By: MASNUR141100805

TARBIYAH/PBI

UNIT 1/ SEM. VI

The Lexical Approach

Key figures:

Dave Willis – “Lexical Syllabus” - (1990) Michael Lewis – “The Lexical Approach” - (1993) “Implementing the Lexical Approach” – (1997)

Lexical Approach

The

The basic concept on which this approach rests is the idea that an important part of learning a language consists of being able to understand and produce lexical phrases as chunks.

Students are thought to be able to perceive patterns of language (grammar) as well as have meaningful set uses of words at their disposal when they are taught in this way.

Language is grammaticalised lexis

not lexicalised grammar.

In the 1990s, Michael Lewis wrote two books outlining his language learning theory: The English Verb and The Lexical Approach. According to the Lexical Approach, students should learn 'chunks' of language, since language is made up of collocations, idioms, and fixed phrases.

Collocations might be described as the words that are placed or found together in a predictable pattern. Examples range from two word combinations such as problem child to extended combinations such as He’s recovering from a major operation. These language patterns comprise much of speech and writing.

There is a distinction between vocabulary, traditionally thought to be constituted of single items, and lexis,

which includes not only the single words but also the word combinations that we store in our mental lexicon.

MULTI-WORD ITEMS OR CHUNKS

WORDS book, pen POLYWORDS by the way, upside down, on the other hand COLLOCATIONS community service, do a job FIXED EXPRESSIONS I´ll get it; We´ll see; If I were you ... SENTENCE FRAMES OR HEADS The problem is …, That is all very well, but …

The Nature of Lexis

LEXICAL UNITS

single Words (pencil, watch)

Polywords (by the way,anyway)

BINOMIALS: CLEAN AND TIDY

Trinomials: cool, calm, upside down

Similes: as old as the hills. Convinced

Connectives: finally, to

Fixed Expressions :

Fixed Expressions Social greetings ( Good morning! It’s a lovely morning, isn’t it )

SEMI-FIXED EXPRESSIONS :

Semi-fixed Expressions Minimal variation ( It’s / That’s not my fault)

Idioms: shead crocodile tears,dead drunk, to run partnerships

Collocations :There are some combinations of words which co-occur naturally with greater than random frequency.

Six types of collocations :Adjective + noun

Noun + Noun

Verb + Noun

Adverb + Adjective

Verb + prepositional phrase

Verb + adverb

PROCEDUREIntroduction of chunks – practice of chunks – accumulation of chunks, use of chunks and coolocations

Teaching individual collocations

Making students aware of collocattions

Extanding what students already know by adding knowledge of collocation

restrictions to know vocabulary

Storing collocations through encouragin students to keep a lexical notebook

Weakness

It lacks full characterization of an approach lack of a detailed learning theory

Deliberately draw attention to chunks, collocations, idioms, etc.. And invite

learners to do the same

Focus attention on identifying and using chunks

Teach learners to be critically aware

Teach the what good language learners do and how to do it

It is lexically based theory of language

It doesn’t have any certain learning theory

Learning lexis is not an easy task, it is a slow and complex process which

require a lot of dedication and effort from teachers and learners.

http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/vocabulary/02/lexical.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexical_approachhttp://www.myenglishpages.com/blog/lexical-approach/http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~

nharwood/lexapproach.htmhttp://

www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/lexical-approach-1-what-does-lexical-approach-look

Refferences