Summary
It is generally accepted now that learners of a foreign language need to have command of different 
word combinations, particularly collocations. However, in spite of the fact that collocations 
have recently been discussed by many linguists, there is still a lack of understanding of how 
word combinations, and among them collocations, are learned. It is of great importance that 
collocations are taught intensively to students who have already acquired the basis of a foreign 
language they wish to master. Collocations are also of the utmost importance in the study 
of language for specific purposes. T eachers of a foreign language try to approach this issue 
in different manners. €is paper addresses different ways of making students aware of word 
combinations and their importance. Moreover, teachers of a foreign language are provided 
with some ideas for teaching collocations and correcting collocational errors students of a 
foreign language make when they write or speak. Some mistakes made by Slovene speakers 
of English are listed. €e paper also provides some examples of exercises that may be of help 
when correcting collocational errors made by Slovene speakers of English. Finally, there is 
some information about different types of dictionaries.
 
Key words: foreign language teaching, contrastive approach, collocations. 
 Povzetek
Danes se jezikoslovci na splošno strinjajo, da je pri učenju tujega jezika zelo pomembno, da 
obvladamo različne besedne zveze, posebej kolokacije. Čeprav so kolokacije v zadnjem času 
pogosto predmet obravnave v različnih člankih in raziskavah, pa še vedno ne vemo zagotovo, 
kako se jih v tujem jeziku naučimo. Kolokacije so posebej pomembne tudi pri učenju jezika 
stroke, saj predstavljajo velik del besedišča pri posameznih strokah. Poučevanja kolokacij se 
učitelji tujega jezika lotevamo na različne načine. V tem prispevku so opisani nekateri načini 
poučevanja kolokacij s posebnim poudarkom na odpravljanju napak, ki so tipične za slovenske 
govorce angleščine. Na koncu je tudi kratka informacija o slovarjih, ki so nam na razpolago. 
Ključne besede: poučevanje tujega jezika, kontrastivni pristop, kolokacije.
 DOI: 10.4312/elope.2.1-2.185-192

I would like to start this article by pointing out that different word combinations pose different 
problems for non-native speakers. On the one hand, there are idioms, fixed word combinations, 
which might be difficult to decode, translate from a foreign language into the mother tongue 
since they are semantically opaque and the words they consist of usually do not retain their 
literal meanings. When we say It’s raining cats and dogs we do not speak about cats and dogs 
but a heavy downpour. However, it must be added that idioms are not very often found in the 
language of native speakers. On the other hand, there are collocations, recurrent loosely fixed 
word combinations in which words more or less retain their literal meanings. €e expression 
a whirlwind tour is not the only word combination in which the word tour occurs. On the 
contrary, there are numerous expressions in which we can find this word: we can say a foreign/
international/national/overseas/world/city tour or simply tour and similarly the first word can be 
found in other word combinations or on its own. In the process of decoding, most collocations 
do not create serious problems for non-native speakers since we can to a certain extent rely on 
the meanings of individual words. Nevertheless, this cannot be said for the process of encoding, 
translating from our mother tongue into a foreign language. When non-native speakers do not 
know a particular collocation in a foreign language they are also ignorant as to whether this 
collocation consists of the predictable translational equivalents of the words in the collocation 
in their mother tongue. Let me illustrate this with the following examples. Slovene speakers 
of English sometimes speak about sea water and *sweet water; the first collocation is correct, 
whereas the second one is wrong because of the simple fact that in English another collocation 
expresses the same meaning as the Slovene collocation sladka voda. If you look up the individual 
words in a Slovene-English dictionary, everything is clear, sladka is sweet and voda is water, so 
the translation you come up with should be correct. It would be, of course, if it were not a 
collocation that is different in English, where native speakers would never think of using it; 
they say fresh water. While students of tourism very often speak about a freshwater lake in Fiesa 
(Slovenia), its water sometimes erroneously becomes sweet. More mistakes made by Slovene 
speakers of English stemming from the cross-linguistic influence are: *typical for (typical of), *to 
cook coffee (to make coffee), *to go on coffee (to have a cup of coffee), *interested for (interested in), 
*good in (good at), *allergic on (allergic to), *married with (married to), *depend of (depend on). 
Gabrovšek (1998, 129) mentions some more interesting examples, such as *a clock shows time 
(a clock tells time), *a high age (an advanced age), *angel guardian (guardian angel). 
In this article I am not going to focus on the reason why collocational mistakes are made by 
non-native speakers, but rather on some ways of making students of a foreign language aware 
of the fact that collocations can be different in different languages and that we simply have to 
learn them. I have chosen collocations for the simple reason that they are very common and 
difficult to learn. 

Firth (1957, 181) wrote that: “Collocations of a given word are statements of the habitual or 
customary places of that word in collocational order but not in any other contextual order 
and emphatically not in any grammatical order. €e collocation of a word or a ‘piece’ is 
not to be regarded as mere juxtaposition; it is an order of mutual expectancy. €e words are 
mutually expectant and mutually prehended”. And since he said that “You shall know a word 
by the company it keeps” (Firth 1957, 179), many linguists have been sharing an interest in 
collocations.
T o have a clearer understanding of the individual types of collocations, I quote Benson, who 
writes in the introduction to Dictionary of English Word Combinations (Benson et al. 1997, xv): 
“In English, as in other languages, there are many fixed, identifiable, non-idiomatic phrases 
and constructions. Such groups of words are called recurrent combinations, fixed combinations, 
or collocations. Collocations fall into two major groups: grammatical collocations and lexical 
collocations.”
Grammatical collocations are combinations of a dominant word and a preposition or 
grammatical structure such as an infinitive or clause, for example account for, accuse (somebody) 
of, adapt to, agonize over, aim at; and further, the words cannot be replaced by other words, for 
example *account over or *accuse somebody on.
Benson et al. (ibid, xvi) list eight types of grammatical collocations:
- noun + preposition, for example apathy towards,
- noun + to infinitive, for example an attempt to do something,
- noun + that clause, for example an agreement that he should,
- preposition + noun, for example by accident,
- adjective + preposition, for example fond of,
- predicate adjective + to infinitive, for example necessary to work,
- adjective + that clause, for example afraid that,
- verb patterns, for example send something to somebody,
and seven types of lexical collocations:
- verb + noun/pronoun, for example make an impression,
- verb meaning essentially eradication or nullification + noun, 
 for example reject an appeal,
- adjective + noun, for example strong/weak tea,
- noun + verb, for example alarms go off/ring/sound,
- noun indicating a unit + noun, for example a pride of lions,
- adverb + adjective, for example strictly accurate and
- verb + adverb, for example amuse thoroughly.

€is is just one possible classification of collocations; many authors have come up with different 
types. In the introduction to the recently published Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students 
of English (2002) we find the following types: adjective + noun (bright light), qualifier + noun (a 
beam of light), verb + noun (shed light), noun + verb (light gleams), noun + noun (a light source), 
preposition + noun (by the light of the moon), noun + preposition (the light from the window), 
adverb + verb (choose carefully), verb + verb (be free to choose), verb + preposition (choose between 
two things), verb + adjective (declare something safe), adverb + adjective (environmentally safe), 
adjective + preposition (safe from attack), short phrases including the headword (the speed of 
light, safe and sound). 
€ough I do not find such classifications of paramount importance, it is useful to read them 
to get an impression of what type of word combinations are commonly considered to be 
collocations.
 Why teach collocations to students of a foreign language at all? After all, many linguists agree that 
using wrong collocations does not cause a communicational breakdown. It might occasionally 
sound funny, but speakers still make themselves understood. Nevertheless, knowing and using 
right collocations brings non-native speakers closer to native speakers of the language and 
enables them to say precisely what they mean, not to mention the fact that language for 
specific purposes consists of numerous collocations typical of that particular field. Consider 
the following collocations: a(n) direct/easy/free/wheelchair access, a human-made/major/ natural/
tourist attraction, a confirmed/provisional booking, a sightseeing/courtesy bus, airport/dining/eating/
hotel/room facilities, a tourist/tour guide, off-peak/shoulder months, a honey-pot site, acquired 
taste, the high/low season, dry/wet lease, a chartered/scheduled/domestic flight, a bucket-and-spade/
package holiday, to audit/close/open/ settle an account, to satisfy/whet somebody’s appetite, to cater 
for customers/tourists, to protect/clean up/ preserve/pollute the environment, to allocate a room/seat, 
to fill/ have a vacancy, to check/claim one’s luggage, to notify the next of kin, a pre-arranged/tentative 
itinerary, out of/(with)in sight, typical of, on offer, recommend highly/strongly, to travel widely/light, 
fully/highly qualified, a leg/stretch of a journey, in the lap of luxury, next of kin. €ere are just 
some of the examples of collocations typical of the language of tourism (Čeh 2001, 91–112). 
Furthermore, language for specific purposes is a very important knowledge area students need 
and expect to acquire at tertiary institutions that they are attending (Jurković 2002, 113). 
Generally speaking, teaching collocations means also (Lewis 2000, 13) furthering the 
understanding of what words mean and how they are used, recycling half-known words, 
accelerating learning and bringing useful collocations to students’ attention.
For students of tourism this means knowing the language of tourism.
T o begin with, collocations are everywhere: in the videos we watch, the course books we 
use, the texts we read and listen to. We just have to pay attention and maybe change the 

way we approach the text. Instead of asking students whether there are any words they do 
not understand, we should call their attention to word combinations, to words they already 
know, but do not know how to combine with other words. Collocations also prove to be very 
useful when we try to explain the differences between words. Instead of explaining different 
meanings, we can come up with different collocations of individual words. €e difference 
between two words does not always lie in dictionary definitions but in collocational fields 
(Lewis 2000, 13). For example, wound and injury.
Bahns (1993, 109) says that collocations should be taught and that a learner’s knowledge of 
collocations does not develop parallel to their knowledge of vocabulary. Howarth (1998, 35) 
investigated the use of collocations by native speakers in comparison to non-native speakers 
and came to the conclusion that native speaker collocational density was 38%, whereas the 
percentage with non-native speakers was 25%, ranging from as little as 13% up to 33%. 
Howarth writes that there is no clear evidence of a direct correlation between overall language 
proficiency and accurate use of collocations; proficient learners might make even more errors, 
blending parts of different collocations. 
In my own, not so distant past, any dealing with an authentic text in the classroom was followed 
by my question whether there were any words students did not understand. Recently I have been 
asking if students have noticed any useful phrases. After listening or reading we collect useful 
chunks of language, not only collocations but all ready-made pieces they can retrieve later on 
when they speak or write. After watching a video about national parks we were able to collect the 
following extremely useful chunks of language: two main purposes of national parks, conservation 
of the landscape, promotion of the area for public enjoyment, the national park was designated in 
1929, there are several honey-pot sites, prevent erosion, reinforce the river banks, the clash between 
local population and visitors, traffic congestion, build footpaths, prevent pollution, etc.
In the course book (Čeh 2003, 10) each listening or reading activity is followed by a list of 
prefabricated chunks of language from the authentic texts and students are encouraged to add 
as many as they can remember. €ere are also numerous exercises with collocations, such as 
matching, filling in the blanks, and grouping. Also the words that are listed in exercises are 
later on used in collocations and larger chunks of language. 
 However, such collocational exercises were just the beginning. Subsequently I realised that 
as a teacher of the foreign language I was supposed to deal with the mistakes that students 
repeatedly made in their writing or speaking. I started collecting them and including them in 
new exercises. Over time it became obvious that it would be irrational to limit the choice to 
collocations only and I included other types of word combinations as well. I wanted to put 
word combinations in context and since I hated separate sentences I asked my friend who is a 
native speaker of English to help me produce short passages of text, the mistakes in which the 

students are expected to correct. €is is usually done in groups and students are encouraged to 
come to grips with the text by means of collocational dictionary or any other dictionary that 
might be helpful.
A typical example of such exercises would be the following two texts that are given to students 
for correction.
€is is the paper I give to my students:
Is there a better way of saying it?
Cruising was before thought of as a holiday you take just one time in your life.
It now competes with holidays that include more components and when you buy it you 
really get what you paid for.
You must not forget that it is a holiday that includes all meals.
Cruise companies give passengers food of good quality and you can usually get it at any 
time.
Another reason for the fact that cruising is becoming more popular is that you can choose 
between different offers.
€ere are cruises to each country of the world offering what different age groups want 
to buy.
More and more tourists want to buy cruises which offer something to people with a 
particular interest.
€ey organize lectures on a ship and they include different topics. 
You do not have to pay extra to attend lectures.
It is now possible to choose between so many different topics that it is important to 
choose carefully.
Luxurious boats will take you to many different places tourists go to. 
All cabins have their own bathroom and air-condition.
Cruise ships usually offer outside swimming-pools and also some other equipment.
€e picture most people have of cruising has changed very much.
And this is an example of how my students should correct the text:
Cruising was formerly thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime holiday.
It now competes with package holidays for value for money.
You have to bear in mind that it is a full board holiday.
Cruise companies provide quality food usually available round the clock.
Another reason for the growing popularity of cruising is the choice on offer.
#ere are cruises all over the world catering for all age groups.
#ere is a growing demand for special interest cruises.

#ey organize lectures on board which cover a wide range of topics.
Lectures are free of charge.
#e choice is now so wide that it is important to select carefully.
Luxurious boats will take you to numerous holiday resorts.
All cabins have en-suite facilities and air conditioning.
Cruise ships usually offer outdoor swimming-pools as well as some other facilities.
#e cruising picture has changed dramatically.
And another example of a different exercise:
Fill in the blanks.
I’d like to introduce you to my friend who studies with me because she is interested 
______ catering. She is good ______ combining recipes which are typical ______ the 
different regions in our country. She is also aware _______ the different needs of our 
potential customers who might be allergic ______ a variety of ingredients. She considers 
herself fortunate because she is married ______ a chef who works the same unsociable 
hours as she does. How they spend their free time depends ______ the season. €ey are 
both keen ______ outdoor activities, in the winter they go cross-country skiing and in 
the summer diving.
A thorough analysis of the mistakes students make might show that most of them are made 
because of the collocations in the Slovene language and this is why I call this approach 
contrastive. As I have mentioned earlier, I do not aim to analyse the reasons for mistakes, but 
rather to help students correct them.
In order to be able to use different types of dictionaries students need to be given some 
basic information about them. Bilingual dictionaries often do not prove to be very helpful 
when looking up word combinations (we are looking forward to the publication of the 
new Slovene-English dictionary as it is expected that many more collocations will be 
included in it). Since unfortunately there is no bilingual collocational dictionary available 
for Slovene speakers of English, we use English dictionaries of collocations. €e problem 
with monolingual collocational dictionaries is that they were written for “everybody” 
and not for any particular group of speakers of the language. Slovene speakers of English 
are often unable to find in the English collocational dictionary the collocations that are 
difficult for them. €e problem is further compounded when the user starts looking 
up word combinations typical of the language for specific purposes. Logically many of 
them are not included since the dictionary is not meant to cover that particular field 
completely. 

It is evident that collocations are a very important feature in languages. In order to be able 
to express ourselves accurately and precisely, we have to learn, apart from the grammar and 
vocabulary of a foreign language, word combinations, particularly collocations. Unlike some 
other word combinations such as idioms, collocations are used all the time by native speakers. 
€ey are very difficult for a non-native speaker to learn, since in some of them words may be 
replaced and in others not. One of the tasks of a foreign language teacher is to make students 
aware of the importance of collocations, encourage them to study collocations and help them 
find appropriate and efficient ways of doing so.