Mining reading passages for collocations 2

In an earlier post we mined a reading passage from a coursebook series for collocations for the students to do some work around those collocations prior to the reading activity. This time I am going to use the same reading material to share a few ideas on other types of activities that we can take to the language class for the students to do after they have read the passage.

The source of the reading passage is Solutions 3rd edition Pre-Intermediate, Unit 2, page 23 (Lost at Sea). You can access the free sample from the publisher’s site, Oxford University Press, HERE.

So the students have already read and discussed the story and done some work around it. Now we want to highlight interesting collocations and prepare some activities for our students.

They can do follow-up work around ‘adjective and noun’ collocations. Here’s the promt for Claude: I am going to copy and paste a story from a Pre-Intermediate level English coursebook and you are going to select 10 useful collocations from it for an English student learning English at that level. The collocations must be ‘adjective and noun’ based. From this list I want you to create a language activity for the Pre-Intermediate class of students called ‘Odd One Out’. You must provide a list of 4 adjectives that collocate with the noun (including the adjective from the text) and one that does not collocate. Place them randomly in one line, followed by the noun in bold for the students to find the adjective that does not collocate with the noun in bold. You must do this for the 10 selected collocations. Provide the answers at the end. Here is the story: [story].

  1. dream nightmare sleepy exciting holiday
  2. fishing boating sailing cooking trip
  3. stunning beautiful breathtaking sinking island
  4. huge big enormous quick fish
  5. awful terrible horrible shiny weather
  6. terrifying scary frightening joyful thought
  7. sharp pointed blunt jagged rocks
  8. sandy rocky pebbly wooden beach
  9. green ripe unripe yellow bananas
  10. tragic sad unfortunate delightful news

Answers:

  1. sleepy
  2. cooking
  3. sinking
  4. quick
  5. shiny
  6. joyful
  7. blunt
  8. wooden
  9. yellow
  10. delightful

Some of the answers are actually questionable, but I see this as a learning opportunity that opens doors for debate and critical thinking, rather than a problem. A seasoned teacher with a good command of the language could do a better job than Gen.AI in writing this exercise, but how long would it take us to create it? My best advice is to let the technology at our disposal do the hard work and save us tons of precious time. If we are not 100 percent satisfied with the results, we can remove some of the items or edit a few words here and there.

Here is another useful post-reading task for our students. This time the outcomes are actually spot on. Prompt: I am going to copy and paste a story from a Pre-Intermediate level English coursebook and you are going to select 10 useful collocations from it for an English student learning English at that level. The collocations must be ‘verb and noun’ based. From this list I want you to create a language activity for the Pre-Intermediate class of students called ‘Guess the Word’. You must provide a list of 4 verbs that collocate with the core noun, and the students have to guess this noun. Do not list the noun. Repeat this 10 times for the 10 chosen collocations. Provide the answers at the end. Here is the story: [story].

  1. enjoy, take, plan, book Answer: ___________
  2. begin, start, end, cancel Answer: ___________
  3. pull, catch, release, fry Answer: ___________
  4. sink, sail, captain, board Answer: ___________
  5. send, receive, write, delete Answer: ___________
  6. wear, put on, fasten, inflate Answer: ___________
  7. break, ride, crash, surf Answer: ___________
  8. reach, leave, explore, visit Answer: ___________
  9. pick, eat, peel, slice Answer: ___________
  10. appear, watch, broadcast, film Answer: ___________

Answers:

  1. holiday
  2. trip
  3. fish
  4. boat
  5. message
  6. life jacket
  7. waves
  8. beach
  9. bananas
  10. news programme

A third type of activity I would like to share today is translation. We can ask Gen.AI to choose collocations from the text and translate them into the students’ L1 (for monolingual classes) for the students to think of the original target collocations in English. Let’s try this prompt.

Here’s the “Translate into English” activity based on the story:

Translate into English:

  1. Los hermanos estaban disfrutando un viaje de pesca en el Caribe.
  2. El capitán usó su radio para enviar un mensaje pidiendo ayuda.
  3. Ellos vieron una isla impresionante cerca de su ubicación.
  4. Dan tenía un pez enorme en su línea de pesca.
  5. El barco se hundía rápidamente debido a una fuga.
  6. El clima era terrible, pero llevaban chalecos salvavidas.
  7. Kate y Dan finalmente llegaron a una playa arenosa.
  8. Su historia apareció en programas de noticias alrededor del mundo.
  9. El capitán les dio algunas noticias trágicas sobre la situación.
  10. Un bote de rescate encontró al capitán después de 23 horas en el agua.

Original sentences in English:

  1. The siblings were enjoying a fishing trip in the Caribbean.
  2. The captain used his radio to send a message for help.
  3. They saw a stunning island near their location.
  4. Dan had a huge fish on his fishing line.
  5. The boat was sinking fast due to a leak.
  6. The weather was awful, but they were wearing life jackets.
  7. Kate and Dan eventually reached a sandy beach.
  8. Their story appeared in news programmes around the world.
  9. The captain gave them some tragic news about the situation.
  10. A rescue boat found the captain after 23 hours in the water.

We could even generate a translation activity at different language levels by prompting this. Prompt: Make the activity a bit more challenging this time.

Translate into English:

  1. A pesar de sus planes cuidadosos, lo que debería haber sido unas vacaciones de ensueño se transformó rápidamente en una lucha por la supervivencia.
  2. Los hermanos Suski estaban disfrutando de un viaje tranquilo cuando el desastre golpeó sin previo aviso.
  3. Aunque el clima no era ideal, Dan se emocionó al sentir un pez enorme tirando de su caña con fuerza.
  4. El pánico se apoderó de la tripulación cuando se dieron cuenta de que el barco estaba hundiéndose rápidamente en las aguas turbulentas.
  5. En medio del caos, el capitán logró enviar un mensaje de socorro antes de ordenar la evacuación.
  6. A pesar del tiempo terrible, los náufragos se mantuvieron optimistas gracias a sus chalecos salvavidas.
  7. Mientras nadaban en la oscuridad, un pensamiento aterrador cruzó sus mentes: la posibilidad de un encuentro con tiburones.
  8. Exhaustos y desorientados, finalmente divisaron una playa arenosa que prometía seguridad.
  9. Desesperados por alimentarse, recogieron y comieron fruta que encontraron, sin importarles su sabor desagradable.
  10. Su increíble historia de supervivencia apareció en programas de noticias, cautivando a audiencias de todo el mundo.

Here are the English translations for the more challenging sentences:

  1. Despite their careful plans, what should have been a dream holiday quickly turned into a fight for survival.
  2. The Suski siblings were enjoying a peaceful trip when disaster struck without warning.
  3. Although the weather wasn’t ideal, Dan got excited when he felt a huge fish pulling strongly on his rod.
  4. Panic gripped the crew when they realized the boat was sinking fast in the turbulent waters.
  5. Amidst the chaos, the captain managed to send a distress message before ordering the evacuation.
  6. Despite the terrible weather, the castaways remained optimistic thanks to their life jackets.
  7. As they swam in the darkness, a terrifying thought crossed their minds: the possibility of an encounter with sharks.
  8. Exhausted and disoriented, they finally spotted a sandy beach that promised safety.
  9. Desperate for nourishment, they picked and ate fruit they found, not minding its unpleasant taste.
  10. Their incredible survival story appeared in news programs, captivating audiences worldwide.

A much much harder and less predictable version for those students who may be able to handle it. Once again, we could perhaps choose half of the sentences we find more suitable and get rid of the ones we are not pleased with.

Now it’s up to us to copy and paste the generated material into a Word document for printed copies for our students when we see them in class, or simply display this on a whiteboard/IWB/digital panel.

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