Conventional collocations
Collocations are words which are conventionally used together (e.g. collect data, change dramatically, highly significant, etc.).
Violating conventions
Violating collocation conventions can result in errors (e.g. *depend of something) or awkward, non-idiomatic text (e.g. *a large mistake).
better texts
This affects not only writing, but also reading, since texts with collocation problems are more difficult to process.

The project aims to develop an intuitive writing assistant for users of academic English. Its specific focus is on helping writers with the collocations of academic English in real time.
Although there are dictionaries and tools that help with collocation, writers are often unaware of them, or simply cannot be bothered to use them. But even if writers get used to consulting these resources, the fact that they have to interrupt their writing to look up a collocation can disrupt the flow of their words. Thus we propose to develop a tool for bringing help with collocation to the user rather than expecting the user to go and find it.
Our research involves investigating user needs, lexicographic data, the visualisation of collocations and human-computer interaction issues.


Dr Ana Frankenberg-Garcia

Prof. Jonathan C. Roberts

Prof. Robert Lew

Geraint Paul Rees
