Principle of Lexical Approach:Successful language is a wider concept than accurate language.
Socio-linguistic competence-communicative power precedes and is the basis, not the product of grammatical competence.
Much language consists of multiword “chunks”.
Grammatical error is recognized as intrinsic to the learning process
Good language learners recognize and use collocations, poly words contractions, and expression.
Characteristic of
lexical approach are focus on the development of a vocabulary,
meaningful chunks, collocations of lexical items and multiple words
unit.
Basic concept
Learning a language
consists of being able to understand and produce lexical phrases as
chunks. Student are thought to be able to perceive patterns of language
(grammar) as well as have meaningful set uses of words when they are
thought in this way. In the lexical approach, instruction focused on
fixed expression that occurs frequently in dialogue.
Design Lexical Approach
Design Objectives :
To realize a syllabus
and accompanying materials based on lexical rather than grammatical
principles and to cover the most frequent words together with their
patterns and uses.
The teacher´s role :
The teacher talk is the
major source of learner input and organizing the technological system,
providing scaffolding to help learners. The teacher methodology: Task
Planning Report
Learner´s role :
Learner´s role Discoverer Data analyst
A New Role for Lexis
Michael Lewis (1993), who coined the term lexical approach, suggests the following:
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.
One of the central organizing principles of any meaning-centered syllabus should be lexis.
Despite references to
the natural environments in which words occur, Sinclair's (1987) and
Willis's (1990) lexical syllabus are word based. However, Lewis's (1993)
lexical syllabus is specifically not word based, because it "explicitly
recognizes word patterns for (relatively) de-lexical words, collocation
power for (relatively) semantically powerful words, and longer
multi-word items, particularly institutionalized sentences, as requiring
different, and parallel pedagogical treatment" (Lewis, 1993, p. 109).
Activities that the students will do are reading, speaking and writing.
Media that I will use are a paragraph and picture from the book.
Activities:
Pair work and Working in a small group
Reflection:
Implementation
How to achieve lexical approach
Conclusion (How is Lexical approach related to communicative competence).
Technique(s):
Controlled techniques
Reading aloud: Reading directly from a given text.
Question answer, display: Activity involving prompting of student responses.
Checking teacher: guiding the correction of student work, providing feedback as an activity.
IMPLEMENTATION
Presentation, Practice and Production (PPP)
Presentation involves
presenting the target language (the language to be taught to the
students) to the students generally through eliciting and cueing of the
students to see if they know it and then providing the language if no
one does. The target language is usually put on the board either in
structure (grammar-type) charts or in dialogs. Presentation features
more “teacher talk” than the other stages of the lesson.
Next is Practice where
the students practice the target language in one to three activities
that progress from very structured (students are given activities that
provide little possibility for error) to less-structured (as they master
the material). These activities should include as much “student talk”
as possible and not focus on written activities, though written
activities can provide a structure for the verbal practices. Practice
should have the “student talk time”.
Production is the stage
of the lesson where the students take the target language and use it in
conversations that they structure (ideally) and use it to talk about
themselves or their daily lives or situations.
Plan Activity
TEACHER’S TASK
1. Read through this
unit of classroom materials as if you were preparing to use them for a
group of high intermediate to advanced learners and decide how you would
need to adapt the materials.
2. If appropriate adapt and use these materials with your students. After using the materials think about these questions:
- Which goals do I think the materials achieved?
- Which goals do I think the materials fail to achieve?
- Did I notice students doing anything differently with these materials than with other materials I have been using?
- Did my students have a positive, negative or indifferent response to the materials?
- Did I, as a teacher, do anything differently using these materials?
- Did I, as a teacher, have a positive, negative or indifferent reaction to these materials?
School Days – student materials
Reading 1 - Away Day
Before you read
1. You are going to read
a story about a young teenage boy from England. The boy has upset his
parents. Read these sentences from the story and decide whether you
think they come at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the
story.
"I got slapped three times with the sole of her shoe. Three time. That was it. Then she left my room. She never said a word."
2. The story is called
Away Day and the first sentence reads, “The only time I ever bunked off
what do you think the story is about? Write down some guesses and share
them with other students.
As you read
1. As you read the story
from the point of view of a teenage school boy, try to see pictures of
the boy in your mind and decide if the boy deserved the punishment.
After you read
Reaction
1. Tell a partner, if you think the boy's punishment was appropriate and what you would have done if you were the parents.
2. Think about the following questions:
How do you feel about the boy in the story?
Why do you think the boy went with the twins?
Why do you think the boy's mother reacted in the way she did?
At the beginning of the story the author tells you the twins were always in trouble. Why do you think he tells you that?
Discuss your thoughts about the questions in a small group.
3. Discuss your answers to the following questions with a partner:
In paragraphs 1 and 2, what words tell you the housing estate is poor/working class?
In paragraphs 3 and 4, how do you know the weather is hot and has been hot for some time?
In paragraphs 5 and 6 the boy is becoming more and more frightened. What do you think frightens him?
The boy was punished in the final paragraph. Was it the punishment he expected? Was the punishment effective?
THE HAND OUT
Away Day
The only time I ever
bunked off school, I was thirteen years old. It was break time and I
hadn’t done my history homework. The Grant brothers convinced me to go
with them. The Grants were twins and were always in trouble with the
teachers. We went to the bike sheds at the back of the playground. The
twins took two shiny new bikes and I took a rusty old bike, which was
lying on the floor. We got on the bikes and headed straight for the
school gates. I pedaled as fast as I could to keep up with the twins,
but my bike was so big for me I had to pedal standing up. My heart was
pounding, partly from the pedaling but mostly because I was scared of
getting caught.
We rode through the
neighboring housing estate. We raced between grey concrete houses with
broken windows and graffiti walls, around broken bottles and over ripped
magazines. It was the beginning of summer. The sky was clear, the sun
had been out for days and the housing estate was quiet. We came out the
other side of the estate onto a narrow country road. I’d never been this
far from school or home on a bike before and I’d never been on this
road.
After about half an
hour, we reached the River Lea. I didn’t know what we were doing here or
where we were going. I was just following the twins. We hardly spoke
and we definitely didn’t discuss what we were going to do. The River Lea
ends in London and flows into the Thames.
That was common
knowledge. Mark led the way down to the riverbed. The long hot summer
had completely dried the river. Older people said it was the hottest
July they could remember. By lunch time we were hungry. The twins hadn't
brought any lunch, so I offered to share mine. They took my melting
Mars bar and left me with a sweaty cheese and tomato sandwich. The only
thing I hated more than cheese was tomato.
We explored the river,
finding dead frogs, crushed beer cans and empty cigarette boxes, until
we got bored. Mark got on his bike saying, "Let's find London." Off he
went with us in his wake. He rode the left edge of the riverbed beside
the grassy bank and I and rode the right edge. I rode straight down the
middle. I don't know why I didn't just go home. I had no idea how long
it would take to get to London, but I was sure it was a long way and I
knew I was going to get in trouble.
Time flew by, I was
getting tired and the sun was setting. We didn't seem to be any closer
to London. As it got darker, the twins started to disappear ahead of me
and I was beginning to forget what they looked like. Terrible thoughts
entered my head. What would happen when I finally got back home? I could
see my Mom screaming at me, pulling me by the hair and my Dad's angry
face, very angry face. I couldn't see the twins any longer. I was
becoming more and more frightened of being lost in the middle of nowhere
than of my mom and dad. I began to hate the twins for getting me into
this trouble although I knew it was really my own fault.
The sun had set when I
reached Tiring, a small town I had never heard of. I could see the twins
had stopped. They were talking to a couple out walking their dog. To my
surprise seeing the twins was comforting. My panic began to disappear.
We were in the couple's living room having a nice hot cup of tea when
the police rang the doorbell. They were serious and treated us like
suspects. "What are your names? Where do you live? Do your parents know
where you are?"
They telephoned our
parents and drove us home. As the police talked to my mom and dad, I
quietly slipped up to my bedroom. I heard the police drive away and my
Mom thumping up the stairs towards my room. I got slapped three times
with the sole of her shoe. Three time. That was it. Then she left my
room. She never said a word.
Look at the Language
1. Look at the lexical chunks below. All the expressions are from the story, Away Day.
Lexical chunks (frozen or fixed)
In the middle of nowhere
I had no idea
Lexical Chunks (semi-frozen or semi-fixed)
She never said a word
I didn’t know where we were going
I didn’t know what we were doing
Adjective plus
2. What other nouns can you use after the adjective ‘shiny new’? E.g. shiny new shoes, shiny new bike
3. What other nouns can you use after the adjective ‘broken’? E.g. broken heart,
Broken window, broken house
Examples of verb plus noun collocations (words that naturally go together)
I didn’t do my homework. (Do / homework)
They were always in trouble with the teachers. (Be / trouble)
4. Underline the weakest verb and noun collocation.
Example:
Exam Take / pass / fail / study for / sit / revise
Homework Do / forget / lose / prepare / finish / hand in
Trouble Be in / expect / make / discover / get into / ask for
How to Achieve Communicative competence
Because in lexical
approach, students role is as an improviser and as a negotiator. As a
teacher we must design the task, activities, and the materials to make
the students improve themselves. Like my activity, I made the student
study in a group or in pair work. With study like this, the student can
improve their communication because they have friend to talk and share
about the materials. In this activities they have chance to use the
language. Its make they might make a mistake or errors, but it is really
necessary. Me as the teacher should give them a right feedback. We have
already achieved communicative competence.
Conclusion (How is Lexical Approach related to communicative competence)
The language learner's
need to perceive and use patterns of lexis and collocation. Most
significant is the underlying claim that language production is not a
syntactic rule-governed process but is instead the retrieval of larger
phrasal units from memory. Nevertheless, implementing a lexical approach
in the classroom does not lead to radical methodological changes.
Rather, it involves a change in the teacher's mindset. Most important,
the language activities consistent with a lexical approach must be
directed toward naturally occurring language and toward raising
learners' awareness of the lexical nature of language. This is how the
Lexical approach related to communicative competence.
References:
Richards, Jack C and
Rodgers, Theodore S Rodgers. 2001. Approach and Methods in Language
Teaching United States of America: Press Syndicate of the University of
Cambridge.
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/activities/lexical-approach-classroom-activities
http://www.google.co.id teacher role in lexical approach teacher role in lexical approach
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0102lexical.html
http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~nharwood/lexapproach.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/thanhthaole/the-lexical-approach
Post by: Syarifah Chaniago
