Lexical Approach to Second Language Teaching

Lexical Approach to Second Language Teaching

0102-moudraia-lexical.pdf

The lexical approach to second language teaching has received
interest in recent years as an alternative to grammarbased
approaches. The lexical approach 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, p. 95). Instruction focuses on relatively fixed
expressions that occur frequently in spoken language, such
as, “I’m sorry,” “I didn’t mean to make you jump,” or “That
will never happen to me,” rather than on originally created
sentences (Lewis, 1997a, p. 212). This digest provides an overview
of the methodological foundations underlying the lexical
approach and the pedagogical implications suggested by
them.