my amazing work

1. What is lexis?
• Single words – cat, sunny, industrialisation, revolutionise
• Multi-word verbs – look forward to, get on with
• Phrases – it was too good an opportunity to miss
• Fixed expressions – thanks > you’re welcome
• Idioms – I’m over the moon
• Collocations – memorable occasion, golden opportunity
1

2. How do teachers introduce new lexical items?
• Pictures
• Facial expressions
• Gestures
• Realia
• In context
• Through role play or miming
• Drawings
• Demonstration
• Relate it to other known words
• From a reading or listening text
• Use the word in an example
sentence
• Using diagrams
• Using dictionaries
• By using them throughout a
lesson
• Synonyms or antonyms
• “it’s a type of….”
2

3. Try it out:
Imagine you’re teaching the following lexical items
(underlined). What’s the most effective way of establishing
meaning?
1. Furniture
2. Can you keep an eye on my bag?
3. Don’t let the cat out of the bag!
4. She’s always looked down on me.
5. I can’t find my handbag.
3

4. When do we “teach” lexis?
• Pre-teach for a reading or listening text
• After reading or listening
• As they arise or when learners ask about them
• As a focus point/learning objective of the lesson
• As part of a lexical set
• To prepare for a speaking or writing activity
4

5. What phrases can we use to “elicit”
lexis? (ie something the learners may already know)
• What’s this? (and point!)
• What’s the opposite of….?
• Can you think of a synonym for?
• What do we say when we….?
• What’s another word for…?
• What’s another way of saying….?
• What’s the noun of….?
• When you ….., what do you say?
5

6. What are the problems with asking :
• What does xxx mean?
• Can you explain xxx?
• Who knows what xxx is?
• Anyone know what xxx is?
6

7. What do learners need to know about a new
lexical item?
• Spelling/form
• Pronunciation and word stress
• Meaning
• Part of speech
• Related words
• Collocations
• Colligations
• Any irregularities
• Nouns: countable or uncountable?
7

8. Let’s try this out with interested
• Spelling/form
• Pronunciation and word stress
• Meaning
• Part of speech – adjective
• Related words – interesting (to be)/to have an interest in
• Collocations – interested in; to be very/extremely interested in;
• Colligations – to be interested in + noun OR + Verb+ing
• Any irregularities
• Nouns: countable or uncountable?
• Anything else, e.g. synonyms, antonyms?
8

10. Vocabulary hit list
• Read the vocabulary hit list.
• If you’ve taught a lesson, or observed one being taught, think about
the lexis in the lesson and how the hit list relates to it.
Look at the next slide, which has an extract from a coursebook:
• Find the key lexical items. How would you deal with these, following
the advice in the vocabulary hitlist?
10

12. From Roadmap
B1 (Pearson)
see next slide for an
overview of the
whole lesson.

13. Re-cap:
• What is lexis?
• How can we establish the meaning of new lexical items?
• How can we elicit lexical items that the learners already know?
• What are some questions to avoid?
• Why do we avoid asking these questions?
• What do learners need to know about a new lexical item?
13

14. Concept checking
After we’ve introduced new lexical items, or when reviewing
them, we need to check that our learners know what the
words mean, or how to use them.
Take a lexical item.
•What do you understand by it?
•When do you use it?
•What makes it different from other similar lexical items?
14

15. smirk
• To smile
• There’s a negative element to it
• I wouldn’t smirk at somebody when I want them to like me.
CCQs:
• When I smirk, am I smiling or frowning?
• Do I smirk at somebody I like?
• If I smile at you, does it make you feel happy?
• If I smirk at you, does it make you feel happy?
• How do I feel about myself if I smirk at you?
15