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Implementing your students’ collocations: Putting theory into practice.
José Ribamar de Castro.
Implement = Carry out or Put into practice.
Collocation= The way words combine in a language to produce natural-sounding speech or writing 
A student who chooses the best collocation will express himself much more clearly and be able to convey not just a general meaning,but something quite precise.
Compare,for example,the following two sentences:
 *This is a good book and contains a lot of interesting details.
*This a fascinating book and contains a wealth of historical detail.
Both sentences are perfectly ‘correct’ in terms of grammar and vocabulary,but which communicates more (both about the book under discussion and the person discussing it)?
‘The full range of collocation’,as well as implying colloocations of different strengths,also covers all the following types of combination:
Adjective + noun : bright/harsh/intense/strong light
Quantifier + noun :
a beam/ray of light
Verb + noun:
cast/emit/give/provide/shed light
Noun + verb:
light gleams/glows/shines
Noun + noun:
a light source
Preposition + noun:
by the light of the moon
Noun + preposition:
the light from the window
Most of the collocations in the dictionary can be called ‘word collocations’,that is,these are the precise words that combine with each other: small fortune cannot be changed to little fortune,even though
small and little would seem to be synonymous.
I. Match the phrase fragments.
1. bite a. the ice
2. break b. with open arms
3. run c. devil’s advocate
4. play d. the dust
5. welcome you e. the risk
II. Expansion. Add more endings below.
with fire / the hand that feeds you /
the fool / with tradition / the bullet /
a business / the law / an errand /
the victim / a promise / for president/
your tongue
 
 Play with fire Run the risk
 
 Break the ice Bite the dust 
 
III. Complete the sentences below. The first letter or two letters have been given to help you.
1. The daughter misbehaved and the father gr............ her for two weeks.
2. The smoke alarm went off when he
l.......... the cigarette.
3. It’s time to f.............the facts:we are going to have to close the business.
4. The radio station ai........... the interview at midnight.
 5. She st.......... most of her things in the attic.
IV. What str- words can you put below?
 a comic 
 a winning
V. Put the words below in their correct place.
islands / paper / events / road /
land / political scandals / pearls /
tape
string of 
strip of
“It is impossible to speak or write English fluently without having a huge bank of prefabricated phrases which are stored in the speaker’s mental lexicon,ready for use.”
(Jimmie Hill and Michael Lewis)