Picking up new language 2: Noticing

This is the second of a series of blogs on how to make the most of the language learning opportunities in your life. I will talk about English as a foreign language, but the ideas could be applied to learning other languages.

So, you’re reading and listening to English! Yey!!! That’s a great start to your language learning, but how can you make sure that you learn from your reading, listening and conversations?

If you can understand what you read or listen to, that is a big achievement in itself, but it’s not enough to develop your language. When people sit down and watch TV, it’s usually for entertainment or perhaps to find out some information. We don’t always notice the patterns in the language that is being used. However, if you want to learn from your reading and listening, then you need to take notice of these language patterns.

Why is noticing important?

In language lessons we are often told what language to learn because the teacher or more often the coursebook has decided that it’s worth learning. In daily life outside the classroom we need to notice pieces of language before we can decide whether they’re worth remembering or not. This language can be all the more important because it is how people use English in real life, which, as you may have noticed, is not always the same as how we were taught at school.

It’s also the language that is relevant to you because it’s what you read, hear or want to say in your life.

Nobody said it was easy…

This is not as easy as it might sound. It’s difficult to notice something if we are not sure what to look for. A nice analogy that I heard for this is ice skating competitions on TV. I can watch one ice-skater come out on to the ice, do some jumps and twirls, and then the judges give one set of scores, and then the next ice-skater comes out and does similar jumps and twirls and gets a completely different set of scores from the judges, and I can’t see the difference between the two performances. This is because I don’t notice something as I have no idea what to look for. Noticing features of a new language is much the same in that you may not notice as much if you don’t know what to look for. This is one of the reasons that learning a second foreign language is easier than learning your first.

So, what should we look for?

There are a lot of different types of language patterns that we might notice. This blog is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but just a look at some of the most frequently found ones to help you to identify useful new language when you come across it in your life.

Collocations

Have you ever noticed that some words go together more often than others? They just sound more natural together when we hear them. For example, learning languages can be hard work, but we wouldn’t say that it’s hard learning. Hard work is a collocation because the two words often go together. Hard and learning just don’t sound right together. There are lots of collocations in English. Take the noun ‘job’, people usually say to find a job or get a job, but to gain a job would sound strange. There’s nothing grammatically incorrect about it; it’s just not what people normally say. Conversely, to gain experience sounds perfectly normal. This shows us that find and get both collocate with job, and gain collocates with experience.

People normally speak their own language fluently because they don’t spend much time choosing which words to use. This is because we all use a lot of collocations. So when fluent speakers are talking, it’s a good idea to listen to what collocations they use. Do they use the same combinations of words as you would choose? How similar or different would these collocations be in your first language?

Can you think of any other verbs that collocate with job apart from find and get? After sending a job application you may be lucky enough to be invited to a job interview. If you are successful you will receive a job offer. Can you think of any other nouns that collocate with job? Click on the link below to find out some more collocations with job.

https://skell.sketchengine.eu/#result?f=wordsketch&lang=en&query=job

Colligations

Colligations are basically the micro-grammar of words and phrases. Instead of describing big ideas like verb tenses such as present simple, colligations tell us about the patterns in the way that words and phrases are used.

For example, many people think of tenses as being something that can applied equally to any verbs. In reality, a lot of verb phrases are more common in particular tenses, than in others. Let’s take the verb phrase look for a job. Try making a short sentence with this verb phrase in your head. What tense is it in? The chances are that it’s in a continuous tense like ‘She’s looking for a new job’ (present continuous) or ‘She’s been looking for a job for months’ (present perfect continuous). There’s no rule that says you can’t use look for a job in simple tenses, it’s just that people tend to use it in continuous tenses because, hopefully, it’s a temporary activity!

Another type of colligation that you might notice is the patterns of words that are typically found around a key-word. Take the verb learn for instance; how can we use it in a sentence? Here are four examples. Have a look at the pattern of words that follow it.

• I’m learning Swedish.
• I’m learning to play the guitar
• I’m learning how to build a website.
• We learnt about climate change

You can see from these sentences that the most common patterns of words after the verb learn are

• a subject e.g. French
• to + infinitive (+ the object of the verb) (e.g. to play the guitar/to speak Spanish etc)
• how + to + infinitive (+ object) e.g. how to build a website/how to swim/how to drive
• about + a topic e.g. civil rights

Phrases to sentences

From this point we can build our phrase into a sentence. For example, after saying what we are learning, we often continue by saying something about how we are finding it. Similarly, if someone tells you that they are looking for a job, they will probably tell you how successful they’ve been in finding work soon after.

• I’m learning Swedish, but I’m finding it really difficult to understand.
• I’m learning how to play the guitar, and I feel like I’m making real progress.
• I’m looking for a job. I’ve sent off lots of job applications, but I haven’t had any interviews so far.

These sentences are extended using language on the same topics (learning, and looking for a job). So, it can be helpful to notice what language is used in conversations about different topics.

Conversation Strategies

Noticing how to use words together is important, but if we are going to use these collocations and colligations it will probably be in a conversation with someone. So it makes sense to try to notice how fluent speakers use language to take part in a conversation. There are four types of conversation strategy that you might notice when you listen to conversations on television or talk to people. Here is a brief look at each of these.

Why? It helps us to ensure that what we say is appropriate for the person who is listening so that the conversation goes smoothly.

Could you give me an example? Here is another conversation between Sarah and Alex. What useful language do they use to consider each other during the conversation?

At the start of the conversation Sarah checks that Alex knows who she is talking about when she says “You know James…?”. This is usually followed by Well, + the news that the person wants to give. Later Alex helps Sarah to remember the name of a colleague when she says “Do you mean Hannah?” In this way Sarah and Alex make sure that they understand each other clearly so that the conversation can continue.

What does it involve? This is about using language such as linking words and phrases to organise our ideas so that we can express ourselves fully when we talk to other people. We manage what you say when we:

• Add ideas e.g. as well
• Rephrase your ideas e.g. what I mean to say is…
• Contrast ideas e.g. but...
• Give examples e.g. like…
• Put ideas into order e.g. first and foremost,…

It’s worth bearing in mind that the words that we use to organise our ideas in conversations are not always the same as we use in writing.

Could you give me an example? We often use I mean in informal conversations to reinforce our ideas, expand on them, or make them clearer.

• It’s really expensive. I mean, I don’t think it’s worth so much if you ask me.
• I love her to bits – as a friend, I mean.

What does it involve? Instead of organising something that you say within a conversation, as you might guess from the title, this is about the language that we use to organise the whole conversation. This includes how we

• start the conversation
• signal that we have finished our turn speaking or that we’d like to say something
• refer to things that were said earlier in the conversation
• change subject
• end the conversation

Why? Have you ever been in a conversation with someone when you are too busy to talk, and you have to try to politely end the conversation? Or perhaps your friend was talking to you about something and you wanted to change the subject and mention something interesting that had happened to you. You may notice that people use particular phrases to do these types of things in a conversation without causing offence.

Could you give me an example?

Here is a conversation between Sarah and Ben, an old friend. What phrases can you see which are commonly used to start informal conversations? What word does Ben use to signal that he is changing the subject of the conversation?

Sarah: Hey Ben, how have you been? Long time, no see!

Ben: Sarah!! What a surprise! I didn’t know you’d be here! Yeah, it’s been ages! I’m doing well, thanks. I moved back to London about a month ago.

Sarah: Oh great! Whereabouts in London?

Ben: In Clapham, south of the river. We’re renting a flat near Clapham Common*.

Sarah: Sounds nice! How are you settling in?

Ben: Well, we’ve still got some stuff in boxes to unpack, but we’re enjoying being back. Anyway, how have things been with you? It’s been so long!

Informal conversations often begin with greetings such as Hi or Hey. This is often followed by asking how someone is. Because Sarah and Ben haven’t seen each other for a long time, they use the present perfect to ask How have you been?, and How have things been with you?. They also use phrases like Long time, no see, and It’s been ages to show that they are happy to see each other after so long. Ben uses Anyway at the start of his sentence to change the subject to talking about Sarah.

Don’t forget to enjoy it!

So, next time you are reading, listening or having a conversation in a foreign language think about the types of language patterns being used. Reading and listening should be, first and foremost, enjoyable, and secondly, language learning opportunities, so don’t get too distracted by language points. Just try to pick out a few pieces of language each time that you think are useful, interesting, or relevant to you.

What have you been reading and listening to in English? What pieces of language have you noticed?

You can find out about my English classes at https://nick-teaches.com, or if you would like a chat send me a message at nji.swerdlow@gmail.com.