LEXICAL APPROACH

Definition
An approach to teaching languages that has a lot in common

with the communicative approach, but also examines how lexical phrases, prefabricated chunks of language, play an important role in producing fluent speech. The lexical approach was first coined by Michael Lewis. The fundamental principle of the lexical approach is "language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalized grammar." What this means is that lexical phrases offer far more language generative power than grammatical structures. Accordingly, advocates of this kind of approach argue that lexis should move to the center of language syllabuses. Justification for this theory comes from statistical analysis of language which shows that we do indeed speak in chunks and collocations.

 Concentrating on developing learners proficiency with lexis Reflecting a belief in the centrality of the lexis to

- language structure - language use -multiword lexical units or chunks Lexis is not only the single words but also the word combinations that we store in our mental lexicon Lexicon is the vocabulary of a language as distinct from the grammar, the total stock of words and meaningful combinations of words

Type of lexis
Lexical chunks- group of words that can be

found together in language Eg: in my opinion, to make long story short, by the way,... Collocation regular occurrence together of words Eg: do my hair/the cooking/the laundry make my bed/ a promise/coffe

 Idioms dead drunk, keep your feet on the

ground Similes as old as the hills Connectives finally, to conclude, consequently Conversational gambit opening used to start a conversation Eg: Tell you what, Guess what!

Principles
LANGUAGE CONSISTS OF GRAMMATICALISED LEXIS, NOT

LEXICALISED GRAMMAR.
STRUCTURAL PATTERNS ARE ACKNOWLEDGED AS USEFUL

BUT LEXICAL PATTERNS ARE CONSIDERED OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE TO LANGUAGE TEACHING.

SUCCESFUL LANGUAGE IS A WIDER CONCEPT THAN ACCURATE

LANGUAGE.
SOCIO-LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE-COMMUNICATIVE POWER

PRECEDES AND IS THE BASIS, NOT THE PRODUCT OF GRAMMATICAL COMPETENCE.

MUCH LANGUAGE CONSISTS OF MULTI-WORD CHUNK.

TEACHERS SHOULD RAISE STUDENTS AWARENESS OF CHUNK AND DEVELOP THEIR ABILITY TO CHUNK LANGUAGE SUCCESFULLY.

LANGUAGE IS RECOGNIZED AS A PERSONAL RESOURCE, NOT AN ABSTRACT IDEALISATION.

Techniques
Intensive and extensive listening and reading

in the target language First and second language comparison and translation (chunk for chunk rather than word for word) Guessing the meaning of vocabulary item from context Working with dictionaries and other reference tools

Strength
Help teach the ESL learners to speak fluency using

chunks In the lexical approach, lexis in its various types is thought to play a central role in language learning. The lexical approach recommends the learning of multi-word items as they aid the learner in producing the language without much effort. To quote Lewis: Lexis helps us to handle highly probable events fluently and effortlessly by providing us with prefabricated ways of dealing with them. (1977:41)

weakness
many linguists deny lexical approach as an approach for the reason that it does not provide

any coherent theory of language or language learning. As Thornbury puts it: Lexical Approach is not an approach, not in the strict sense, since it lacks a coherent theory of learning and its theory of language is not fully enough elaborated to allow for ready implementation in terms of syllabus specification. (Thornbury, 1998:12)

 Lewis emphasizes on noticing and

memorization of the chunks of language. But, he offers no clear guidelines as to the selection and grading of the chunks.