Lexical Bundles

Lexical bundles are sequences of words that co-occur very frequently: Would you mind…, I think that…, etc. Teaching commonly recurring lexical bundles to students is good practice, even if you tell them a thousand times that in English the phrase “go shopping” is used as opposed to “go to the shopping,” and they still continue to write the later on their papers. At least you tried.

Traditionally, an analysis of English would focus on the zillions of one-word items making up the language, such as is listed in a dictionary. However, thanks to computer assisted corpus linguistic studies, we now know that language is also made up of ‘chunks’ of words, or phrases, and not just a series of single-word items. Thus the dividing line that had traditionally been drawn between vocabulary and grammatical rules was an artificial one, and instead we see the two acting together. For example, how does one explain the fact that certain verbs tend to go with that-clauses, such as think, know, believe, etc, and other verbs seem to go with to-clauses, such as want, like, try, etc? The simple answer seems to be that certain words have an affinity to certain grammatical structures. This blows the lid off of the original hard-line thought of Chomskian grammar which was that syntax is strictly rule governed. So if the latter is true, then how can the above example be explained? Well, it appears that syntax is more semantically driven then what linguists first thought.

So to get back to the practical matters of EFL/ESL, we now know that it is probably futile to believe that there is an actual grammatical rule that can explain the placement of every word in every utterance in every situation. So why rack your brain over trying to figure out some abstract rule for which preposition goes with what in whatever situation, blah, blah, blah. It’s collocations, baby. You’re just going to have to start memorizing some lexical chunks. Hey, nobody said language learning was easy.

So feed your students little phrases to use all the time, but don’t overdue it. The mind, and especially a feeble one such as mine, can only take so much information at a time. But, every class-meeting try to write a few phrases in the corner of the board, and even better yet, if possible, develop a list of them that can be left permanently in the classroom as the term goes on. And get out of the habit of just writing single words on the board in isolation. For example, instead of just writing down “go” and “shopping” write down “go shopping” or “have a moustache.” And encourage, or assign, your students that when they make a word list, to also try to include the other words (collocations) that go with it. Also, when writing full sentences or clauses down on the board, get into the practice of underlining and pointing out collocations. Eventually some will sink in, and maybe, if we’re lucky, we’ll be priming their brain to listen for these chunks in conversation or wherever they might come across English, and they will finally absorb them into their own inter-language – the ultimate goal.

Un-standard English

Even though there is no official institution that regulates the usage of English (unlike other languages, such as Japanese), there is still a widespread and prevailing belief that there is some uniform, unchanging ‘standard English.’ An all purpose form that can (and should some would argue) be used to effect under any circumstance and in any geographic location. This is the variety codified in dictionaries, grammar books, and usage manuals. Furthermore, this idea of an unchanging, uniform standard often leads to the belief that one form of a grammatical feature is correct, but this just simply is not the case. One of the beauties and social necessities of language is that it is flexible. Nonetheless, attempt to explain this to the local non-native English teacher whilst abroad, and just see how far you get.

I am often approached by the Thai English professors at my place of work (and usually while I’m in the middle of something at least I deem to be important) about some completely obscure grammatical feature, such as advanced model usage, and which of two highly similar choices is correct. Of course, I am then expected to deliver an immediate unambiguous response, thus clarifying all prior confusion for the teacher. Then I lay this crap on them above because it is the cold-truth about language usage in the real world, and the vexed professor then leaves my desk in a state of ire and even higher confusion, probably secretly cursing the useless, overpaid foreigner on staff. The funny thing too, is that these inquiries will often relate to correct answers for a test the local teacher will give. It is at this point when I want to exclaim, “Now, if you the English teacher, had to consult me about which is supposedly the correct modal to use in this artificial situation you’ve just conjured up, and you are thus unsure, then how in the hell can you justify testing and thus potentially marking you students down over the same feature?” It is times like these when I really need a coffee break.