Week 2 Lexical Approach

Lexical approach, chunks of language, introduced in Week 2 was quite exciting to me. Like others, I have learnt English in grammar-based approach. In grammar-based approach, grammar and vocabulary are taught separately.

I strongly agree to Lewi's point that studetns spend hours learning grammar, but still have difficulty communication, because there is a lack of spoken language taught in natural contexts useful to the students. When seeing textbooks designed for second language learners, as mostly grammar-based designed, there is no context. Therefore, in a real situation, students make incomprehensible and unnatural utterances.

As Nattinger (1980) points out that language production consists of piecing together the ready-made units appropriate for a particular situation and that comprehension relies on knowing which of there pattersn to predict in these situations.

Moreover, language text is not adequately modelled as a sequence of items, each in environment of other items (Sinclar, 2004) which means that we cannot understand languaeg by breaking it down. Therefore, a context is important.

Hoey (2005) introduced the term "lexical priming". It is the way a "priming" word may provoke a particular "target" word. For example, a listener, previously given the word body, will recognise the word heart more quickly than if they had previously been given an unrelated word such as trick.

To conclude, what the seoncd language learns want is to communicate naturally and appropriately in a given situation rather that while speaking the perfect grammar, but using the inappropriate vocabulary. Therefore, language teachers should consider how to help sutdents while learning appropriate and natural English in the way the native speakers speak, rather than following a prescribed textbook which has no context.

References

Hoey, M. (2005). Lexical Priming: A new theory of words and language. London: Routledge.

Nattinger, J. (1980). A lexical phrased grammar. TESOL Quarterly. 14(3), 337-344.

Sinclair, J. (2004). Trust the test. London: Routledge.