Lexical Approach

Azriyanti Salwa Nur Shibrah Zul Aiman b Abd.Wahab Muhd.Nazmi b. Salim

Lexical approach
What is lexical approach?? Lexical approach to teaching means the primary focus is on helping students acquire vocabulary. Teacher can apply any methodology with a lexical approach. The changes is on the linguistic focus of the lesson.

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 meaning-centered syllabus should be lexis.

Basic premise is that lexis, not grammar, is the basis of language. (Language is grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar. Michael Lewis, The Lexical Approach: The State of ELT and the Way Forward.

What is Lexis
Lexis consists of individual vocabulary words but also consists of word combinations (Lexical Chunks) that we store in our mental lexicons. The theory behind the lexical approach is that language production involves piecing together ready-made units appropriate for a particular situation.

The Lexical Approach consists of three main types of chunks :

Collocations: words of the four main parts of speech which go together, usually, but not always, two words. Fixed expressions: expressions which cannot be changed or can only be changed minimally. Most fixed expressions are idiomatic or are those used in polite speech (e.g., Hows it going?). Semi-fixed expressions: expressions which have at least one slot into which a number of different words or phrases can be inserted.

 Also known as lexical phrases, formulaic language, and frozen or semi-frozen phrases. Different types
polywords (e.g. by the way, upside down) Collocations or word partnerships (e.g. community service, absolutely convinced) Institutionalized Utterances (e.g. Ill get it. Well see, If I were you Sentence frames (e.g. That is not as as you think.)

 Sentence heads (e.g. The fact was that.) Text frames (e.g. In this paper we explore.Firstly...; Secondly; Finally.)

Rather than trying to break things into ever smaller pieces, there is a larger effort to see things in larger, more holistic ways. Michael Lewis, Pedagogical Implications of the Lexical Approach.

Bibliography
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0102lexi cal.html http://www.kenlackman.com/files/LexicalActi vitiesBook102.pdf http://www.gporcelli.it/vault/CL2Lexical%20A pproach.ppt