The Lexical Approach By: Yajaira Carrillo and Lorena Chirinos

The Lexical Approach can be described as: “An approach to teaching languages that has a lot in common with the communicative approach, but that also examines how lexical phrases, prefabricated chunks of language, play an important role in producing fluent speech.”

Single words: salt / pepper Multi-words: by the way / up to now What is Lexis? Words: It is the largest category of lexical item which can stand alone. Examples: Single words: salt / pepper Multi-words: by the way / up to now

Collocations: the phenomenon whereby certain words co-occur with other words with more than random frequency. Examples: community service absolutely convinced strong accent terrible accident

Collocation is linguistic, not thematic: it is about words that co-occur, not ideas or concepts. Example: In Britain people drive cars and drink coffee, but in English they do not: So, how did you come this morning? Yes: Oh, I brought the car. / I drove. But not: Oh, I drove the car.

Arbitrariness: collocation is arbitrary, since language is simply the consensus of what has been institutionalised; the agreed language which a particular group do use. Example: Yes: tall boy / raise to the occasion But not: high boy / fall to the occasion

Word partnerships: in collocation the matters is not the frequency of the co- occurrences, but the closeness and quality of the partnership. De-lexicalized verbs: most words and verbs even isolated from context carry definite meaning. However, there are a group of verbs in English which have little or no meaning outside the context of particular use: the main de-lexicalized verbs are: do, get, give, have, keep, look, make, put, take.

Grammaticalized lexis The basic principle of the lexical approach is: “Language is grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar” (Lewis 1993). In other words, lexis is central in creating meaning, grammar plays a subservient managerial role.

What should teachers pay more attention in class? Lexis (different kinds of multi-words) Intensive and extensive listening and reading in the target language. L1/L2 comparisons and translation, carried out chunk-for-chunk, rather than word-for- word, aimed at raising language awareness. Repeating and recycling 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.

The use of a good dictionary as a resource for active learning. Guessing the meaning of vocabulary items from context. Noticing and recording language patterns and collocations. Working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom or accessible on the internet, such as: http://thetis.bl.uk/BNCbib http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk

Conclusion The Lexical Approach is not a new method which includes everything regarding language, but a set of principles based on a new understanding of language. There is not a “lexical lesson” in the way some people would like, however, attention is focussed to larger chunks of language; instead of words, we should try to think in Collocations and to present these in Expressions. This approach suggests changes in content, methodology and attitude towards the language which teachers can introduce keeping their own experience.

Taken from: Implementing the Lexical Approach Taken from: Implementing the Lexical Approach. Putting the Theory into Practice. Author: Michael Lewis

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