Introduction

Welcome to Collocations for Writing Academic Texts!
The goal of this eLearning module is to learn how to recognize useful word combinations (collocations) in English and apply them to your written work in order to craft your expressions in a more academic way. This module is designed for students from B2+ and will take approximately two hours to complete. It is divided into three modules. Each module includes a short section of general guidelines followed by a practice test. Once you have completed this eLearning module, you will have gained strategies to recognize word combinations and have many useful academic collocations at your fingertips.

What are collocations? Collocations are words that combine together. It is easier to remember word combinations or "chunks" of language. These "chunks" can be very useful when writing texts. The key is to learn to recognize these word combinations when reading academic texts in your field so that you can apply them when writing your own research papers, essays, reports, etc.
 
Example: Although there are many different word combinations, the most common are verb + noun combinations. See example below:
 
VERB       +       NOUN
to read             an academic paper
to write
to produce
to edit
to publish
 
Other examples include:
ADJECTIVE + NOUN: A scientific paper.
NOUN + PREPOSITION: A paper on how learning a new language alters brain development.
VERB + PREPOSITION: This paper contributes to the field of linguistics.
NOUN + VERB: The paper describes how people learn languages.

Example: A study from The Elementary School Journal explored vocabulary development at the kindergarten level. An excerpt from the article “With right lessons, non-native kindergarteners learn vocabulary faster than native English-speakers” has been provided in order to demonstrate how rich the text is with useful collocations.

"This study contributes to knowledge about vocabulary instruction by investigating the effects of a vocabulary intervention with children from a variety of backgrounds," writes Rebecca Deffes Silverman, who conducted the research while at Harvard University and is now at the University of Maryland. Past studies have identified vocabulary as the "single most encountered obstacle" for English-language-learning students, Silverman points out, and vocabulary is also the primary determinant of future reading comprehension.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-04/uocp-wrl042607.php

By the end of this module, you will have learned how to recognize these useful word combinations and apply them to your written work.