• Learning
• Introduction I
• Reading
• Introduction II
• Noticing I
• Noticing II
• Recycling
• Producing I
• Producing II

45 min

Task A (food for thought)

Surely, you are very familiar with the following English nouns: NIGHT, USE, NEED.Then, you shouldn't find many difficulties in translating the following sentences into English:

1. Pasamos la noche en vela.

2. Dale un buen uso a esta información.

3. Tengo una necesidad imperiosa de hablar contigo.

Task B

In this task you are going to work with some more of the nouns that you already know. Now, before reading the rest of the module, complete Test 3_1 and say whether the following expressions are used in English or not (this short test is just to see how much you know in advance, so that you realise how much you can learn from this module).

Were tasks A and B more difficult than expected? Why do you think this is so? Find out the explanation here.

Task C

After reading the information about collocations presented above, complete the following introductory activities in Assignment 1 of module 3:

1. Have you ever heard about the notion of "collocation"? If so, when? What did you know about it before starting this module?

2. Explain IN YOUR OWN WORDS what a collocation is, and what the basic difference between collocations, free combinations of words and idioms is.

3. What is the difference between lexical collocations and grammatical collocations? (Note that in this module we will only deal with lexical collocations).

4. Classify the expressions from the box in the correct category:

Task D

Why do you think it is important for you to improve your collocational competence in English? Think about the problems that you may have encountered in doing tasks A and B, even though they only included very frequent words, and discuss it in the Forum