THE LEXICAL
APPROACH
NAZARENA PETRUCCI
HISTORICAL
EARLY 20TH CENTURY: LANGUAGE TEACHING
PRIMARILY FOCUSED ON VOCABULARY AND CONTEXT
GRAMMAR, CONSIDERING THEM THE FUNDAMENTAL
BUILDING BLOCKS OF LANGUAGE.
1990S - EMERGENCE OF THE LEXICAL APPROACH:
DEVELOPED BY MICHAEL LEWIS, THE LEXICAL
APPROACH REDEFINED THE BASICS OF LANGUAGE
LEARNING. INSTEAD OF GRAMMAR AND ISOLATED
WORDS, IT EMPHASIZED LEXIS.
KEY THEORISTS
AND LINGUISTS
Michael Lewis (1993): Focus on lexical chunks
rather than grammar.
Pawley & Syder (1982): Emphasized the importance
of multi-word units in natural speech.
Corpus Linguistics Contributors: O'Keefe,
McCarthy, Carter – empirical evidence for
chunking.
Boers & Lindstromberg (2009): Research on
collocations.
"LANGUAGE IS
GRAMMATICALIZED LEXIS,
NOT LEXICALIZED GRAMMAR"
(Lewis 1993)
CORE
PRINCIPLES
CORE
PRINCIPLES
The lexical approach is a way of
analysing and teaching language based
on the idea that it is made up of
lexical units rather than grammatical
structures. The units are words and
chunks formed by collocations and
fixed phrases
CHUNKS
Chunks are groups of words that can be found together in language. They can
be words that always go together.
COLLOCATIONS FIXED PHRASES
COLLOCATIONS FIXED PHRASES
Heavy rain Nice to meet you
Have Lunch At the end of the day
LANGUAGE
ACQUISITION AND
Repeated exposure to chunks is essential
LEARNING
While noticing lexical chunks or
collocations is crucial, it is also not
enough for "input" to become "intake."
Fluency comes from recognizing,
producing, and manipulating lexical units.
TEACHER ROLES LEARNER ROLE
LANGUAGE ANALYSTS: IDENTIFY IMPORTANT ACTIVE ROLE
CHUNKS FOR LEARNERS. DATA ANALYST: EXAMINE REAL-LIFE
USE CORPORA AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE TO LANGUAGE SAMPLES.
ANALYZE LANGUAGE.
SELF-MONITOR: REFLECT ON LEARNING
FOSTER LEARNER AUTONOMY IN MANAGING
THROUGH NOTEBOOKS OR JOURNALS.
LEARNING.
CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES &
MATERIALS
MATERIAL ACTIVITIES
Materials and teaching resources to Awareness: Identifying lexical chunks in
texts.
support lexical approaches in language
Chunking: Highlighting multi-word units.
teaching include a coursebook that
Memory enhancement and retelling
focuses on multi-word units. activities.
ASSESSMENT
ASSESSMENTS
FOCUS ON USING LEARNER REFLECTION
INCLUDE TASKS THAT
LEXICAL CHUNKS IN ON PROGRESS WITH
MEASURE FLUENCY
CONTEXT. COLLOCATIONS.
WITH CHUNKS
CHALLENGES AND
Teachers may face difficulties in designing
effective activities and ensuring students LIMITATIONS
notice lexical items.
Overemphasis on lexis may lead to neglect of
grammatical structures.
Learners lack the massive exposure to
language that native speakers have.
COMPARISON TO OTHER
METHODOLOGIES
The Lexical Approach promotes learning
through context and practical usage. This
makes it potentially more engaging and
applicable to real-life situations.
It encourages learners to engage in
meaningful communication using chunks,
which can facilitate fluency.
APPLICATION IN CURRENT
CLASSROOMS
Teachers often focus on helping students learn
phrases and collocations.
Teachers use real-life texts, videos, and dialogues
to show how lexical chunks are used naturally.
Teachers are integrating technology into language
learning by utilizing online corpus tools that
provide insights into word usage and collocations.
Website: Free Collocation Dictionary
Free Collocation is a n online dictionary that
provides word combinations commonly used in
English. It’s an excellent resource for
students to explore lexical chunks .
THANK
YOU!
