is saying which is good as the focus here is on collocation, though you could easily build some pron work into this.
Aims: to increase students collocation knowledge / to practice listening using an authentic text.
Level: B2 +
Procedure:
Pre-listening
Discussion regarding Siena, has anyone been and then fast independent research using mobiles and then all class feedback
Listening
For this to begin with the main focus is prediction, put students in groups and ask them to think of words which might fit. During group feedback praise good collocations and highlight ones which don’t quite work.
Explain to the students that all you want them to do is watch and try to complete the gapped phrases. They should be able to get most at the first listen, but be prepared to play it again if need be. Get students to check with a partner and then do group feedback.
Speaking and follow on
This is just a quick follow on to tie it together
However, what I would ask them to do next is to either write a short radio or video show that they present to the class or ask them to find a clip and to take note of what they believe to be strong collocations and bring them to class.
Materials
Video:
Taken from a BBC programme – via youtube
Worksheet:
- word – word-worksheet
- pdf – pdf-worksheet
textploitation 