The Lexical Approach and grammar

1
The Lexical Approach and grammar

• Key concepts
• The importance of grammar in the building of
  meaning
• A revision of grammar teaching
• A revision of grammar content

2
Remember the words of wisdom selected by Lewis

• Grammar is what has always made English a school
  subject
• When students travel, they dont carry grammar
  boooks, they carry dictionaries
• ?
• Grammar has a role to play but not the
  pre-eminent role which is frequently accorded

3

• Some grammatical information is useful to
  students but it depends on how it is presented
• awareness-raising activity can help perceive
  underlying patterns more quickly than if unguided
• Indeed much of the grammar presented is confused
  mis-categorised and often in conflict with
  naturally occurring data

4

• Grammar is not prescriptive.
• Good grammar is descriptive IT allows for
  statistical data (corpus linguistics)
• Attention on how things are always but most
  frequently usually.
• Descriptive grammar avoids absolute statements
• This is not a problem unless a teacher is in
  search for certainty, decisive answers

5

• We have learnt meaning is essentially
  differential this is true of grammar as well
• You learn to master the present continuous if you
  contrast it with the present simple use

6

• Again the importance of corpus evidence
• the passive would be most appropriately taught
  disregarding the agent as it is frequently
  absent.
• Ex Passive sentences would be best analysed and
  treated as if they were verbadj constructions
• The road was closed (by the police)
• Many exercises (mainly manipulation) contradict
  the nature of language

7

• A much wider concept of grammar is needed ?
• Grammar is the search for powerful patterns
• Ex bound morphemes which are powerful generators
  of En grammar
• -s -ed un- etc.
• Many words can be placed with almost certainty in
  their word class by recognizing their endings
• Tion - ment noun / -ly adverb
• Recognizing the bits of a word is helpful

8

• Some features should be allowed more space in
  ELT
• auxiliaries which play a central role (negative
  sentence, question, short answers, adding
  emphasis ...) in generating meaning
• The use of opposition to better understand
  meaning light/heavy light/dark etc.
• 138-

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• It is useful to treat lexical phrases as
  self-contained items
• I havent seen you for ages
• What are you going to do about this?
• Individual nouns can be seen as naming particular
  situations. Complete sentences like the ones
  listed can be seen as naming particular
  situations. This can increase students
  communicative power very quickly if introduced in
  the appropriate situations

10

• Supra-sentential grammar must be taught
  appropriately otherwise students tend to produce
  highly unsatisfacotry texts
• i.e. lack of cohesion and coherence
• The employment of those grammatical devices known
  as cohesive devices in natural patterns is very
  useful
• Hes such a good singer!
• Such things are very important to learn

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• Every word has its own grammar i.e. 5 strategies
  are suggested to explore it
• High frequency use identification and distinction
  among them
• High frequency collocations recording
• Cognates of the key word identification
• Identification of any lexical phrases in which
  the kw occurs

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• Different meanings imply different collocations
  light
• Metaphorical uses of words are often much more
  frequent
• It can be useful in some cases to explore
  possible grammatical variants of a word
  (noun/verb/adj)
• A deposit /to deposit

13

• Students tend to produce coincise and fully
  grammaticalised structures instead than frequent
  phrases and collocations
• Travel arrangements arrangements for the
  travelling

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• There are words which are de- lexicalised
• Verbs
• Function words
• De-lexicalised words are the most powerful
  pattern generators of language 144

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• Finally word order...
• An essential element of effective communication
  involves the speaker organising the informational
  content of what is said in particular ways
  Students must be aware of word order patterns to
  develop communcative power

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• To conclude
• The Lexical Approach suggests
• a change of content
• in grammar teaching