Elt through rhythm and rhyme

Rhythm and Rhyme

Collocation, Critical Thinking, and the 3Rs

ELT through

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Jason R. Levine, English Specialist

The Case of Ji Yeon Lee

“Yesterday I go a movie”

A vicious cycle keeps students on the “intermediate plateau.”

Low input ➔ Low comprehension ➔ Low confidence ➔ Low motivation ➔

Low input

The FLUENT Cycle!

high input ➔ high comprehension ➔ high confidence ➔ high motivation ➔

high input

“Kids are like sponges.”

“Kids are like sponges.”

• Age• Brain physiology• Large amounts of repetitive input• Relaxed• Interested and engaged• Not concerned with errors• Can’t think analytically

Lola

“Play it again! Read it again!”

Reciting the alphabet, numbers,

and the days of the week.

Phrasal verbs and negative

questions.

“It’s not my fair!” “I do a mistake.”

“I brung you a present.”

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are needed to see this picture.

The Lexical Approach “Language consists of grammaticalized

lexis, not lexicalized grammar.” - Michael Lewis

The fundamental building blocks of lexis are collocations.

However: textbooks, worksheets, and flashcards do not provide enough repeated exposure to collocations.

Collocation =

A high-frequency CHUNK of language

Collo = Collocation

Two Important Types of Collos

(1) Verb + (Preposition) + Complement

fly a planelisten to music

decide to studygive up smoking

(2) Adjective + (Preposition) + Complement

heavy trafficjealous of her

so much informationhappy to help

Mis-Collos

Hollow Collos

listen music ask to someone

take the phone

eat medicine

have hunger

make a boyfriend

a tall mountain a bad noise

clothe myself awake and arisedo a picnic

Make ______

Do ______

“What’s an uncountable noun?”

Teaching Collos can help teach the grammar that native speakers never

learned.

Names and numbers Collo, too!

Khartoum _____Michael _____8 x 7 = ______

Always ______Just ______

Kentucky ______

I had to get Collos stuck in their heads!

ColloCards

ColloTunes

it’s easy to

When you

your time with

The Baby and the Bathwater

• In its response to the Audio-Lingual Method, Communicative Language Teaching ultimately “threw the baby out with the bathwater.”

• An EFL student who lacks the ability to automatically recall Collos, lacks the foundation on which to build accurate and fluent communicative skills.

Collo and SPARK!Super-PoweredAutomaticRecall ofKnowledge!

Collo• An intuitive concept for students to grasp

• The bridge from words to sentences

• Leads to less analyzing and monitoring

• Promotes accuracy AND fluency

• Lays a foundation for critical thinking skills

• Fun to identify Collos and discuss them in class

• Students notice immediate improvementSuccess is contingent upon sufficient input/intakethrough repeated exposure.

It’s all about the 3Rs:

RelaxRepeat

Remember

Rehearsal• Select the Collos your students need most to

achieve communicative goals.• Rehearse Collos in class and assign as homework.• Rehearse anytime, anywhere-a little bit each day

(like doing sit-ups!)• Ideas to try: marking stress, using recorders,

shadowing native speakers’ speech • Promote acquisition through meaningful

repetition, NOT memorization!• Design communicative activities to get students

building sentences with the Collos they have rehearsed.

“Let’s build a baseto support higher

thought and hold on to all of the things that

we’re taught.”

-Fluency MC, “More of America”

Colloandspark.com Youtube.com/collolearn

Facebook.com/fluencymc Twitter.com/fluencymc

Facebook.com/groups/improvespoken Linkedin.com/in/jaselevine Facebook.com/englishlanguageteachingvideo collolearn@gmail.com