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Date Posted: 12:21:56 07/10/03 Thu
Author: Patrícia de Almeida Neri
Subject: Task 10

- Explain what a lexical approach is. Describe its main characteristics.
The lexical approach does not analyze the target language, but it “concentrates on developing learners' proficiency with lexis, or words and word combinations”.
“It is based on the idea that an important part of language acquisition is the ability to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes, or "chunks," and that these chunks become the raw data by which learners perceive patterns of language traditionally thought of as grammar" (Lewis,1993:95). According to Michael Lewis(1993),
- “Lexis is the basis of language;
- Lexis is misunderstood in language teaching because of the assumption that grammar is the
basis of language and that mastery of the grammatical system is a prerequisite for
effective communication;
- The key principle of a lexical approach is that "language consists of grammaticalized lexis,
not lexicalized grammar."
- One of the central organizing principles of any meaning-centered syllabus should be lexis”.
The lexical approach “makes a distinction between vocabulary - traditionally understood as a stock of individual words with fixed meanings - and lexis, which includes not only the single words but also the word combinations that we store in our mental lexicons. Lexical approach advocates argue that language consists of meaningful chunks that, when combined, produce continuous coherent text, and only a minority of spoken sentences are entirely novel creations. Lewis (1997b) suggests the following taxonomy of lexical items”: words, polywords, collocations or word partnerships, institulionalized utterances and sentence frames and heads. This approach
emphasizes more collocations and expressions. Collocation happens when “certain words co-occur in natural text with greater than random frequency”(Lewis, 1997:8). It is a linguistic convention.
The key principles of this approach are: “language consists of grammaticalised lexis, not lexicalized grammar; the grammar/vocabulary dichotomy is invalid; much language consists of multi-words 'chunks'; a central element of language teaching is raising students' awareness of,
and developing their ability to 'chunk' language successfully; although structural patterns are known as useful, lexical and metaphorical patterning are accorded appropriate status; Collocation is integrated as an organizing principle within syllabuses; the central metaphor of language is holistic - an organism; not atomistic - a machine; it is the co-textual rather than the situational element of context which are of primary importance for language teaching; Grammar as a receptive skill, involving the perception of similarity and difference, is prioritized; Receptive skills, particularly listening, are given enhanced status; The Present-Practice-Produce paradigm is rejected, in favor of a paradigm based on the Observe-Hypothesize-Experiment cycle.”
In conclusion, the lexical approach is a good way to reflect about forms and meanings, but the most important is that “Teachers should never take a doctrinaire approach, whether their methods are audio-lingual, structured, communicative, or lexical. A little well-chosen variety is better than dogmatic adherence to any set of principles”.

Sources
http://www.cal.org/ericcll/digest/0102lexical.html
http://www.nspeak.com/lexical.htm
http://www-writing.berkeley.edu/TESL-EJ/ej09/r10.html

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