Presentation On The Lexical Approach

LCB TTC Methods II Yohana Solis 2009



Look at this version of the introduction. What do the parts printed in bold in square brackets have in common? The principles of the Lexical Approach have [been around] since Michael Lewis published 'The Lexical Approach' [10 years ago]. [It seems, however, that] many teachers and researchers do not [have a clear idea of] what the Lexical Approach actually [looks like] [in practice].

 It

is a language teaching method published by Michael Lewis in 1993

 Based

on the insight of the language lexicon

 Language

consists of lexical items (single words or multi-word items)

Language consists of CHUNKS  LA highlights the combinations which are not only possible but highly likely. 



Words

› can stand alone › Single or multi-word



Collocations

› certain words co-occur in natural text



Fixed expressions

› social greetings, › politeness phrases, › idioms



Semi-fixed expressions › simple slot, › sentence heads, › minimal variation



The mental state of knowledge about words. It specifies how a word is spelt, pronounced, its parts of speech and what it means.



Central attention to the lexicon and how the lexicon is coded formatted and organized.



Raising students´awarness of, and developing their ability to “chunk” language succesfully.

The

ability to retrieve ready-made chunks of language cuts down on planning time : the speaker is using long-term memory rather than processing capacity. “Speakers

show a high degree of fluency when describing familiar experiences or activities in familiar phrases. It is notorious that speakers are at their most hesitant when describing the unfamiliar.” Pawley and Syder op.cit.



Word formation : happy, unhappy, unhappily, unhappiness etc



Pattern grammar eg spend/waste (time)



Grammatical manipulation of chunks to give alternatives : make a loss He made an enormous loss

But also… 

An attempt to free grammatical words from structural constraints – eg would, any

 Language

consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar.  The grammar/vocabulary dichotomy is invalid; much language consists of multi-words 'chunks'.  A central element of language teaching is raising students' awareness of, and developing their ability to 'chunk' language successfully.

 Although

structural patterns are known as useful, lexical and metaphorical patterning are accorded appropriate status.  Collocation is integrated as an organising principle within syllabuses.  The central metaphor of language is holistic - an organism; not atomistic - a machine.



It is the co-textual rather than the situational element of context which are of primary importance for language teaching.



Grammar as a receptive skill, involving the perception of similarity and difference, is prioritised.



Receptive skills, particularly listening, are given enhanced status.



The Present-Practise-Produce paradigm is rejected, in favour of a paradigm based on the Observe-Hypothesise-Experiment cycle.

 The

teacher talk is the major source of learner input  Organizing the technological system,providing scaffolding to help learners  The teacher methodology: › Task › Planning › Report

 Discoverer  Data

analyst

 Student’s

talking time is dismissed, encourage participation through listening, noticing, and reflecting.

 Type

1 Course packages Collins COBUILD English course  Type2 collections of vocabulary teaching activities  Type 3 “Printout” versions of computer corpora  Type4 concordancing programs and attached data sets



Corpus : a collection of examples of texts/utterances of a language



Concordancer : computer software which analyse corpora. See : http://www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/lookup.html

 The

LA suggests more time devoted to multi-word items  Awareness-raising receptive activities  Efficient recording of new language  It

is not sufficient for an item to be unknow, it needs to be unknown and useful.

 Challenge

the learners to master a sufficiently large lexicon

 Dictionary-based  Moderately

activities

ccompetent users of English should handle around 2000 most common lexical items



Class time should be devoted to strategy training for dealing with unknow lexical items.



Class time is better spent raising awareness and encouraging effective recording of patterns.



Schmitt & Schmitt (1995): words that arevery familiar should not be taught at the same time for fear of causing confusion to the learners’ lexicon.

 The

Lexical Notebook replaces the traditional vocabulary book (L1 words=L2 word translation)

 New

items need to be recycled if they are to be fully acquired / encourage learners to look back at language they have recorded and do something with it

1.

2.

3.

4.

Topic: awareness of different types of lexical items within a topic framework Situation: prediction of lexical items likely to appear Collocation: recorded as individual word-like unit Notion: synoptic description of an event with a psychological unit



Excercises and Activities which help the learner notice L2 more accurately ensure quicker and more carefullyformulate hypothesis about L2.



Conciousnessraising: Accurate noticing of lexical, grammatical or phonological patterns, help convert input into intake.

 Identifying

chunks

 Matching  Completing  Categorising  Sequencing  Deleting

If we want to incorporate insights from the Lexical Approach into our teaching we will need to : maximise input : text based approach – possibly “lexically enhanced” texts  maximise “noticing” activities – learners need to realise the items in the chunks are connected; eg use corpora examples  provide copious activities which ask learners to work actively on the chunks  allow for productive practice of those chunks that we want students to use productively  recycle – in follow-ups reformulate Ss’ utterances to include those chunks  recycle – reuse the same text in future with different activities  recycle – “lexically enhance” future texts to include chunks previously taught as well as new ones  recycle – recycle - recycle 

     

Implementing the Lexical Approach, Michael Lewis, LTP Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching, Richards & Rodgers, Cambridge University Press, Chapter 12 Teaching Lexically, online course, summary by Gladys Baya http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/metu.efl252-173474lexical-approach-education-ppt-powerpoint/ http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/sueswift-147955-lexical-app http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/sicesova-205692-lexical-app