The Lexical Approach

Pablo Lozano

Cristina Piamba Muñoz

Jennifer Nathalia Rivera Montaño
Daniela Valdes Arenas

University Santiago de Cali

LEXICAL APPROACH
HISTORY: For most of the twentieth century the grammatical structure was the
center of the teaching of foreign languages. But by the early 1980’s linguists realized
that most native speakers used fixed expressions as their way of speaking rather
than original sentences formulated by structural rules. Based on this, teachers and
linguists started to use more these “chunks” (Word Combinations) than grammatical
structures.
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). In 1993, Michael Lewis
published a book called “The Lexical Approach” that talked about a method of
teaching foreign languages, as an alternative approach to traditional grammatical
approach.

Philosophy: The lexical approach is a way of analyzing 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. The lexical approach focuses on fixed expressions that happen a lot in
dialogues, which Lewis says that make up a larger part of dialogues unique phrases
and sentences. Vocabulary is prized over grammar in this approach. The teaching
of chunks and set phrases has become common in English as a foreign or second
language, though this is not necessarily primarily due to the Lexical Approach.
Lexical Approach advocates point out that without attention to collocations, English
language learners are prone to make mistakes such as the following:

Be careful. That snake is toxic.

A Ferrari is a very potent car.
Objectives:
 To get students to become aware of use and to eventually these collocations
and fixed phrases.
 To help learners to notice for themselves how language is typically used.
 Grammar is acquired by a process of observation, hypothesis and
experimentation.
 We can use whole phrases without understanding their constituent parts.
 The acquisition of the language is accelerated by the contact with the
instructor with a higher level of competence by the learner.

Activities around several auditions. In this type of activity students will be exposed
to fundamental structures to work with different functions ("shopping", "asking for
information on the street" etc.). It is a matter of becoming accustomed to them
progressively and without analyzing the structures in a grammatical way, but as
lexical units with global meaning.
Activity to work placement. At initial levels we can work with the type name
adjective. The activity is to advise a friend who wants to buy a gift to his girlfriend
but has doubts. From photos of several items susceptible to purchase, choose the
adjectives that create appropriate to comment on the articles. For example: This
coat is very expensive.
Dialogues in a situation. To present dialogues in real situations, which can then
be dramatized.

Activities with lexical constellations. This strategy is based on producing words

from a generator word.

Alphabet Soup. Select a certain amount of words and compose a alphabet soup.
It can be exchanged with the partner.

Crossword Puzzles. Same as before but now it's about inventing a crossword
puzzle.
Form cross-words.

Build.

This approach leads us to re-conceptualize and redefine the role of grammar and
vocabulary within the teaching of a language. For the author, the essential
component of a language would be the lexical sequence, or "Lexis". This
sequence, or "chunks", would be prefabricated pieces of language to which we
tend to use at the time of carrying out communicative activities. When a person
faces the challenge of wanting to communicate an idea, not part of zero, does not
dedicate to gather exhaustively
The lexical approach is founded, from a psycholinguistic perspective, in the
recognition that, as in the case of native speakers, a very important part of the
acquisition of a L2 consists of the ability to understand and produce lexical phrases
as a whole without Analyze (chunks). The exhibition to these lexical segments
allows students to assimilate in an implicit way linguistic patterns that have
traditionally been considered part of the grammar.

Characteristics
There must be prefabricated lexical blocks for the Apprentice to memorize and this
gives an increase in the vocabulary
In the lexical approach, instruction focuses on fixed expressions that occur
frequently in dialogues
According to LEWIS, the chunks are used as an inventory of phrases and
collocations instead of vocabulary lists or verbs, making the learner more in touch
with the normal use of the language and the adquisition of it.
Advantages
The lexical approach suggests combinations of words to teach, not only vocabulary
but also indirectly grammar rules
This model helps to acquire a natural intonation of the language. The use of
concrete models accelerate the acquisition of lexicon and grammar and the
apprentice by practicing these that are normally used by natives will speak more
fluently and naturally.
Disadvantages
In real life the language cannot be divided by themes or conversation models.
Words have a lack of meaning without context.

Our point of view.

For us, the lexical approach could be really great for students with a higher level of
the language, but the main disadvantage of this method, and we agree on this, is
that lexically rich input is not sufficient, learner don’t have access to massive
exposure like native speakers, and learners need explicit grammar teaching too.