The Lexical Approach is a language teaching method developed by Michael Lewis in the 1990s that focuses on vocabulary and multi-word phrases rather than traditional grammar. It posits that language consists largely of prefabricated chunks like collocations, idioms, and fixed phrases. Teachers following this approach aim to help students learn and comprehend these common lexical units. Classroom activities emphasize identifying lexical patterns in authentic texts and increasing retention of vocabulary chunks. The goal is for students to perceive language structures through meaningful lexical exposure rather than explicit grammar instruction.

2. 
The Lexical Approach is a method of
teaching foreign languages described by Michael Lewis in the
1990s.

An important part of learning a language consists of being
able to understand and produce lexical phrases as chunks.

Students are thought to be able to
perceive patterns of language
(grammar) as well as have
meaningful set uses of words at
their disposal when they are
taught in this way.

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Vocabulary is prized over grammar per se in this
approach. The teaching of chunks and set phrases has
become common in English as a second or foreign
language.
* The Lexical Approach can be summarized in a few
words: language consists not of traditional grammar and
vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks.
In the lexical approach, instruction focuses on fixed
expressions that occur frequently in dialogues, which
Lewis claims make up a larger part of discourse than
unique phrases and sentences.

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List of the main principles of the approach:
1. The grammar/vocabulary dichotomy is invalid.
2. Collocation is used as an organizing principle.
3. Successful language is a wider concept than accurate
language.
4. The Observe-Hypothesise-Experiment cycle replaces the
Present-Practise-Produce Paradigm.
5. Most importantly, language consists of grammaticalised
lexis–not lexicalised grammar.
“Lexical approaches in language teaching brought to light a
view of language in which lexis plays the central role”.

5. In the 1990s, Michael Lewis wrote two books outlining his language
learning theory: The English Verb and The Lexical Approach.
According to the Lexical Approach, students should learn 'chunks' of
language, since language is made up of collocations, idioms, and fixed
phrases.
Collocations might be described as the words that are placed or found
together in a predictable pattern. Examples range from two word
combinations such as problem child to extended combinations such as
He’s recovering from a major operation. These language patterns
comprise much of speech and writing.

6. Collocations: are words that 'sound right' together, even
though there is no grammatical reason they should be used
together:
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gin & tonic (but never tonic & gin)
high probability (but good chance)
completely useless (not entirely useless)

7. Idioms: are phrases that express something entirely different
than what their literal meaning suggests:
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to pull someone's leg
to get cold feet
to cut to the chase

8. Fixed phrases: are commonly-used expressions:
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to close your eyes
to get the impression
larger than life

9. Many other lexical units also occur in language.
For example:

Binomials: a binomial is a polynomial with two terms. For
instance; clean and tidy

Trinomials: a trinomial is a polynomial consisting of three
terms or monomials. For instance; cool, calm and
collected

10. Simile: A figure of speech in which
two fundamentally unlike things are
explicitly compared, usually in a
phrase introduced by like or as.
"Good coffee is like friendship: rich and warm and strong."
(slogan of Pan-American Coffee Bureau)
Connectives: finally, therefore….
These play a central role in learning
and in communication.
Three important UK-based corpora are
the COBUILD Bank of English Corpus,
the Cambridge International Corpus, and
the British National Corpus.

11. •Objectives
•Syllabus
•Learning
activities
DESINGING
FOR
LANGUAGE
TEACHING
AND
LEARNING
•The role of teacher
•The role of learners
•Materials

12. OBJECTIVES
To understand and
consolidate learning
materials based on lexical
rather than grammatical
principles.
* Comprehending the most
common lexical words
together with lexical
patterns and accesses.
*

13. SYLLABUS
• The lexical syllabus not onlysubsumes a
structural syllabus, it also indicate how the
structures which make up syllabus should be
exemplified (Willis, 1990).
• A lexical syllabus provides a discussion of
some of the major issues in language teaching
methodology ( Willis, 1990).
• Lexical syllabus target how text are used in
classroom

14. LEARNING
ACTIVITIES
• Teachers’ aims :
• Class time should be confined particular learning
strategies dealing with unknown lexical items and
structures.
• Teachers can struggle for students’ consciousness and
lexical patterns’ benefits.
• Students should be relaxed for fear of causing confusion
to the learners’ lexicon.

15. THE ROLE OF
TEACHERS
• Teacher talk is a major source
of learners input
• Organizing technological
systems and creating
environment to help effectively
learners
• Teachers’ methodology in
classroom;
• Task
• Planning
• Report
THE ROLE OF
LEARNERS
The idea of the teacher
as ‘knower’ = the idea
of the learners as
‘discover’
Data analyst
Providing
participation with
listening,noticing and
reflecting.

16. MATERIALS AND TEACHING
RESOURSES
TYPE 1
• Course
package
computer
• Concordancing
TYPE 2
•Collection of
vocabulary
•Teaching activities
TYPE 3
“printout version” of
computer corpora
Collections packaged
in text format
TYPE 4
Programs and
attached data
sets

18. Classroom procedures generally
include followings:
a) Attracting students’ attention to
lexical collocations
b) Increasing students’ retention

19.  Revising the course books to seek
collocations , and practicing
 Making use of activities developing the
students’ realization to collocation

20.  Teaching individual collocations
 Providing students awareness to
collocations
 Giving the knowledge of collocation and
adding them to appropriate known words
 Supporting students to
keep a lexical notebook

21.  This approach’s characterization
still remains incompletely
 It is still only an opinion
 Teachers should use more
exercises for raising students’
mindfulness rather than
explaining lengthily.

22. REFERENCES
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http://www.scribd.com/doc/17116576/Presentation-on-TheLexical-Approach
Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way
forward. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications.
Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the lexical approach. Hove,
England: Language Teaching Publications.
Nation, I. S. .P. (1990). Teaching and learning vocabulary. Rowley,
MA: Newbury House.
Richards, J. (2001). Approaches and Methods in Language
Teaching:Cambridge University Press.
Sinclair, J. (1991). Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
http://eltj.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/4/363.extract

23. THANKS
FOR PARTICIPATION

Gamze KÖSE
Gözde DİKMEN
Gül Nihan GÜRSOY
Handan TÜRKDOĞAN
Tuncay YARAN