Editorial
The article first appeared in a special issue of the ETAI Forum 2013, contributed to the 20th Anniversary of the Lexical.

What is a Lexical Approach?

George Woolard, UK

George Woolard has taught in Greece, Malaysia and the UK. He is the author of Lessons with Laughter, Grammar with Laughter, and the Key Words for Fluency collocation practice books, all published by Heinle ELT. His latest book Messaging: Beyond a lexical approach in ELT is published by The Round (www.the-round.com)

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Introduction
Input to learning
A simple methodology
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Over the years there has been some uncertainty, confusion and dispute about what a lexical approach is, or could be. I believe that much of this is due to the use of the word lexical which has resulted in too narrow an association of the approach with the word and word meaning.

Input to learning

In Implementing the Lexical Approach, Michael Lewis states that ‘The Lexical Approach places communication of meaning at the heart of language and language learning.’ (1997:15) What, then, are the kinds of meanings we communciate?

Although we have difficulty classifying these meanings neatly into lists or taxonomies, we actually have little difficulty identifying them. As proficient users of at least one language, our knowledge of these meanings is shown by the kind of questions we ask when learning another language. For example,

How do you say I’ve lost my car keys in French?

This How do you say ................. in ...........? framework is a simple but practical way of isolating what we communicate through language and, I would argue, of providing the initial input to language learning. Note that this is different from word meaning enquiries such as ‘What’s the French word for key?’ These questions are best seen as preparation for communicating meanings of the sort:

I’ve lost my car keys.
I’ve left my keys in the hotel room.
Are these your keys?

The meanings we communicate are mainly phrasal in nature and these should be the input to language learning. The Lexical Approach is not about word meaning but about meaning created by particular groups of words in communication, and these will almost always involve both grammatical and lexical relationships.

Secondly, it is useful to view the Lexical Approach in a historical context. In the 1980s and 90s the focus was firmly on communicative language teaching and task-based learning. These approaches aimed to produce learners who not only generated grammatically correct language, but also communicated naturally and effectively. Successful as these approaches were, errors with word relations were not uncommon.

Make sure you catch the opportunity to speak English when you’re in London. I prefer thick coffee in the morning.

Fluent speakers are more likely to produce:

Make sure you take the opportunity to speak English when you’re in London. I prefer strong coffee in the morning.

The Lexical Approach arose, in some sense, as a response to this type of error. It argued for an added level of noticing in language learning, to that of word relations such as collocation. A lexical approach should not be seen as a challenge to or rejection of grammar and communicative approaches to teaching. It actually compliments them, making the overall teaching model more comprehensive and effective.

A simple methodology

At its core, The Lexical Approach suggests that a grammar lesson should also be a vocabulary lesson and a vocabulary lesson should also be a grammar lesson. That is, when teaching we should always focus the learner on both grammar and vocabulary at the same time. What this suggests for the way we teach languages can be demonstrated by approaching the language in the following vocabulary exercise in a different way.

Task: Complete the phrasal verbs in these sentences with these particles. over, off, to, on, up, after, in

1. I take _____ my mother.
2. We need to take _____ more staff.
3. I like watching planes take _____.
4. I think I’ll take _____ tennis. I need more exercise.
5. The company’s been taken _____ by a rival firm.
6. I didn’t take _____ him. He wasn’t my type.
7. My aunt earns extra money by taking _____ students.

In completing this exercise, it is unlikely that the teacher will explicitly draw the learner’s attention to collocation and the grammar that surrounds these phrasal verbs. However, if we take the example of use as the input to learning and not the phrasal verb, we can interact with the language content in a fuller and more effective way.

We begin by getting the learner to focus on the complete example of use and not just on the phrasal verb it contains.

My aunt earns extra money by taking in students.

We establish the overall meaning of the example by eliciting or explaining that take in means to provide accommodation for someone. Then we abstract a frame from the example that has a focus on both grammar and vocabulary.

..... earn / earns extra money by .....ing .....

We follow this by modifying the frame to provide similar examples of what people typically say:

My brother earns extra money by delivering newspapers at the weekend.
Some teachers earn extra money by marking exam papers during their holidays.

Finally, the learner is encouraged to explore and personalise the frame.

I earn extra money by babysitting for my neighbours at the weekend.

By using the example of use as the focus for input and not just the meaning of the phrasal verb, we draw the learner’s attention to features of both vocabulary and grammar at the same time. In this particular frame, we highlight the collocations earn +money, extra +money, and a grammar pattern consisting of the present simple tense followed by a non-finite clause containing by + ...ing. In following this sequence of activities, we keep both grammar and word relations in focus.

I believe this simple three step procedure should become a core strategy and reflex in language learning and applied to all examples of use that are presented to or selected by the learner. It follows that a major role of the teacher is to direct the learner to good examples of use.

Reversing the approach to a dictionary

The modern English-to-English dictionary is a comprehensive resource that not only contains definitions of words but also a large number of typical examples of use of these words. If we approach these examples in the way outlined above we can turn this resource into a powerful encoding tool.

I believe that the primary aim of the learner in consulting an English-to-English dictionary should be to find common and typical examples of how a word is used. The argument for this approach is twofold. Firstly, our growing understanding of vocabulary is based on our exposure to particular uses of words. And secondly, a focus on examples of use allows learners to see how grammar and vocabulary work together to realise specific communicative meanings. How then do we exploit this encoding potential?

A search for meaning may start with a word, but it should always end with the modification of an example. The word is best seen as a kind of key that opens a door to the many ways that it is actually used. For example, a learner who looks up ‘negligible’ in an English-to-English dictionary is likely to find the following kind of information:

negligible

too slight or small in amount to be of importance

The difference between the two products is negligible.
My knowledge of German is negligible.

These examples provide the following useful frames:

The difference between ........... is negligible.
My knowledge of .......... .is negligible.

Following the approach established above these should be modified by both teacher and learner to create similar messages.

The difference between the two teams is negligible so it is difficult to say who will win the match.

Dictionaries should be seen as sources of good examples for input to language learning and both teachers and learners should be trained to exploit them to full effect. Interestingly, Michael Lewis proposes a similar role for grammar reference books.

‘The principal role of a grammar reference book in the classroom would, like the dictionary, be a source of reliable examples. ...........Many teachers can provide suitable and helpful examples spontaneously, but the grammar book is there as an additional source of data.’ (LA:182)

Conclusion

A lexical approach is best seen as an attempt to integrate the teaching of grammar and vocabulary. It should not be interpreted too narrowly as a focus on the word and word meaning but as a focus on the word patterns that we use to convey meaning in communication. By making the example of use of a word the primary input to learning and exploiting it in the way suggested above, we keep the learner’s attention on both grammar and word relations such as collocation at the same time.

A full account of this approach and its implications for methodology and materials design can be found in Messaging: Beyond a lexical approach in ELT.

References

Lewis, M. 1993. The Lexical Approach. Hove: LTP

Lewis, M. 1997. Implementing the Lexical Approach. Hove: LTP

Woolard, G. 2013. Messaging: Beyond a Lexical Approach in ELT. The Round (www.the-round.com)

Please check the Methodology and Language for Secondary Teachers course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Teaching Advanced Students course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How to be a Teacher Trainer course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Methodology for Teaching Spoken Grammar and English course at Pilgrims website.