Over the years of my teaching English, I have discovered some techniques on how to learn it much less teach it better having experienced it as a non-native English speaker.

True enough, English is our second language in the Philippines, yet we aren’t native speakers so we always make mistakes most of the time in these two areas:

1. Collocations – as non-native speaker of English, we make a mistake of using collocations in a different context. Collocations to make it simple, are words or phrases that go together that carry a certain meaning and they are topical words in a way. For native speakers, they just sound natural, whereas for non-native speakers they might sound grammatically incorrect at times.
2. Grammar – I have observed through dealings with native speakers that non-native speakers are more critical with English grammar and that includes myself as well. However native speakers would just shrug it off and they also make a mistake. In my observation, English grammar rules is taken seriously by non-native speakers in the same manner as Filipino language grammar is taken seriously by non-native speakers.

These observations led me to an opinion that collocations can be best learned through interaction with native speakers or those with excellent command of the English language. Grammar is an important aspect of language acquisition but should be taught creatively considering the student’s mother tongue as the grammar structure of every language varies.