THE LEXICAL APPROACH

Arranged by:
NilaVeranita A 121 16 069
Silfani A 121 16 105

ENGLISH EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM

TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TADULAKO UNIVERSITY
2019
 BACKGROUND
For most of the twentieth century, second language instruction was centered around the
teaching of grammatical structure. The emphasis on structure reached its peak at mid-century
with the Audio-lingual Method, which emphasized the drilling of linguistic and phonological
structures, with vocabulary items introduced only as needed to make the drills possible
(DeCarrico, 2001). Although linguist Noam Chomsky's (1957) transformational grammar theory
discredited the behavioristic tenets of Audio-lingual, it continued to emphasize the importance of
structure in the form of speakers' internalized system of rules for generating sentences, with
vocabulary learning still being viewed as somewhat secondary in importance.

By the early 1980s, linguists were becoming increasingly aware that much of the
language that native speakers use consists not of original utterances formulated by structural
rules, but rather of intact "chunks" of language that are learned as units. It was hypothesized that
"up to 70% of everything we say, hear, read, or write is to be found in some form of fixed
expression" (Hill, 2000, p. 53). Accordingly, linguists and language teachers, especially in
Britain, began to give less emphasis to grammar and more to the analysis and teaching of these
"chunks" of language.

One development that has contributed to linguists' awareness of lexical patterns is the
advent of personal computers, and more recently the Internet, which have made it possible to
assemble large corpora of examples of authentic language use drawn from literary, journalistic,
and other types of texts. By using a software application called a concordancer, corpora can be
searched for examples of a particular word in context, allowing researchers to discover which
words commonly occur in conjunction with other words.

In the early 1990s, several lexical-based approaches to language teaching were advanced
(cited in Richards & Rodgers, 2001), including The Lexical Syllabus (Willis, 1990), Lexical
Phrases and Language Teaching (Nattinger&DeCarrico, 1992), and The Lexical Approach
(Lewis, 1993). The latter is based on analysis of the COBUILD corpus of 20 million words, with
beginning-level ESL instruction sequenced around the 700 most frequently-occurring English
words, together with their common patterns and uses. Henceforth we will refer collectively to
these various approaches simply as the Lexical Approach.
 CONTENT
Definition of Lexical Approach

The lexical approach appeared in 1993. It was coined by Michael Lewis and it is focus on
the development of meaningful chunks (lexical chunks or collocations) to fulfill different
function or purposes. A collocation is the readily observable phenomenon whereby certain words
co-occur in natural text with greater than random frequency and is not determined by logic or
frequency, but is arbitrary, decided only by linguistic convention.

The lexical approach is a method of teaching foreign languages described by Michael

Lewis in the early 1990s. The basic concept on which this approach rests is the idea that an
important part of learning a language consists of being able to understand and produce lexical
phrases as chunks. Students are thought to be able to perceive patterns of language (grammar) as
well as have meaningful set uses of words at their disposal when they are taught in this way.

In the lexical approach, instruction focuses on fixed expressions that occur frequently in
dialogues, which Lewis claims make up a larger part of discourse than unique phrases and
sentences. Vocabulary is prized over grammar per se in this approach. The teaching of chunks
and set phrases has become common in English as a second or foreign language, though this is
not necessarily primarily due to the Lexical Approach. The Lexical Approach develops many of
the fundamental principles of the Communicative Approach.

Principles of Lexical Approach

The Lexical Approach develops many of the fundamental principles advanced by

proponents of the Communicative Approach. The most important difference is the increased
understanding of the nature of lexis in naturally occurring language, and its potential contribution
to language pedagogy.

There are some principle of lexical approach:

- Language consists of grammatical zed lexis, not lexicalized grammar.

 The main tenet of lexical approach is its emphasis on lexis. According to Lewis language is
made of lexical elements besides grammar. He feels that emphasis should be laid on structure
made of word, clusters of words or lexical chunks rather than grammatical structures.

- The grammar/vocabulary dichotomy is invalid; much language consists of multi-words

'chunks'.
Lewis is of the view that vocabulary cannot be differentiated from grammar. Nattinger and De
Carrico consider a lexical phrase or a chunk as a lexico-
grammatical unit which exists somewhere between the traditional poles of lexicon and syntax (
1992:36). He states that language acquisition is faster when it is learnt in chunks rather than in
isolated individual words.
- A central element of language teaching is raising students' awareness of, and developing their
ability to 'chunk' language successfully.
Lewis holds that noticing lexical chunks in the language is a prerequisite for learning language.
He argues that increased awareness helps in converting input to intake. Added to consciousnes
s-raising, he feels that importance should be given to developing in learner the ability to chunk
the language.
- Evidence from computational linguistics and discourse analysis influences syllabus content and
sequence.
Advances in computer-based studies of language, such as corpus linguistics have provided
huge databases of language corpora.
- Collocation is integrated as an organizing principle within syllabuses.
Collocation is central to the lexical approach because the way words combine in collocations is
fundamental to all language use. Lewis stresses on the importance of learning the patterns of co
llocations because much of the spoken and written language comprises them. Hill says that we
need to add concept of collocational competence to our thinking as it aids us in avoiding errors
in our language. Thus, proficiency in a language is greater when there is a focus on collocation
s (2000:48).
- Language is recognized as a personal resource, not an abstract idealization.
In the lexical framework, language is perceived as a personal resource rather than as an abstrac
t idealization. By extension, learning a language enables a learner to become resourceful in
using it.
- Successful language is a wiser concept than accurate language:
Like the other communicative approaches, which stress on communicative proficiency, the lexi
cal approach too highlights the importance of successful communication rather than the produc
tion of accurate language.
- Grammar as a receptive skill, involving the perception of similarity and difference, is
prioritized.
Grammar is not a productive skill as is purported to be in structuralize descriptions of language
. It cannot be acquired through mere mechanical drilling of structures.
- Receptive skills, particularly listening, are given enhanced status:
Lexical approach believes that production of a language is based on its reception. It further stat
es that the amount of exposure to a language determines the production of a language.
- The Present-Practice-Produce paradigm is rejected, in favor of a paradigm based on the
Observe-Hypothesis-Experiment cycle.
The approach rejects the Present-Practice-Produce paradigm as it is similar to the rote
repetition of a language. The Observe-Hypothesis-Experiment cycle makes the learners
engross themselves the activities assigned to them.

Classroom Activities

Richards and Rodgers (2001) explain that materials associated with the Lexical Approach
are of several types, including complete course packages with textbooks and ancillary materials
such as the Collins COBUILD course; computer conern dancing programs for use with corpora,
or "printout" versions of these corpora; and collections of vocabulary teaching activities. The
latter type of materials is perhaps the most common.

Learning activities generally center on helping students notice and practice collocations.
Following are some examples of activities that might be used in a Lexical Approach classroom:

- When discussing a new vocabulary item such as run out of, brainstorm a list of collocates
(e.g., what types of things can you run out of?).
- From a list of related words such as speak, say, and tell, choose the correct word to fill in the
gaps in a list of sentences.
- Given a noun along with a list of adjectives with which it does and does not occur, choose the
appropriate collocates.
- Give a list of words that collocate with an unknown word, identify the word.
- Working with a printout of collocations of a given word, sort the collocations into categories
according to meaning.
- Examine recorded or printed texts for collocations of common words.
- Do pre-writing activities related to the topic of the writing that raise awareness of
collocations; for examples, brainstorm a list of topic-related words and then list other words
with which they collocate.
- Keep a lexical notebook of common words and their collocations.

Notes on the Video

The lesson in the video features an ESL class at Utah Valley University taught by Timothy Hall.
The lesson begins by previewing vocabulary from a recorded dialogue, which students then
listen to, answer comprehension questions, and then examines lexical items from the dialogue.
Next, students participate in a teacher-led discussion of different collocations derived from the
dialogue, including words used with "would you mind, "get," and "just." Throughout the lesson,
emphasis is placed on noticing and using collocations.

Advantages of Lexical Approach

- Students feel more encouraged with the learning material

- It is helpful and motivating for student to have a step-by-step learning process
- Teachers feel comfortables with a clearly defined, progressive course.

Disadvantages of Lexical Approach

- Language cannot be divided into different units in real life.

- Some topics traditionally considered advanced can actually be taught in much more lower
levels.
 REFERENCES

http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/mudules/vocabulary/lexical.php

http://www.nspeak.com/lexical.htm

http://myenglishpages.com/blog/lexical-approach

Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and the way forward. Hove, England:
Language Teaching Publications.

Lewis, M. (1997a). Implementing the lexical approach: Putting theory into practice. Hove,
England: Language Teaching Publications.

Lewis, M. (1997b). Pedagogical implications of the lexical approach. In J. Coady& T. Huckin

(Eds.), Second language vocabulary acquisition: A rationale for pedagogy (pp. 255-270).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.