THE LEXICAL APPROACH

A lexical approach to LT foregrounds

vocabulary learning, both

in the form of individual, high

frequency words
in the form of word combinations (or
chunks)
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH
The impetus for a lexical approach to language
teaching derives from the following principles:

a syllabus should be organised around

meanings
the most frequent words encode the most
frequent meanings
words typically co-occur with other words
these co-occurences (or chunks) are an aid to
fluency
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH
A syllabus organised around meanings rather
than forms (such as grammar forms) is called
a semantic syllabus.

A semantic syllabus is likely to have a strong

lexical focus.

A lexical approach argues that meaning is

encoded primarily in words (the grammar is
largely padding).
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

A lexical approach as a
way of organising a
course.
Dave and Jane Willis
based their beginners
course around the 700
most frequent words
in English.
1988
THE LEXICAL SYLLABUS

Willis, 1990: vi
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH
would examination of its syntactic
environment revealed that would on its own
was much more common than in the second
conditonal:

It would be nice to keep bees.

Opening the beaches would not be a solution.
Would she make a deal like that? she
wondered.
 THE LEXICAL SYLLABUS

Because vocabulary is involved in the

presentation of any type of language
content, a lexical syllabus can only
be considered as one strand of a
more comprehensive syllabus.
 A general scheme of a notional course

All F/N syllabuses have a strong situational element. Obviously

functions have to be presented in the language materials
contextualized in situations. The topic element will include
provision for a suitable range of lexical items. The situation chosen
for presentation purposes will make clear the special reference or
appropriacy of the forms chosen to express the functions in
question.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

Most learners will at some time need to express

such categories of meaning (or notions) as:

possession
frequency
regret
manner
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

The standard view divides language into

grammar (structure) and vocabulary (words);
the Lexical Approach challenges this
fundamental view of language. Instead, the
Lexical Approach argues that language consists
of chunks, which, when combined, produce
continuous coherent text. The chunks are of
different kinds and four different basic types are
identified. One of these consists of single words
while all the others are multi-word items.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

FIXED
COLLOCATIONS
EXPRESSIONS

SEMI-FIXED
WORDS
EXPRESSIONS

CHUNKS
the largest and the frames with slots
most familiar category which may be filled in a
limited number of ways
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

This category is familiar and is by far

the largest of the 4 categories in the
lexicon. The most fundamental
WORDS linguistic insight of the LA is that
much of the lexicon consists of
multi-word items of different kinds.
Words are the largest and the most
familiar category, but it is the other
categories which provide the
novelty and pedagogic challenge.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH
The second major development underlying a
lexical approach was the recognition of the
important role played by multi-word units or
chunks. Reseachers proposed that adult
language users have at their command a
repertoire of literally hundreds of thousands
of these memorised chunks.

It seems that the mental lexicon is not so

much a dictionary as a phrase book.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

It is this phrase book view of language that

prompted Michael Lewis to propose his version
of a lexical approach (called the Lexical
Approach).

He argues that language consists of

grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised
grammar.
 Grammar vs lexis
THE LEXICAL APPROACH
THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH = grammar
organises the chaos of the lexicon

LEXIS GRAMMAR

GRAMMAR LEXIS
Language is grammaticalised
Language is lexicalised lexis, not lexicalised
grammar. grammar.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

We store a huge
assortment of memorised
words, phrases and
collocations, along with
their associated
grammar. In order to
maintain conversational
fluency, we select from
this vast phrase book the
chunks we need, and then
fine-tune for grammar.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

Thus, to make a request, we might

select the chunk Dyou think you
could and tack on to it another
chunk turn the volume down?
while at the same time making any
appropriate grammatical
adjustments to ensure the two
chunks stick together neatly.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH
Rearrange the following to make natural expressions.

1. How it long will take?

2. What do you size take?
3. Dont to things home your forget take.
4. Ill for responsibility full happens what take.
5. Ill to a just have chance take.
6. Nobody the of parents your can place take.
7. I more any cant take.
8. If you youll may it with do to nothing have advice take.

You do all these examples except the last by quickly scanning the component words.
This allows you to recognise and recall prefabricated wholes. These are stored as Fixed
Expressions in your mental lexicon.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

Modern analyses of real data suggest that

we are much less original in using language
than we like to believe. Much of what we
say, and a significant proportion of what we
write, consists of prefabricated multi-word
items. Fully fixed expressions must be
acquired as whole in precisely the same
way as individual words or very strong
collocations.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

Collocations range from fully fixed

(a broken home, to catch a cold),
COLLOCATIONS
from relatively fixed, to totally
novel.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

Complete each of these in 1. absent from

3 different ways if you can.
COLLOCATIONS
2. guilty of
3. a bar of
4. suspicious of
5. Its not relevant to the present
6. We had a time.
7. Shes better at
8. It consists of
9. It was very equipped.
10.Prices fell
11.Things went wrong.
12.Could you turn the off, please.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

COLLOCATIONS

EFL currently teaches certain adjectives with their associated

preposition: suspicious of, relevant to, etc. but chunks are bigger
than that. The LA emphasises combinations which are not only
possible but highly likely. It is a small but significant improvement
to direct learners attention to slightly larger chunks: suspicious of
people who , relevant to our discussion/problem/needs. The
change may seem so small as to be trivial but this is not so. We
store much of our mental lexicon in complete, fully-
contextualised phrases. In the past, teaching, in an effort to make
learning easier, broke things down into chunks which were quite
simply too small.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

FIXED EXPRESSIONS

Language teaching has always recognised some types of Fixed expressions.

Those which have featured most often in teaching materials are:

Social greetings (Good morning; Its a lovely morning, isnt it?; Happy New
Year)
Politeness phrases (No thank you, Im fine; Ill have to be going.)
Phrase Book language (Can you tell me the way to , please?; Id like a
twin room for nights, please.) Although this is often mocked, everyone
recognises the value of some useful expressions for predictable tourist-
type situations.
Idioms (Hang on, youre putting the cart before the horse there. Youre
making a mountain out of a molehill.)
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

SEMI-FIXED
EXPRESSIONS

Almost Fixed Expressions, which permit minimal variation: Its / Thats not
my fault.

Expressions with a slot which must be filled with a particular kind of slot-
filler: Hello. Nice to see you. I havent seen you + time expression with for
or since.

Sentence heads, which can be completed in many ways: What was really
interesting / surprising / annoying was

More extended frames such as those for a formal letter or the opening
paragraph of an academic paper. For example:
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

There are broadly speaking two views of ..... The

more traditional, usually associated with ... and
his/her colleagues, suggests that .... , while the
more progressive view, associated with ....
suggests ..... In this paper I wish to suggest a
third position, which, while containing elements of
the view proposed by .... also takes account of
recent developments in .... which have
produced evidence to suggest .... and so on.
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
Four different basic types of chunks

In this paper we examine two intonation rules which are commonly found in
standard textbooks, namely those for intonation in lists and intonation in
questions. We begin by arguing that the standard rules are inadequate
descriptions of what actually occurs in recorded natural data. We then go on to
offer an alternative analysis, using a discourse model based on that originally
proposed by Brazil (1984,1995). In conclusion we suggest the implications of the
alternative description for materials writers and modifications to classroom
procedures.

In this paper we examine ...... which are commonly found in standard ......,
namely those for and ...... We begin by arguing that the standard rules are
inadequate descriptions of what actually occurs in ...... We then go on to offer an
alternative analysis, using a ...... model based on that originally proposed by ......
(year). In conclusion we suggest the implications of the alternative description for
...... , and modifications to ...... ......
 A checklist of some of the changes which implementing the
Lexical Approach involves

More attention will be paid to: Less attention will be paid to:
Lexis - different kinds of multi-word Sentence grammar - single sentence
chunks gap-fill and transformation practices
Specific language areas not Uncollocated nouns
previously standard in many EFL texts Indiscriminate recording of 'new
Listening (at lower levels) and reading words'
(at higher levels) Talking in L2 for the sake of it because
Activities based on L1/L2 you claim to use 'a communicative
comparisons and translation approach'
The use of the dictionary as a
resource for active learning
Probable rather than possible English
The language which learners may
meet outside the classroom
Preparing learners to get maximum
benefit from text
 THE LEXICAL APPROACH

the Willises Michael Lewis

(Dave & Jane)

the lexical syllabus the Lexical Approach

share a number of features

differ in their classroom approach

a task-based approach to
a more analytic, text-
learning
based approach
the semantic syllabus
 Teaching word chunks

collocations
phrasal verbs
idioms, catchphrases, sayings
sentence frames
social formulae
discourse markers
Teaching word chunks
sample exercises
Teaching word chunks
Teaching word
chunks
Teaching word chunks
Teaching word chunks
Teaching word chunks
COLLOCATIONS
COLLOCATIONS
COLLOCATIONS
COLLOCATIONS
COLLOCATIONS