Using Topic-based Approach to Plan a Lesson on Lexical Collocations for Saudi EFL Students

Habitual co-occurrence of lexical items referred to as collocations have been reported in research studies to significantly impact language learning experience by developing proficiency in both receptive and productive skills, especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. Lexical collocations which are formed out of the content words facilitate the acquisition of naturalness and fluency among EFL learners. Blending content analysis and topic-based approaches, this study attempted a lesson plan on lexical collocations for elementary level EFL students. The researcher used Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP) paradigm in the lesson procedure, and all lesson stages, materials, tasks and activities were built around this framework. The lesson was delivered in real-time classroom setting and the researcher took notes of the main events which were then reflected upon for a post-lesson analysis of the teacher performance. While most of the stages, tasks and activities were delivered according to the plan and had a satisfactory level of student participation, a few of the lesson activities could not be administered effectively due to time management issues. Nevertheless, the study is expected to provide some useful insights to EFL practitioners about developing the lexical range of elementary level learners in general and collocational competence in particular. It is also anticipated that the article might also help other scholars to conduct further research on the topic.