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Lexical Approach

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2 views

Lexical Approach

Uploaded by

lamanabilovaaa
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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LEXICAL

APPROAC
H
What is lexical
approach?
■ 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, chunks formed
by collocations, and
fixed phrases.
■ Example
The phrase 'Rescue
attempts are being
hampered by bad
weather' is a chunk of
language, and almost a
fixed phrase.
■ 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.
■ 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.
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].
Lexical chunks and collocations
■ 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.
Example
In 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.
■ 'Collocation' is also included in the term 'lexical chunk', but we
refer to it separately from time to time, so we define it as a pair of
lexical content words commonly found together. For example,
'basic' + 'principles' is a collocation, but 'look' + 'at' is not
because it combines a lexical content word and a
grammar function word.
Examples
Lexical Chunks (that are Lexical Chunks (that are
not collocations) collocations)

by the way totally convinced


up to now strong accent
upside down terrible accident
If I were you sense of humour
a long way off sounds exciting
out of my mind brings good luck
Why is the Lexical Approach So How to
Helpful? How
applyto
• Learning chunks of natural apply
lexcial
language saves ‘processing time’ – lexcial
students don’t have to build a approach
sentence from grammatical approach in
in class
beginnings. class?
• Helps learners sound more natural
■ So, helping your learners to utilise
chunks of language can be a great
way to boost their English level.
Using Language Chunks in Class
You probably already do.
Even teaching ‘how are you?’ to young learners – hopefully you
don’t break down the sentence into its grammatical components
and explain them, you just tell them what it means. Right?
You probably also teach them useful classroom phrases – ‘what
does X mean?’, ‘Please can I go to the bathroom?’ and so on.
So why not expand that to other useful, high frequency phrases?
Finding Useful Chunks
There’s a simple formula to use to judge a lexical phrase:
Usefulness + Personal Interest = Good lexical chunk
Simply put, if it’s high frequency or appropriate to the student (i.e.
useful) and the student is interested in learning it (i.e. it’s a
superhero catchphrase, or the student wants to know).
Teaching Lexical Chunks
Lexical approach is really ‘a theory looking
for an approach Or in other words, although
the idea is sound, it’s tough to know how to
teach it.
I find that the best way is little and often.
Whenever you come across an appropriate
chunk, you can introduce it to the class.
Whatever system of recording vocabulary
you ask your students to use, do the same
with your lexical chunks.
The elephant In your court

No pain, In the room

Miss no gain

Pull yourself Together

Under And a leg

Break The weather

Costs an arm the ice

The ball is The boat


The elephant in the room The big issue

No pain, no gain You have to work for what you wa

Miss the boat It is too late

Pull yourself together Calm down

Under the weather Sick

Break the ice Make people feel more comfortab

Cost an arm and a leg Very expensive

The ball is in your court It's your decision


Complete the following sentences using an appropriate word or
phrase.

1. My father knows how to teach English .............................


a) Well
b) Good
2. We want a new house to ....................................
c) Live
d) live in
3. I ....................................... for you since 9 o’clock in the morning.
e) am waiting
f) have been waiting
4. James ..................................... suffering from fever since yesterday.
g) Is
h) Was
i) Has been
5. Neither Ann nor Mary .................................... arrived.
j) Has
6. I will call on you before I .....................................
a) Leave
b) will leave
7. I ..................................... all the books to the library yesterday.
c) Returned
d) have returned
8. Each man and each woman ...................................... the right to
vote.
e) Has
f) Have
9. Walking along the road, the old man was .............................. by a
bus.
g) ran over
h) run over
10. He ...................................... hard for the last two weeks.
i) is studying
j) was studying
1. Getting fired turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
2. These red poppies are a dime a dozen.
3. Don’t beat around the bush.
4. After some reflection, he decided to bite the bullet.
5. I’m going to call it a night.
6. He’s got a chip on his shoulder.
7. Would you cut me some slack?
8. Don’t cut any corners.
9. She lets things get out of hands.
10.I’m going back to the drawing board.
11. Hang in there.
12.Don’t jump the gun.
13.He decided to let her off the hook.
14.He missed the boat.
15.I go out for walks once in a blue moon.
16. Pull yourself together, man!
17.She seriously rubbed me the wrong way.
Laman Abilova
Jala Mammadova
Laman Huseynova

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