The Lexical Approach

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 The Lexical Approach

        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. Students are taught to be able to perceive patterns of language (grammar) as well as have meaningful set uses of words at their disposal when they are taught in this way. In 2000, Norbert Schmitt, an American linguist and a Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, contributed to a learning theory supporting the lexical approach he stated that “the mind stores and processes these [lexical] chunks as individual wholes.” The short-term capacity of the brain is much more limited than long-term and so it is much more efficient for our brain to pull up a lexical chunk as if it were one piece of information as opposed to pulling up each word as separate pieces of information.

        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. Vocabulary is prized over grammar per se 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. This is because anywhere from 55-80% of native speakers’ speech are derived from prefabricated phrases. Fluency could be considered unachievable if one did not learn prefabricated chunks or expressions.

Common lexical chunks include: Have you ever … been / seen / had / heard / tried

        Most language learners are accustomed to learning basic conversation starts, which are lexical chunks, including:

“Good morning,”

“How are you?”

“Where is the restroom?”

“Thank you,” does this cost?”

        Language learners also use lexical chunks as templates or formulas to create new phrases:

What are you doing?

What are you saying?

What are you cooking?

What are you looking for?

        In language teaching, a set of principles based on the observation that an understanding of words and word combinations (chunks) is the primary method of learning a language. The idea is that, rather than have students memorize lists of vocabulary, they would learn commonly used phrases.

        The term lexical approach was introduced in 1993 by Michael Lewis, who observed that “language consists of grammaticalized lexis, not lexicalised grammar” (The Lexical Approach, 1993).

      The lexical approach is not a single, clearly defined method of language instruction. It’s a commonly used term that’s poorly understood by most. Studies of literature on the subject often show that it’s used in contradictory ways. It is largely based on the assumption that certain words will elicit a response with a specific set of words. Students would be able to learn which words are connected in this way. Students are expected to learn the grammar of languages based on recognizing patterns in words.

Examples and Observations

    “The Lexical Approach implies a decreased role for sentence grammar, at least until post-intermediate levels. In contrast, it involves an increased role for word grammar (collocation and cognates) and text grammar (suprasentential features).”

        (Michael Lewis, The Lexical Approach: The State of ELT and a Way Forward. Language Teaching Publications, 1993)LimitationsWhile the lexical approach can be a quick way for students to pick up phrases, it doesn't foster much creativity. It can have the negative side effect of limiting people's responses to safe fixed phrases. Because they don't have to build responses, they don't need to learn the intricacies of language. "Adult language knowledge consists of a continuum of linguistic constructions of different levels of complexity and abstraction. Constructions can comprise concrete and particular items (as in words and idioms), more abstract classes of items (as in word classes and abstract constructions), or complex combinations of concrete and abstract pieces of language (as mixed constructions). Consequently, no rigid separation is postulated to exist between lexis and grammar."(Nick C. Ellis, "The Emergence of Language As a Complex Adaptive System." The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics, ed. by James Simpson. Routledge, 2011)


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