How To Teach Lexis

How To Teach Lexis?

What is lexis?

The concept of lexis is very big. It refers to our ‘internal database’ of words and complete ‘ready-made’ fixed/semi-fixed/typical combinations of words that we can recall and use quite quickly without having to construct new phrases and sentences word by word from scratch using our knowledge of grammar. Lexis includes:

1. Traditional single-word vocabulary items;

2. Common ‘going-together patterns’ of words (e.g. blonde hair, traffic jam). These frequent combinations are known as collocations;

c)Longer combinations of words that are typically used together as if they were a single item (e,g. I’d rather not say).These longer combinations are commonly referred to as multiword items.

Lexis in the classroom

Lexis is a powerful carrier of meaning. Beginners often manage to communicate in English by using the accumulative effect of individual words. A student who says ‘Yesterday. Go disco. And friends. Dancing’ will almost certainly get much of his message over despite completely avoiding grammar; the meaning is conveyed by the lexis alone. A good knowledge of grammar, on the other hand, is not such a powerful tool. ‘I wonder if you could lend me your…’ means little without a word to fill the gap, whereas the gapped word-calculator-on its own could possibly communicate the desired message: ‘Calculator?’

A learner, recognizing the communicative power of lexis, might reasonably aim to acquire a working knowledge of a large number of words; ‘The more words I have, the more precisely I can express the exact meaning I want to’. Learning a lexical item doesn’t mean that remembering will take place . Remembering involves four things;

1. Putting into storage

2. Keeping in storage

3. Retrieving

4. Using.

Encouraging students to keep a useful lexical item list is one way to ensure that the teaching of lexis has a value after the lesson is over. It is also possible to integrate the teaching and the storing of lexis in a more direct way by introducing the lexis into the lesson in a way that enables the students to record not only the word but also the way in which they learned the word. One way involves grouping words so that a set is learned together. This is often more effective than studying unrelated individual words. For example, you could present a set of words connected with kitchens by using a picture of a kitchen; the students each having a copy of the picture and write the words on it as they learn them.

A similar idea is to build a word web (or memory map or mind map, as it is sometimes called) where connections in meaning or use between different words are visually indicated in the structure of the diagram. |Obviously a completed word web could be presented to the students, but it is probably more useful for the students themselves to think through the connections and to decide where each new word fits on the plan; thus the learning of new words and the recording of them are part of the same activity.

Cherub

Infant cry

babe(in arms) crawl

BABY

tiny cot

cute pram

sweet push-chair, high chair

nappy

Another way to teach lexical items is by writing a topic in the centre box and then adding some useful sub-headings in the other boxes. Then the learners collect and group words under these sub-headings, connecting each new word by a line to the appropriate box. Thus, for example, the centre word might be station, some sub-headings could be places, timetable, people, things to buy, etc. Lexical items within these categories might include: places-platform, booking office, waiting room, ticket window, etc; timetable- departure, delayed, ten minutes late, etc; people-guard, ticket inspector, clerk, driver, etc.; things to buy –A single to X, please, A day return to X, please, etc. This way of recording lexical items may reflect more accurately the way that we store lexical item networks in out brains-and may therefore be more useful for students than the traditional lists.

platform

Places

Booking office

The window

Waiting room

departures

STATION

Timetable

Tickets

arrivals

delayed

‘A single to X, please.’

‘A return to X, please.’

‘A day return to X.’

People

driver

guard

clerk

g office

There are also a lot of published exercises on lexis which help pupils to become more familiar with it, to practice recognizing, manipulating and using it. These include:

. matching pictures to lexical items:

. matching parts of lexical items to other parts, e.g. beginnings and endings;

. matching lexical items to others, e.g. collocations, synonyms, opposites, sets of related words etc.:

. using prefixes and suffixes to build new lexical items from given words;

.classifying items into lists;

.using given lexical items to complete a specific task;

.filling in crosswords, grids or diagrams;

.filling in gaps in sentences;

.memory games.

Many such tasks seems to be designed for students working on their own, but can easily be used in class. The teacher could ask each student to do the exercise on his/her own. Students could also work together in pairs or small groups to find the answers or the whole class could decide on answers together.