/ V HEINLE »** CENGAGE Learning' Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory into Practice Michael Lewis The drawing on page 148 is by Johnathon Marks This is just to say by William Carlos Williams, Col lected Poems, Carcanet Press Horse by George Mackay Brown,Scottish Poetry i, used by permisison of John Murray (publishers) Editorial Director: Joe Dougherty Executive Marketing Manager, Global ELT / ESL: Amy Mabley © 2008 Heinle, Cengage Learning ALL RIGHTS RESERVED No part of this work covered by the Cover Designer: Anna Macleod copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or Head of Manufacturing: Jane Glendening used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or me Production Controller: Tom Relf chanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, information net works, or information storage and retrieval systems, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States The Author Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Michael Lewis taught in English in Sweden at all lev els from primary to adult In 1981 he co-founded LTP He has lectured on language and methodology in most European countries, Japan, the States, and Cen tral America He is author of The English Verb and a number of student texts and co-author of Business English (with Peter Wilberg) and Practical Techniques for Language Teaching (with Jimmie Hill) The highly acclaimed The Lexical Approach appeared in 1993 His current professional interest lies in integrating lexis, grammar and phonology and in the ways in which language is stored in the mental lexicon publisher For permission to use material from this text or product, submit all requests online at cengage.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to permissionrequest@cengage.com ISBN: 978-1-899396-60-3 A note on the Dictionaries The four principle dictionaries designed for non native learners referred to in this book, usually by abbreviations which are in fairly wide use, are: CIDE Cambridge International Dictionary o f English (1995 Edition) COBUILD Collins International Dictionary (new edition, 1995) LDCE Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (Third Edition, 1995) OALD Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (5th Edition) In some cases the earlier editions are very different, and some of the remarks made in this book apply only to the 1995 (or later) editions Heinle Cheriton House, North Way, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 5BE, United Kingdom Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customised learning solutions with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Japan Locate our local office at: international.cengage.com/ region Acknowledgements Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by I am grateful to all who responded to the Lexical Approach with comments, letters, suggestions and criticisms I hope they got as much out of the debate as I did I am particularly grateful to the colleagues who have contributed classroom reports for this book, to Heinz Ribsch's pupils who kindly lent me their notebooks, and finally to my colleagues Jimmie Hill, who proved a demanding but helpful editor, and Mark Powell, who provided some vauable insights Nelson Education, Ltd Printed in Croatia by Zrinski d.d 10- 11 1009 Visit Heinle online at http://elt.heinie.com Visit our corporate website at www.cengage.com Implementing the Lexical Approach The Lexical Approach can be summarised in a few words: language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks Teachers using the Lexical Approach will, instead of analysing language whenever possible, be more inclined to direct learners’ attention to chunks which are as large as possible This book provides a detailed discussion of the implications of this change of mindset Implementation may involve a radical change of mindset, and suggest many changes in classroom procedure, but the methodological changes are small: • Recording adjective + noun rather than noun alone • Highlighting certain expressions as having a special evocative and generative status • Exploring the environment in which certain kinds of words occur • Emphasising the pronunciation of lexical chunks, not individual words Implementing the Lexical Approach in your classes does not mean a radical upheaval, likely to upset colleagues, parents and learners On the contrary, if introduced with thought and sensitivity, its introduction will be almost invisible, involving perhaps 20 or even 50 small changes in every lesson, each in itself unremarkable, but the cumulative effect will be more effective teaching and more efficient learning At the other end of the scale, the Lexical Approach may yet provide more radical challenges to much that is standard in course content and methodology Although this book is primarily concerned with how to take our present understanding into class immediately, the final chapter suggests ways in which the theory and practical applications continue to develop as each informs the other as we try to discover the best way to help learners This book is based on the reactions of many teachers to The Lexical Approach and is a contribution to the continuing debate Terminology This book is primarily for language teachers and I have tried to avoid unnecessary jargon The term text is used in a slightly technical sense to refer to any piece of continuous language, whether written or spoken When used in the technical sense of ‘type of lexical item’, the words collocation, word, and expression appear with an initial capital letter I have also used an initial capital when I distinguish classroom Activities from Exercises Michael Lewis, Hove, 1997 Contents Contents C h a pt e r W hat is t h e L ex ic a l A pp r o a c h ? Introduction What is Lexis? Sentences with special status Reactions to The Lexical Approach What changes can we expect? C h a pt e r U n d er sta n d in g L e x i s Arbitrariness of lexical items The size of the mental lexicon Vocabulary is more than Words Words Contractions Polywords Information content Common words De-lexicalised words Collocations or Word Partnerships Collocation is linguistic, not thematic Arbitrariness of collocation Collocations in text Partnerships and Relationships Non-reciprocity of collocation Information-content and collocation Strong and frequent collocation Collocation and grammar Pedagogic value of collocation Expressions Seven - the magic number Frames, slots and fillers Suppression Expressions and grammar A modified idea of idiom Semi-fixed idioms Presenting Expressions Lexical awareness helps So what exactly is lexis, then? Lexis is not enough Evolving understanding C h a pt e r L e x is in t h e C l a s s r o o m Skills as well as language Selecting Expanding the learners’ lexicon Learning strategies Contents Recording and revisiting Practising in the Lexical Approach Learner participation The value of repetition Noticing Consciousness-Raising The importance of negative evidence The central strategy: Pedagogical chunking C hapter T he R ole of LI in t h e L e x ic a l A p p r o a c h Translation is inevitable Learning L2 is not identical to learning LI Translation and lexis Translation and collocation The value of translation Interference can be helpful L I awareness as a resource C hapter O r g a n is in g l e x i s Principles Notebooks Formats C h apter E x e r c is e s in t h e L e x ic a l A p p r o a c h .8 Exercises designed on lexical principles Basic Exercise Types Sample Exercises C h apter A d a p t in g A c t iv it ie s in t h e L e x ic a l A p p r o a c h 108 Adapting activities to provide a lexical focus Sample activities C h apter Report 1: Report 2: Report 3: Report 4: Report 5: Report 6: C la ssr o o m r e p o r t s 14 Introducing Collocation - Cherry Gough Developing Awareness of a de-lexicalised verb - Ron Martinez Sound Scripting - M ark Powell Pronunciation in the Lexical Approach - Jonathan Marks Using Literature - George Woolard Lexical Notebooks - Heinz Ribisch Contents C h a p ter L a n g u a g e C o n t e n t 177 Language areas deserving more attention Modality Vague language Polyword phrases Discourse-organising language Complex noun phrases Event-reporting verbs Events described in double-clause sentences Responding and initiating Lexical patterns Real English and the Classroom Possible and probable English Models and Targets Is there a core lexicon? Lexical balance Prototypicality The Existential Paradigm C h a p t e r 10 T eachers and T e a c h e r T r a i n i n g 192 Background The nature of the subject Teachers need confidence with real English, not just EFL Teachers’ attitude to novel or unknown language Ability to simplify their own speech Methodology based on a realistic timetable Holistic approach Lexis in Teacher training Deep understanding of the arbitrariness of the sign Memory load Confidence with pedagogical chunking Choosing text-types Lexical principles and texts Implementing change for serving teachers Familiarity with modem dictionaries What would a lexical lesson be like? Some central ideas Some challenges to serving teachers C h a p t e r 11 W hat next? .2 Lexis in dictionaries Lexis and grammar The importance of spoken language Lexis, grammar and phonology The Integrated Approach G lo ssa r y 21 B ibl io g r a ph y 221 Chapter What is the Lexical Approach? Chapter What is the Lexical Approach? I n t r o d u c t io n When The Lexical Approach was published in 1993 it stimulated wide and lively debate Many reviews appeared, and an enormous number of colleagues have written with queries, disagreements, support, and practical suggestions for taking the Approach into the classroom It is particularly gratifying that most of the comments from teachers working in regular language classrooms have been positive and show how they believe they can incorporate lexical insights into their day-to-day teaching The Lexical Approach was intended to be a practically applicable methodology book It stands or falls on the simple criterion of whether or not it can be implemented in everyday language classes Readers familiar with The Lexical Approach may prefer to begin at Chapter 2, as this first chapter provides a brief summary of the central ideas of The Lexical Approach, together with some reactions to it Ta sk Look through a good modern EFL dictionary: how are the contents different from a simple pocket dictionary? The good EFL dictionary contains better definitions, more examples and more information about the grammar of the headwords, but perhaps the single most striking difference is that it contains a much larger range of items In addition to single words, it contains phrases, idioms and even complete expressions The lexicon of the language is considerably larger than any list of the “words” of that language This simple insight is the basis for a lexical view of language, and a lexical approach to teaching W h a t is L e x is ? The standard view divides language into gram mar (structure) and vocabulary (words); the Lexical Approach challenges this fundamental view of language Instead, the Lexical Approach argues that language consists of chunks which, when combined, produce continuous coherent text The chunks are of different kinds and four different basic types are identified One of these consists of single words while all the others are multi-word items Chapter What is the Lexical Approach? Words This category is familiar; it is old-fashioned vocabulary, and is found listed and explained in even the most unsatisfactory dictionaries Words which can stand alone (OPEN, Certainly!) are lexical items, as are words where a single substitution produces a totally new meaning: salt/pepper in Could you pass th e , please? Unsurprisingly, this category is by far the largest of the four categories in the lexicon The most fundamental linguistic insight of the Lexical Approach is that much of the lexicon consists of multi-word items of different kinds Words are the largest and most familiar category, but it is the other categories which provide the novelty and pedagogic challenge which is the subject of this book There is a relatively small group of lexical items which sit somewhere between words and the major multi-word categories By the way is conventionally written as three words, while nevertheless is written as one; on the other hand has no similar expressions *on the other arm/finger/leg etc; only one of once in a blue/red/green/new moon is standard English Combinations such as to and fro, bread and butter, are, despite logical considerations, not normally reversible: *fro and to, *butter and bread This may be different in different languages - the Swedish equivalent of bread and butter is literally butter and bread These multi-word items are poly words, arbitrary combinations, a sort of mini-idiom Collocations One of the two central specifically linguistic ideas of the Lexical Approach is that of collocation Collocation is the readily observable phenomenon whereby certain words co-occur in natural text with greater than random frequency We all know which is the more common in each of these pairs: chase/miss the bus, make/do a mistake, slump dramatically/gracefully But we really know? Are our intuitions reliable? And, even if they are, what part does collocation play in standard classroom activities? Is it a simple extension of vocabulary teaching, or can we find patterns and paradigms which move it towards word-grammar, and hence towards the generative pole of the vocabulary-grammar spectrum? Collocations range on a spectrum from fully fixed (