The Lexical Syllabus Group members: 黄娟娟 李慕颖 张 路 黄芙蓉

Background Information The lexical syllabus is first proposed by John Sinclair (1988) in The Lexical Syllabus for Language Learning. The famous book for the lexical syllabus is Dave Willis’ (1990) The Lexical Syllabus: a new approach to the language teaching. Collins COBUILD English Course The best documented course book to apply the lexical syllabus is the Collins COBUILD English Course by Willis & Willis (1988).

Theoretical Assumptions “Language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar.” (Lewis, 2002) Language learning is to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes or chunks, which are raw data for learners to begin to perceive grammar. The methodology associated with the lexical syllabus allows learners to experience language items in natural contexts and to learn from their experience. The lexis or chunks selected are the commonest ones according to the frequency in the language corpus.

Main Components A list of lexis, chunks, collocations or short sentences to be learned They are selected according to the frequency in the language corpus. A list of tasks to be evolved or experienced They are ordered according to simplicity.

Merits Efficient: A lexical syllabus only offers to the learners things worth learning. (Sinclair, 1988) Authentic: A lexical syllabus aims to use the authentic or spontaneous produced texts. Creative: In a lexical syllabus, some grammars are taught lexically.Creative

Drawbacks Words of high frequencies are usually low in information and content, like the, of, and. The commonest chunks are only appropriate for the low level learners. The pre-set list of lexis has some restrictive effect on the choice of topics.

Further Research Direction The study of terms in a specialized corpus has received much attention recently. For example, Flowerdew (1991) designed a syllabus including 2000 words based on a specialized Biology corpus. He finds it very realistic.

References : Brown, J.D The Elements of Language Curriculum. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research. Gui, Shichun New thinking on China’s foreign language education. Journal of Foreign Language,152(4), pp.2-9. Lee, Joyce Yuan-yee A critical study of the lexical syllabus. Meeting Points in Language Studies, pp [on line]. Available Telnet: http: //hdl.handle.net/1783.1/1352. Lewis, M The Lexical Approach: the state of ELT and the way forward. Australia: Thomson Heinle. Nunan, D Syllabus Design. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Qiu, x An introduction of lexical approach. Journal of Anhui Agriculture University, 11(3), pp Sinclair, J. M.& Renouf, A (Eds) A lexical syllabus for language learning. In R. Carter & M. McCarthy (Eds.), Vocabulary and Language Teaching, pp Harlow: Longman. Tickoo, M.L Book reviews: the lexical syllabus Collins ELT RELC Journal, 21(2), pp Willis, D The Lexical Syllabus: a new approach to language teaching. London: Collins ELT. Willis, J. & Willis, D Collins COBUILD English Course. London: Collins COBUILD.

Grammar words -ing 1.Describing something There were two girls eating fish and chips. 2.After am, is, be etc. One girl was carrying a white bag. 3. After see, look at, hear, listen to ect. Listen to them talking about when they go to bed. 4.Before am, is, be etc. Dialing 999 is free. 5.After stop, start, remember, like ect. I remember going to London many years ago. 6.After when, before, instead of ect. Before attempting to break down the door, the man tried …