As an English teacher, I would like to have some information concerning the lexical approach. What is special about this approach? How is it defined? What does it involve?
Can you help Mouqed? What do you understand by the lexical approach? Have you used this method? Any comments? Contact us.
This question is from Mouqed Abdelhak, Morocco
Comments
rebecca1
The term 'lexical approach' was coined by Michael Lewis (The lexical approach: The state of ELT and the way forward, 1993). It is also linked to the language corpora which have been built up. These provide a record of the language as it is actually used, and therefore provides an alternative to a syllabus based on grammar.
This approach tries to keep language in larger chunks, rather than dissecting language into its constituents.
At a basic level an exchange such as 'How are you? Fine thanks. and you?' would be taught. Other items taught would be collocations, phrases and sentence frames.
Personally I think the lexical approach has a role to play in language learning. In a short course learners may need to know a series of set phrases but do not have the time to learn all the grammar. However, I do believe that if the learner is going to continue to improve, then a combination of approaches are needed including the teaching and learning of grammar.
Jason Blean, United Kingdom
Yes, this guy Lewis coined the term. Michael Lewis' book has been updated and there is a 1996 version available. In it there are suggested activities which I have incorporated into my materials and hope to use soon.
Lewis has listed several "key principles", the first of which is "Language consists of grammaticalised lexis not lexicalised grammar".
He takes an approach that ditches the idea of first teaching grammar rules and then letting students use these rules in practice for an approach that involves looking at the role of words in sentences in use to learn their function and getting students to use language first, learn structure later, really.
It seems highly valid as a theory although some have criticised his book for being "too padded". I have devised this as a "Lexercise":LEXERCISE 4
Which of these adverbs can be sentence adverbs, commenting on the whole sentence which follows?
indefinitely
incidentally
certainly
finally
regrettably
doubtfully
hopefully
surprisingly
frankly
generally
unusually
Which of them :
a. do you use when you speak?
b. do you know/understand but not use?
c. are new to you?
Mikey, Spain
For information on the Lexical Approach, try this... www.eli.ubc.ca/teachers/teach_lexical/tips.html
Best wishes
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