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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
IATEFL 2006: How to teach lexically (Dave Willis)
(You can download the power-point presentation from:
www.daveandjane.demon.co.uk/ELT)
Tips for teaching lexically:
1. Get hold of frequency lists and familiarise yourself with the most
frequent words of the language.
Think carefully about frequent words and ask yourself why they are so
frequent. Why is point among the most frequent nouns in English?
2. When you are preparing a text for teaching check out your frequency
lists to help you decide what words to focus on.
3. Good dictionaries mark words according to frequency bands. Check your
intuitions on word frequencies.
4. Find a grammar book which tells you about the way frequent words
work. (Scott Thornbury: Natural Grammar (OUP))
5. Find a grammar book which gives useful lists of words. (Collins Cobuild
Intermediate English Grammar)
6. Don’t waste time teaching really rare words. Just give an L1 equivalent
and save time to work on more important words.
7. Encourage learners to look for
 useful phrases
 patterns with prepositions
 patterns with non-finite verb forms (infinitive and –ing forms)
8. Try to build up patterns systematically. Begin with the basic meanings of
prepositions, for example:
FOR:
a How long: time and distance
b Reason: What for? … for example.
c Who wants or needs? Can you do it for me? I bought it for her.
d After good/bad, easy/difficult, right/wrong.
Then identify associated words, and finally systematise those words as
far as possible:
Patterns with for:
a How long:
Time: live, last, survive,
Distance: extend ; stretch
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
b Reason: ask; look; hunt; shop; wait; plan; arrange; prepare;
apologise; pay.
c Who wants or needs? work; play; act.
d How much: buy; sell; pay.
Finally, ask learners to identify familiar patterns as they occur in text.
9. Make learners aware of the importance of collocation. For example,
draw attention to collocation in L1.
10. Set them exercises which make them think about collocation.
Look at these collocations with strong. How many words would be
needed to translate strong in you language?
a strong personality; strong enough to; strong wind/current; strong
impression/incentive/influence; strong opinions; strong words; strong
action; strong language; a strong case against; a strong possibility;
strong points; a strong team; a strong currency; strong drink; a strong
colour; a strong taste.
11. When teaching pronunciation create examples incorporating common
words and phrases rather than individual words.
12. Set dictionary exercises which make learners use dictionaries creatively.
13. Encourage learners to use dictionaries to check on patterns and
collocation.
14. Encourage learners to keep a phrase book rather than a vocabulary book.
15. Encourage them to think about the organisation of their phrase books.
16. Encourage learners to do their own research and take responsibility for
the language.
17. RECOGNISE THE IMPORTANCE OF RECALL IN LANGUAGE
LEARNING.
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
200 most frequent words (types)
the
and
to
a
of
i
it
in
you
was
's
is
he
for
with
that
that
on
but
they
be
have
we
at
she
yeah
's
his
not
there
this
are
had
from
what
it's
so
know
by
said
or
if
do
as
an
all
just
were
which
er
well
has
mm
been
up
her
would
my
can
then
who
will
about
've
me
don't
think
oh
them
their
got
when
your
him
're
one
out
erm
get
no
now
as
that's
time
could
like
go
some
very
people
right
into
two
yes
see
'm
i'm
'll
did
really
mean
how
because
her
going
'd
one
no
good
first
than
on
say
only
any
here
other
back
down
after
more
way
last
3
its
want
also
more
in
new
come
i've
year
years
should
you're
didn't
something
our
there's
as
these
three
being
make
still
take
put
cos
where
day
things
over
he's
never
too
made
went
thing
us
thought
again
those
mr
all
off
why
can't
of
quite
even
many
through
actually
might
world
much
they're
man
look
life
another
own
like
out
like
when
used
night
old
same
always
i'll
at
a
next
came
about
you've
over
doing
week
must
says
may
house
Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
50 most frequent nouns (headwords)
1. time
2. people
3. way
4. year
5. day
6. thing
7. world
8. man
9. life
10. night
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
week
house
lot
sort
place
end
work
children
side
money
21. home
22. family
23. part
24. city
25. school
26. number
27. room
28. head
29. point
30. kind
31. bit
32. women
33. road
34. government
35. country
36. name
37. hand
38. police
39. fact
40. mother
41. job
42. group
43. months
44. car
45. moment
46. street
47. town
48. door
49. problem
50. street
50 most frequent verbs (headwords)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
be
have
know
say
do
would
will
think
get
could
11. go
12. see
13. mean
14. want
15. come
16. should
17. make
18. take
19. put
20. might
21. like
22. use
23. must
24. may
25. tell
26. give
27. need
28. find
29. let
30. leave
31. feel
32. call
33. keep
34. look
35. remember
36. ask
37. set
38. read
39. work
40. try
41. help
42. give
43. play
44. believe
45. turn
46. start
47. hear
48. talk
49. add
50. lose
50 most frequent adjectives (headwords)
1. good
2. other
3. new
4. old
5. right
6. great
7. little
8. big
9. different
10. best
11. long
12. sure
13. nice
14. young
15. small
16. only
17. high
18. bad
19. real
20. full
21. able
22. national
23. whole
24. important
25. free
26. local
27. sorry
28. open
29. main
30. hard
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31. fine
32. wrong
33. happy
34. black
35. difficult
36. large
37. possible
38. early
39. white
40. true
41. top
42. available
43. short
44. certain
45. likely
46. poor
47. lovely
48. easy
49. clear
50. late
Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
Most frequent 102 4grams (English spoken corpus)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
it 's it 's
i think it 's
i mean it 's
you 've got to
you know it 's
you know what
know what i mean
i 'm going to
i think that 's
that 's what i
at the end of
the end of the
i 've got a
i don't know what
that 's that 's
you 've got a
a bit of a
it 's a bit
i 've got to
do you want to
i think it was
a lot of people
i 'm i 'm
it 's all right
i don't know if
you 're going to
thank you very much
we 're going to
or something like
that
i 'm not sure
i 'd like to
do you know what
and things like that
i don't think i
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
i don't know whether
if you 've got
i don't think it
it 's not a
that sort of thing
that 's all right
i mean that 's
i don't want to
's going to be
you know i mean
i don't know how
what do you think
he 's he 's
there 's a lot
i was going to
if you want to
i mean i i
it 's going to
i 'll have to
i thought it was
i mean you know
we 've got a
's a lot of
a lot of the
and i think that
at the same time
it 's just a
to be able to
well i don't know
that 's why i
it was it was
you 've got the
but it 's not
i mean i 'm
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69. quite a lot of
70. end of the day
71. i 've i 've
72. i mean i 've
73. in the middle of
74. i mean i don't
75. no it 's not
76. they 're they 're
77. you don't have to
78. it 's gonna be
79. we 've got to
80. i 'll tell you
81. i 'll i 'll
82. i don't think so
83. i think i think
84. i mean there 's
85. are you going to
86. to go to the
87. they 're going to
88. you 'll have to
89. have a look at
90. i mean i think
91. i mean if you
92. there 's there 's
93. it 's a very
94. but i don't know
95. you want me to
96. i 'm not going
97. if you if you
98. it 's a good
99. they 've got a
100.
think it 's a
101.
you know if you
102.
a lot of money
Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically
The boy who came out from the
cold.
A schoolboy who spent the
night trapped in a butcher's
cold store after being locked in
accidentally, ran on the spot for
ten hours to stay alive.
Peter Emerson, aged 15, was
locked in the store in a
Stratford-upon Avon butcher's
shop for 14 hours with the
temperature around freezing
point.
Staff arriving for work at the
Wood Street shop found him
yesterday morning with his
teeth chattering and his face
purple with cold. Still freezing,
Peter immediately telephoned
his parents, who had reported
him missing to the police.
Peter, who lives in Banbury
Road, Stratford, said: "I help
out at the shop after school and
I had gone into the cold store
just before closing time. I was
behind a big food shelf when
the door locked behind me.
"At first I thought it was
someone playing a joke but
when I realised it wasn't and
began shouting all the staff had
gone home. I tried to kick the
door open and to pick the lock
but it was no good.
References:
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 2005 (Second Edition) CUP)
Hunston, S. and G. Francis 2003 Pattern Grammar: a Corpus-driven Approach to the
Lexical Grammar of English John Benjamins.
Francis, G., S. Hunston and E. Manning 1996 Grammar Patterns 1: Verbs
1998: Grammar Patterns 2: Nouns and Adjectives. Collins Cobuild.
Krishnamurthy, R. and D. Willis 2004 Intermediate English Grammar. Collins
Cobuild.
Thornbury S. 2004 Natural Grammar: The Keywords of English and How they Work.
OUP.
Willis, D. 2003 Rules, Patterns and Words: Grammar and Lexis in English Language
Teaching. CUP
Willis, D. and J. Wright 2003 Elementary English Grammar (Second edition) Collins
Cobuild.
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Dave Willis: How to teach lexically