• Background:

-As an alternative to grammar- based approaches

-originated by Nattinger and developed by M. Lewis

-the building blocks of language learning and communication is lexis

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 theassumption 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 meaningcentered syllabus should be lexis.

Theory of languge

• It bases on lexical language theory.That is; it consists of lexical items and multiple word units

Lexical Terms

1)Lexicon• A lexicon is often used to describe the knowledge that a

speaker has about the words of a language. This includes meanings, use, form, and relationships with other words. A lexicon can thus be thought of as a mental dictionary.

• Example A successful learner develops an L2 lexicon independently of their L1 lexicon, which means there is less confusion, translation and L1 interference.

• In the classroom Many teachers and learners regard expanding the target language lexicon - in other words, learning more vocabulary - as a priority. Advanced level learners, for example, will express the need for 'more words' frequently.

2)Lexical chunk

• A lexical chunk is a group of words that are commonly found together. Lexical chunks include collocations but these usually just involve content words, not grammar.

• ExampleIn this dialogue there are five possible chunks:- Did you stay long at the party?- No, I got out of there as soon as they ran out of food.

• In the classroomFocusing on lexical chunks is a useful way to look at language and to extend learners' control of it. For example, learners can spend a little time at the end of a reading comprehension exercise identifying chunks in the text and analysing them, or identifying other contexts they might be found in.

Lewis (1997b) suggests the following taxonomy of

lexical items:

• words (e.g., book, pen)• polywords (e.g., by the way, upside down)• collocations, or word partnerships (e.g., community

service,absolutely convinced)• institutionalized utterances (e.g., I’ll get it; We’ll see; That’lldo; If I were you . . .; Would you like a cup of coffee?)• sentence frames and heads (e.g., That is not as . . . as youthink; The fact/suggestion/problem/danger was . . . ) and even

text frames (e.g., In this paper we explore . . .; Firstly . . .;Secondly . . .; Finally . . .)

3) Lexical set• A lexical set is a group of words with the same topic, function

or form. • Example

'Cat, dog, tortoise, goldfish, gerbil' is part of the topical lexical set pets, and 'quickly, happily, completely, dramatically, angrily' is part of the syntactic lexical set adverbs.

• In the classroom Lexical sets are a way of looking at new vocabulary that some learners find useful. Activities include asking learners to sort words into groups, word games such as the chaining game 'I went to the market and bought…', Odd One Out, and Stop, and class poster projects.

4) corpus

• Collections of language items including spoken samples packaged in text format on internet

- Cobuild Bank of English Corpus

- British National Corpus

-the Cambridge International Corpus

Learning theory

Lexical approach does not have a coherent learning theory and attempts to rectify this with some assumptions about learning theory in lexical approach.

DESIGN

-objectives

-syllabus

-learning activities

-roles of learners

-roles of teachers

- materials

OBJECTIVES

- Reviving an interest in a central role for accurate language description

- raising learners’ awareness of the lexical nature of language

- developing learners’ proficiency with lexis, or words and word combinations

- Making learners comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes, or “chunks” in their natural enviornment

- Making sure that language production is not a syntactic rule-governed process but is instead the retrieval of larger phrasal units from memory.

ACTIVITIES• Intensive and extensive listening and reading in the

target language.• First and second language comparisons and

translation—carried out chunk-for-chunk, rather than word-for-word—aimed at raising language awareness.

• Repetition and recycling of activities, such as summarizing a text orally one day and again a few days later to keep words and expressions that have been learned active.

• Guessing the meaning of vocabulary items from context.

• Noticing and recording language patterns and collocations.

• Working with dictionaries and other reference tools.

• Working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom or accessible on the Internet

- the British National Corpus

-COBUILD Bank of English to research word partnerships, preposition usage, style, and so on

SYLLABUS- Lexical syllabus• Consists of multi-word prefabricated chunks - collocations ( to catch a cold, a broken home) - fixed and semi-fixed expressions ( nice day for it; that’s/

it’s not my fault) - idioms ( to go hell for leather,to beat about the bush) -sentence frames and heads (e.g., That is not as . . . as you

think; The fact/suggestion/problem/danger was . . . ) and even text frames (e.g., In this paper we explore . . .; Firstly . . .; Secondly . . .; Finally

- similes, binomials, trinomials, connectives,conversational ganbits

• Specify the most basic,important and the commonest meanings in English( Collins Cobuild English Course)

ROLE OF TEACHERS

-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

ROLE OF LEARNERS

• Discoveror• Discourse and text analyst• Manager of their own learning• Constructor of their own linguistic

generalization• User of technological system• Student’s talking time is dismissed, encourage

participation through listening, noticing, and reflecting

MATERIALS• Complete course package -texts -tapes -teacher’s manuals such as the Collins Cobuild English

Course ( Willis and Willis 1989)• Collections of vocabulary teaching activites such as those

appear in Lewis’ Implementing the Lexical Approach (lewis 1997)

• Printout versions of computer corpora collection packaged in text format

• Computer concording programs and attached data - packaged in CD-ROM form such as Oxford’s Micro

Concord -downloaded from sites on internet

INSTRUCTION GIVING

• Instruction should center on

-word patterns and lexical items,

- the ways in which they can be pieced together

- the ways in which they vary

- the situations in which they occur

PROCEDURE

-Teacher can use four types mentioned in design in different way.

-Teacher is major source of information in first stage

-Student should be active in learning in collocation .

-Learners must take on the role of discourse analyst via one of the text search computer programmes.

-Learners reproduce multi-word lexical chunks by recalling informations from their mental.

CONCLUSION• Lexical and linguistic theory, thanks work in corpus

analysis and importance of multi-word units in language learning enhanced the status of lexis in language teaching .

• However, an approach or methodology describe in this book does not cover our lexical approach.

• It is still an idea in search of approach and methodology.

ACTIVITY SAMPLES

• Textual analysis activities

• Preparation activities

• Speaking activities

• Dictionary and matching activities

• Textual analysis activities

Students can analyse texts to heighten their awareness of collocations. Depending on the text, you might ask the students to find, for example, five useful collocations that occur around a certain topic. Or you could give students a list of words or phrases and ask them to find what collocates with them in the text. You could also go further than the text and ask them to find further possible collocations with certain items in the text using a collocation dictionary.

• Preparation activities

Ask the students to brainstorm nouns on a particular subject, perhaps for a writing task. Then get them to suggest verbs and adjectives that collocate with those nouns, then adverbs with the verbs, thus building up a number of lexically dense collocational fields.

• Speaking activities• Get the students to do creative drills. For example,

devise a 'Find somebody who...' activity for them to practise collocations. For example,

Find someone who.....has been on a strict diet.....has found themselves in an embarrassing position...has made an inspired choice etc.

• Dictionary and matching activitiesGet the students using collocation dictionaries to find better ways

of expressing ideas, including replacing words like 'new' and 'interesting' with better, stronger words to create typical collocations, or finding the 'odd verb out'. For example, – Which verb does not go with 'answer'?

come up with, do, get, require

Spot the odd verbCan you find the verb which does not collocate with the noun in bold?

1. acknowledge, feel, express, make, hide, overcome, admit shame2. apply for, catch, create, get, hold, hunt for, lose, take up job

REFERENCES

• 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.slideshare.net/Cindy422/lexical-approach-to-second-language-teaching