• Background:
-As an alternative to grammar- based approaches
-originated by Nattinger and developed by M.
Lewis
-the building blocks of language learning and
communication is lexis
Michael Lewis (1993), who coined the term lexical approach,
suggests the following:
• Lexis is the basis of language.
• Lexis is misunderstood in language teaching because of the
assumption that grammar is the basis of language and that
mastery of the grammatical system is a prerequisite for
effective communication.
• The key principle of a lexical approach is that “language
consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar.”
• One of the central organizing principles of any
meaningcentered syllabus should be lexis.
Theory of languge
• It bases on lexical language theory.That is; it
consists of lexical items and multiple word
units
Lexical Terms
1)Lexicon
• A lexicon is often used to describe the knowledge that a
speaker has about the words of a language. This includes
meanings, use, form, and relationships with other words. A
lexicon can thus be thought of as a mental dictionary.
• Example
A successful learner develops an L2 lexicon independently of
their L1 lexicon, which means there is less confusion,
translation and L1 interference.
• In the classroom
Many teachers and learners regard expanding the target
language lexicon - in other words, learning more vocabulary as a priority. Advanced level learners, for example, will
express the need for 'more words' frequently.
2)Lexical chunk
• A lexical chunk is a group of words that are commonly found
together. Lexical chunks include collocations but these usually
just involve content words, not grammar.
• Example
In this dialogue there are five possible chunks:
- Did you stay long at the party?
- No, I got out of there as soon as they ran out of food.
• In the classroom
Focusing on lexical chunks is a useful way to look at language
and to extend learners' control of it. For example, learners can
spend a little time at the end of a reading comprehension
exercise identifying chunks in the text and analysing them, or
identifying other contexts they might be found in.
Lewis (1997b) suggests the following taxonomy of
lexical items:
• words (e.g., book, pen)
• polywords (e.g., by the way, upside down)
• collocations, or word partnerships (e.g., community service,
absolutely convinced)
• institutionalized utterances (e.g., I’ll get it; We’ll see; That’ll
do; If I were you . . .; Would you like a cup of coffee?)
• sentence frames and heads (e.g., That is not as . . . as you
think; The fact/suggestion/problem/danger was . . . ) and even
text frames (e.g., In this paper we explore . . .; Firstly . . .;
Secondly . . .; Finally . . .)
3) Lexical set
• A lexical set is a group of words with the same topic, function
or form.
• Example
'Cat, dog, tortoise, goldfish, gerbil' is part of the topical lexical
set pets, and 'quickly, happily, completely, dramatically,
angrily' is part of the syntactic lexical set adverbs.
• In the classroom
Lexical sets are a way of looking at new vocabulary that some
learners find useful. Activities include asking learners to sort
words into groups, word games such as the chaining game 'I
went to the market and bought…', Odd One Out, and Stop, and
class poster projects.
4) corpus
• Collections of language items including
spoken samples packaged in text format on
internet
- Cobuild Bank of English Corpus
- British National Corpus
-the Cambridge International Corpus
Learning theory
Lexical approach does not have a coherent
learning theory and attempts to rectify this
with some assumptions about learning theory
in lexical approach.
DESIGN
-objectives
-syllabus
-learning activities
-roles of learners
-roles of teachers
- materials
OBJECTIVES
- Reviving an interest in a central role for accurate
language description
- raising learners’ awareness of the lexical nature of
language
- developing learners’ proficiency with lexis, or words
and word combinations
- Making learners comprehend and produce lexical
phrases as unanalyzed wholes, or “chunks” in their
natural enviornment
- Making sure that language production is not a
syntactic rule-governed process but is instead the
retrieval of larger phrasal units from memory.
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ACTIVITIES
Intensive and extensive listening and reading in the
target language.
First and second language comparisons and
translation—carried out chunk-for-chunk, rather than
word-for-word—aimed at raising language
awareness.
Repetition and recycling of activities, such as
summarizing a text orally one day and again a few
days later to keep words and expressions that have
been learned active.
Guessing the meaning of vocabulary items from
context.
Noticing and recording language patterns and
collocations.
• Working with dictionaries and other reference
tools.
• Working with language corpuses created by
the teacher for use in the classroom or
accessible on the Internet
- the British National Corpus
-COBUILD Bank of English to research
word partnerships, preposition usage, style,
and so on
SYLLABUS
- Lexical syllabus
• Consists of multi-word prefabricated chunks
- collocations ( to catch a cold, a broken home)
- fixed and semi-fixed expressions ( nice day for it; that’s/
it’s not my fault)
- idioms ( to go hell for leather,to beat about the bush)
-sentence frames and heads (e.g., That is not as . . . as you
think; The fact/suggestion/problem/danger was . . . ) and even
text frames (e.g., In this paper we explore . . .; Firstly . . .;
Secondly . . .; Finally
- similes, binomials, trinomials, connectives,conversational
ganbits
• Specify the most basic,important and the commonest meanings
in English( Collins Cobuild English Course)
ROLE OF TEACHERS
-The teacher talk is the major source of learner
input
-Organizing the technological system,providing
scaffolding to help learners
-The teacher methodology:
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•
Task
Planning
Report
ROLE OF LEARNERS
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•
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•
Discoveror
Discourse and text analyst
Manager of their own learning
Constructor of their own linguistic
generalization
• User of technological system
• Student’s talking time is dismissed, encourage
participation through listening, noticing, and
reflecting
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MATERIALS
Complete course package
-texts
-tapes
-teacher’s manuals such as the Collins Cobuild English Course
( Willis and Willis 1989)
Collections of vocabulary teaching activites such as those
appear in Lewis’ Implementing the Lexical Approach (lewis
1997)
Printout versions of computer corpora collection packaged in
text format
Computer concording programs and attached data
- packaged in CD-ROM form such as Oxford’s Micro
Concord
-downloaded from sites on internet
INSTRUCTION GIVING
• Instruction should center on
-word patterns and lexical items,
- the ways in which they can be pieced
together
- the ways in which they vary
- the situations in which they occur
PROCEDURE
-Teacher can use four types mentioned in design in
different way.
-Teacher is major source of information in first stage
-Student should be active in learning in collocation .
-Learners must take on the role of discourse analyst via
one of the text search computer programmes.
-Learners reproduce multi-word lexical chunks by
recalling informations from their mental.
CONCLUSION
• Lexical and linguistic theory, thanks work in corpus
analysis and importance of multi-word units in
language learning enhanced the status of lexis in
language teaching .
• However, an approach or methodology describe in
this book does not cover our lexical approach.
• It is still an idea in search of approach and
methodology.
ACTIVITY SAMPLES
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Textual analysis activities
Preparation activities
Speaking activities
Dictionary and matching activities
• Textual analysis activities
Students can analyse texts to heighten their awareness
of collocations. Depending on the text, you might ask
the students to find, for example, five useful
collocations that occur around a certain topic. Or you
could give students a list of words or phrases and ask
them to find what collocates with them in the text.
You could also go further than the text and ask them
to find further possible collocations with certain items
in the text using a collocation dictionary.
• Preparation activities
Ask the students to brainstorm nouns on a
particular subject, perhaps for a writing task.
Then get them to suggest verbs and adjectives
that collocate with those nouns, then adverbs
with the verbs, thus building up a number of
lexically dense collocational fields.
• Speaking activities
• Get the students to do creative drills. For example,
devise a 'Find somebody who...' activity for them to
practise collocations. For example,
Find someone who
.....has been on a strict diet
.....has found themselves in an embarrassing position
...has made an inspired choice etc.
• Dictionary and matching activities
Get the students using collocation dictionaries to find better ways
of expressing ideas, including replacing words like 'new' and
'interesting' with better, stronger words to create typical
collocations, or finding the 'odd verb out'. For example,
– Which verb does not go with 'answer'?
come up with, do, get, require
Spot the odd verb
Can you find the verb which does not collocate with the noun
in bold?
1. acknowledge, feel, express, make, hide, overcome, admit
shame
2. apply for, catch, create, get, hold, hunt for, lose, take up job
REFERENCES
• Implementing the Lexical Approach, Michael
Lewis, LTP
• Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching, Richards & Rodgers, Cambridge
University Press, Chapter 12
• Teaching Lexically, online course, summary
by Gladys Baya
• http://www.slideshare.net/Cindy422/lexicalapproach-to-second-language-teaching