INTRODUCTIONCollocation allows speakers to “express complex ideas in a very simple yet precise way” (Lewis 2000 p16), and native language prefers collocation to complex grammatical structures. However, it is difficult for many students to acquire this knowledge without it being explicitly taught. Woolard (ETP 2005: 48) states that "the noun provides the most effective focus for learning collocations". For this reason, I have chosen to focus on collocations with nouns as they will be of enormous value to students. This essay will not focus on other lexical items such as phrasal verbs, lexical phrases, and fixed/semi-fixed expressions. I will limit my scope to those that are not also complete sentences, set pieces, and sentence frames. ANALYSIS Meaning/Usage No two writers agree on the exact definition of collocation. According to McCarthy (1990) collocation is 'a marriage contract between words and some words are more firmly married to each other than to each other' while Thornbury (2006) states that 'if two words are collocated, they often occur together'. I choose to agree with Hill (in Lewis 2000) that collocations are content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) that occur together in a predictable way. Collocations can be classified as strong, fixed and weak (O'Dell & McCarthy, 2008: 8). . In his book, Lewis (1997) describes these categories in accordance with their fixity and restriction. • Weak collocators: 'words that will form a large number of other words'. For example: good can be collocated with food but can also be collocated with many other words: ready-made girl good + Indian idea + food weather ...... middle of paper ......r of English, this activity it is one of the most efficient learning strategies because it encourages independent learning (Schmitt & Schmitt 1995) and focuses students' attention on meaningful details. The time spent also gives them the opportunity to reflect on the information. In my experience requires some perseverance on the part of teachers as students may be resistant to taking notes.ConclusionThis research convinced me of the benefits of teaching collocation and introduced me to activities that I was previously unaware of. It also highlighted to me the crucial role it plays in producing natural-sounding speech; I now realize that placement explains many of my students' errors. “Even advanced students often make inappropriate or unacceptable collocations” (McCarthy, 1990:13). I will incorporate collocations more consistently into future teaching.