Teaching with the Leximodel

◎ Quentin Brand & Joe Lavallee

Introduction
　

　　The communicative approach has become very widely practiced in Taiwan language classrooms. Teachers and students are now used to the idea that the greater portion of classroom time should be spent on communicative task-based activities, such as information gap, communicative games, and topic-based or free conversation. This is certainly a marked improvement on the previous grammar-translation method. However, in recent years, there has been increasing mention of a lexical approach, with publishers such as Thomson Learning (Innovations, Conversation Gambits, Conversation Lessons) Macmillan, (the In Company series, the Inside Out series, Email English etc.), producing coursebooks and materials using it. Like many teachers in Taiwan, you may think: “I've heard of the lexical approach, but I don't know what it is, I don't know how to use it, and I don't know why I should use it.” The rest of this article will focus on answering these concerns.
　

What is the lexical approach?
　

　　The lexical approach was invented by Michael Lewis and Jimmy Hill in the early 1990s, and is now quite common in some well known coursebooks, including those mentioned above. It is based on two key principles:

1.
the grammar/vocabulary view of language is invalid
2.
collocation is central to language and language learning

　　The lexical approach is a classroom practice that reflects the current understanding of language as consisting of a vast collection of multi-word items. For most teachers and ESL professionals, our previous understanding of language was that it consisted of grammar patterns with vocabulary slotted in. Vocabulary has traditionally been taught as single word items, with collocates and idioms introduced for a bit of color in the “boring” grammar-based classroom. The current view of language accepted by most theorists, however, is that collocation is central and that the border between grammar and vocabulary is much more blurred than we thought. Instead of the grammar/vocabulary divide, teachers and learners should think of language as consisting of a very large collection of multi-word items (MWI) called the lexicon[1]. The focus in this teaching approach is on helping learners master this lexicon.

　　In many cases, the best ways to master the lexicon, and therefore to produce language, are already quite familiar to teachers in Taiwan. We all know that, as Stephen Krashen has told us, large amounts of comprehensible input (with graded readers, etc.) are essential. We all know that there are times when a “focus on form” is appropriate, through noticing and language awareness activities. And we all know that communicative activities have an important place in the language classroom. What the lexical approach does is to combine all of these good teaching ideas with a better awareness of the real nature of language and language learning.
　

Why should I use the lexical approach with my students?
　

　　In our experience, problems that students encounter include the following:
“I know the word, but not how to use it.”
“I understand all the words in the sentence but I still don't understand the sentence.”
“I don't know how to study on my own.”
“I do well on my tests but I have a hard time talking with foreigners.”
“I've been studying for many years, but I seem to be stuck at the same level.”

　　Because the lexical approach emphasizes collocation, getting the students to move from focusing on the meaning of single words to learning how to use multi-word items is the single most helpful thing they can do to overcome the above problems. Encouraging greater awareness of how language operates (rather than learning more and more grammar rules) is another.

　　In the lexical approach, the traditional present-practice-produce lesson structure is replaced by an observe–hypothesize–experiment paradigm. This goes hand-in-hand with abandoning the grammar/vocabulary model in favor of a lexicon-based understanding of language. Students are encouraged to observe patterns of language--usually as multi-word items, hypothesize about their form, meaning, and use and then experiment using them to meet their own communicative needs. In practical terms, this means activities such as identifying and extracting language items in authentic written and spoken texts or sorting previously-selected language items into categories, noticing how the language items are used in a familiar context, and then using the language items in more unfamiliar contexts.

　　Let's take an example using the teaching of “so” and “such”. A traditional grammar translation or even a communicative “focus on form” approach would focus on a description of the grammar rule. (for example: ‘so’ is usually used to modify an adjective or an adverb, while ‘such’ is usually used to modify a noun phrase). A lexical approach, by contrast, would teach the most frequent words which occur with ‘so’ and the most frequent words which occur with ‘such’ as single lexical items, which we call Multi Word Items, or MWIs. You'll see some examples in task 1 below. (These MWIs can be easily found with a bit of Corpus Linguistics (CL) research.). To help you understand this concept better, you might want to try the following task. This task is designed for teachers and readers of this article, but you might like to try it with your students if they are intermediate level or above.
Task 1: Sort the following items into groups. You decide how many groups, and what the groups are.

such things
so much n.p.
so far
such a large
in such a manner that v.p.
so funny that v.p.
such a lot of n.p.
so many n.p.
such a big n.p.
so that v.p.
such a case
so cold that v.p.
so busy in such a way that v.p.
so easy
such a success
so enjoyable
so excited
so good
such a long time
so important
so kind
such a good idea
so long
such a large amount
so quickly

　　Two points are worth stressing here.

1.
The personal choice of categories allows the learner to build personally meaningful connections in their memory, helping them to expand their lexicon. Students may not even be able to articulate the reasons for their categorizations, or be able to describe their categories, but that is not the point. “If our target is the creation of effective learning conditions, [then] the students write their own grammar rules.” (Lewis, The Lexical Approach. p.149) The teacher's role is to provide correct MWIs for the students to categorize, to show the students some categories which might be useful to the students after they have done the sorting task (in this case two groups: MWIs with so and MWIs with such), and then to set up meaningful tasks in which the students can become familiar with and use the language.
　
2.
Rather than teaching this area of the language as a grammar rule to be applied, teaching it instead as fixed lexical items, or MWIs, to be memorized and recalled, takes advantage of one of the strengths of learners in Taiwan. Learners in Taiwan excel at memorizing items. So it makes more sense to give them language as lexical items to use instead of teaching them language as rules to be applied. With a lexical approach, the learning style used in Taiwan thus becomes a major advantage. Students who can remember large numbers of useful language items are able to communicate quickly and effectively.

What problems might teachers encounter with the lexical approach?
　

　　In talking to teachers about the lexical approach, the authors have noticed some of the following frequently occurring responses.
“The lexical approach sounds like a good idea, but how can I use it to build a syllabus?”
“What level is it for?”
“The lexicon is too big! How can I make sense of it in a way that helps my students?”
“At least teaching language as grammar and vocabulary gives me a systematic way to present English to my students.”
“It just seems too vague to be practical.”

　　A central theme in all of the objections is that there does not seem to be any easy way of categorizing the MWIs which make up the lexicon. At first, the lexicon simply seems like a huge unwieldy collection of multi-word items. The rest of this article will present a way of categorizing the lexicon which is specifically designed for classroom use, for students of a lower intermediate level or above, for teachers and students: the Leximodel. We'll present the Leximodel first and then show how you can use it with your coursebook to bring the lexicon to the center of your teaching.
　

The Leximodel
　

　　The first thing a student needs to know about an MWI is how fixed or fluid it is. The more fixed an MWI, the easier it is to learn by heart, while more fluid MWIs on the other hand, may require that the students learn more options. For example, “listen” is usually always followed by “to”, so we can call this a very fixed MWI, while “apple” can be followed by “cart”, “pie”, “tree”, “tart”. This MWI is more fluid. We can therefore say that MWIs can be placed along a spectrum of predictability, according to how fixed or fluid they are, or in other words, according to how easy it is to predict the next word.

　　The spectrum of predictability is the basis of the Leximodel. MWIs can be roughly categorized into three very broad groups and placed on the spectrum.

1.
The first group we call chunks. Chunks combine a meaning word (e.g.: listen) and a function word (e.g.: to) in any combination. They are fixed from left to right (along the horizontal axis) (listen comes before to) but are more fluid in some of the vertical slots (listen can sometimes be listened or listening). To give another example of what we mean by this: in the chunk provide sb with sth, the words must come in this order, (if you switch sb and sth then you need to change the preposition, creating in effect a new chunk: provide sth to sb) but sb and sth can be any noun or noun phrase. Focusing on chunks will have the effect of improving grammar, as many verb tenses, passive and conditional constructions, dependent prepositions, two object verbs etc. can be memorized as chunks. Chunks are placed in the center of the spectrum of predictability, as they combine fixed and fluid elements.
　
2.
The second group of MWIs we call set-phrases. These are longer and more fixed than chunks and typically are formed by combinations of chunks. Set-phrases usually have a beginning or an end or both. How are you? I'm fine, thanks, and you? Would you mind Ving? Could you tell me…? In this essay I will try to V…, please do not hesitate to contact me. are all examples of set-phrases, some from conversation, and some from writing. You can see from these examples that set-phrases are the transactional elements of language, whether the everyday phrases we use in conversation, or the organization phrases we use in academic or business writing. Focusing on set-phrases will have the effect of improving the functional, transactional language that we all need to conduct our lives in the foreign language. Because they are more fixed than chunks, we put set-phrases to the left on the spectrum of predictability.
　
3.
At the other end of the spectrum, the fluid end on the right, we have our third group of MWIs, which we call word partnerships. Word partnerships are two or more meaning words (such as apple and pie) which appear momentarily together in a text. The range of subsequent words available to the head word is determined by the topic of the text. For example, the word crisis is more likely to form partnerships with words like hostage, political, national, serious etc. in a newspaper story about a current event, while if it appears in a business report it might appear with a different group of words, such as growing, fiscal, financial or cash. Further, if the same word appears in a psychological report, it might appear with words like mid-life, identity, family or personal. Focusing on word partnerships is a very efficient way of increasing vocabulary, as they are the MWIs most closely associated with the meaning of the text, or the topic of the conversation. The completed Leximodel thus looks like this:

　　You might want to try the following task now to consolidate your understanding of the Leximodel. The answers are at the end of the article.

Task 2: Sort these MWIs into the table below.
…so that's ready to go.
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
air pollution
be based on
be busy V/ing
be busy with s/th
be capable of
be committed to V/ing
traffic jams
dangerous crosswalks
Could I have some more sugar, please?
deal with
decide to
encounter difficulties
find an easy solution
for example
for many years
have a break
have a situation
I think we should wait.
If you have any questions, please call me. in and out
In conclusion, I feel the time is right for…
in the meantime
in the middle (of the)
potluck dinner
party time
It would be better to wait and see.
Would you mind…?
It's raining cats and dogs
Let's turn now to profits.
of course
On the other hand, …
answering machine
take a risk
take action
take on
take precautions
There's every possibility of a typhoon.
Time and tide wait for no man.
up and down
What are you talking about?
What do you think of my new….?

　
set-phrases chunks word partnerships
　

　

　

　
　 　

　

How can teachers use the Leximodel in the class?
　

　　The Leximodel is a classroom tool for teachers and learners to help them categorize the lexicon while always keeping them focused directly on language itself and not on descriptions of what the language is. The advantage of the Leximodel for teachers and students is that there are only three very broad categories, the categories are quite easy to understand and relate quite simply to what the students already know or can grasp intuitively about language (the meaning/function distinction is a good example), and the names of the categories are appropriate and easy to remember. Above all, the Leximodel will get your students to move away from being too concerned with the meaning of single words and getting them to focus on the way MWIs are used.

　　The Leximodel works best for students who are of a lower intermediate level or above, who are already equipped with some awareness of the basic vocabulary and grammar of English. However, even with elementary students or beginners, when presenting new vocabulary and grammar for the first time, teachers should always bear in mind the principle of the Leximodel, which is that words never appear alone. For example, when you are teaching sense verbs for the first time, remember to teach them as listen to, look at and so on, rather than just teaching listen and look. If you can train your students from the beginning to look at language as a collection of MWIs, and get them to focus on the individual MWIs, you will be giving them a solid foundation for lifelong language learning.

　　A useful principle to remember about the Leximodel and which levels to use it with is this: lower level students need more set-phrases because they need immediately useful language to help them survive in the foreign language community. Advanced students, on the other hand, need more word partnerships because they need to be able to express themselves on wide range of quite specialist topics. Lower levels find it much easier to remember long strings of quite easy words which are immediately useful: (Could you help me?), while higher levels have more language ability to cope with the fluidity of low frequency word partnerships (rapid/racing/slow/faint pulse). When teaching low levels, teach high frequency chunks, and when teaching high levels, teach low frequency chunks. This means that as students begin their journey of language learning, they start on the left hand side of the Leximodel (the fixed side) and progress gradually along the spectrum of predictability, increasing their level, until they reach very low frequency obscure or specialist word partnerships on the fluid side on the right.

　　We're now going to show you some tasks based on the principles of the lexical approach discussed above, which apply the Leximodel to some popular coursebooks.

Example 1: Working with word partnerships
From Reading Strategies Book1 (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Task 1: You are going to read an article called “Music & moods”. With your partner write a list of words you think might appear in the article.
Task 2: Look at page 2 of Reading Strategies book1 and read the article. Tell your partner what you understood.
Task 3: Now read through the article again and see if any of the words on your list in task 1 appear in the article. If they do, what are their word partnerships? Complete the table below.
　 　
　 　
　 　
　 　
　 　
　 　
　 　
　 　
　
Task 4: Read through the article again and complete the language bank above with some of the word partnerships you can find in the text.
Task 5: Select 10 of the most useful word partnerships and use a dictionary to find out what they mean, or ask your teacher what they mean. Then try to learn them.
Task 6: Now work with a student from another group and tell them what your article was about. Make sure you use lots of word partnerships from your language bank.

Teaching notes:

1.
Divide your class into three or four groups and have each group working on a different text. You can then reform the groups to make a natural information gap activity.
2.
Have some dictionaries to hand so students can check the meaning of their word partnerships. Alternatively, you can explain the meaning yourself. Encourage them to look for more word partnerships in the example sentences in the dictionaries.
3.
Spend some time after task 5 on the pronunciation of the word partnerships.
4.
Note how this sequence of tasks uses the principles of the lexical approach, in that the focus is on MWIs, the students choose their own language items to learn, and emphasis is on memorizing and using the new language rather than studying descriptions of it.

Example 2: Working with chunks
From Touchstone Book1 (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Task 1:

　

　
Write up the following list of words on the board and ask the students to write a sentence using each word.
famous (adj)
tour (n)
go (v)
find (v)
walk (v)
order (v)
help (v)
trip (n)
　
Task 2: Now turn to page 92 in Touchstone book1. Find the words below in the article on that page and complete the chunks. Look at the example below.
be famous for sth
____ tour ____
____ go ____
____ find ____
____ walk ____
____ order ____
____ help ____
____ trip _____
　
Task 3: Now sort the chunks into groups. You decide what the groups are and how many there are.
Task 4: Now look at your sentences from task 1. Correct them if you think they are wrong.
Task 5: Now write some more sentences using the chunks from task 2.

Teaching notes:

1.
After the first task, mark the students' sentences, but don't correct them, or explain why they are wrong. Just let the student know which ones are correct, and which ones are not. In your marking focus on errors made with chunks.
2.
Note that some chunks include a word before the headword, such as be famous for, while some chunks begin with the headword, like walk down to. Let the students discover this for themselves. You can help them here by writing these two examples on the board and asking students what the difference between them is. Students can then sort the chunks again into the two groups: chunks beginning with the headword, and chunks not beginning with the headword.
3.
When correcting their final sentences, again, just focus your correction on the correct use of the chunks.
4.
When explaining the MWIs, focus on the meaning of the total package, rather than on the meaning of individual words in the package.
5.
Notice the lexical approach principles here: explanations are focused on meaning and use, and the emphasis is on creating awareness and production of actual language, rather than memorizing rules about the language.

Example 3: Working with set-phrases
From Touchstone Book1 (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Task 1: Sort these set-phrases into the table below.
If I could just come in here …
If I might just finish.
In any case …
Just a moment.
Look, I'm sorry to interrupt but, …
May I come in here?
May I interrupt you for a moment?
May I?
Oh please do.
Please let me finish.
So, to return to…
Sorry to interrupt, but…
Sorry.
Well,…
What was I saying? Oh yes.
Where was I? Oh yes.
Yes, of course.
Yes.
You've interrupted me. Anyway, …
Can I add here that …
Can I add something?
Can I just finish?
Can I just point out that …
Coming back to what I was saying earlier, …
Excuse me for interrupting, but …
Excuse me.
Well, as I was saying before I was interrupted,…
Going back to what I was saying before …
Go on then.
Hang on.
Hold on a moment.
I don't mean to interrupt, but …
I'd like to add something here if I may.
Sure.
To get back to what I was saying…
Well, anyway, as I said before…
　

interrupting


preventing/allowing


returning to your point
　

　


　
　

　


　
　

　


　
Task 2: Now choose two set-phrases from each category and memorize them, practicing the pronunciation.
Task 3: Now turn to page 113 in Touchstone Book1 and have a conversation about your weekend. Use the set-phrases above in your conversation.

Teaching notes:

1.
Because set-phrases are totally fixed, students need to learn them accurately. Spend time drilling the pronunciation with connected speech and good intonation.
2.
Students sometimes ask for the meaning of individual words in set-phrases. You can explain them, but it's very important to tell students that often the meaning of the total package is more important than the meaning of the individual words in the package. Remember: the basic principle is that words are never used alone. Students should focus on the overall meaning of the set-phrase as it fits into one of the categories above.
3.
Give students A and B in each pair a conflicting set of objectives: A has to get to the end of their description of their weekend, i.e. Sunday night, while B has to prevent this by interrupting and asking questions.
4.
As they do the speaking task, monitor their use of the set-phrases, by walking around the class and listening to what they say. If you have a big class, get the students to change partners and do the speaking task again to give you more time to monitor.
5.
Again, the principles of the lexical approach apply here, in the emphasis of explaining meaning rather than form, in the focus on MWIs which have a pragmatic value, and in the focus on immediate use.

Conclusion
　

　　In our experience, teachers who have introduced the Leximodel into their classroom have found that it is quite easy to teach and that it is extremely useful in guiding the preparation of teaching materials. Even more importantly, students have been overwhelmingly responsive. Students find that it is an easily understandable tool which allows them to bring order to the huge number of MWIs which they are exposed to in learning a new language. The Leximodel seems to help them make sense of the lexicon, and increase their learner autonomy. We hope that this article will give you some confidence in using a lexical approach in your classrooms.
　
Further Reading
　
Here are our suggestions for further reading on the lexical approach:

* Batstone, Rob (1996). “Key Concepts in ELT: Noticing.” ELT Journal 50(3) 273.
* Brand, Q. (2004) Biz English for Busy People –Email Writing, Taipei: Beta Multimedia Publishing .
* Bolitho, R, Carter, R, Hughes, R, Ivanic, R, Masuhara, H, and Tomlinson, B (2003). “Ten Questions about Language Awareness.” ELT Journal 57/3.
* Lewis, Michael (1993), The Lexical Approach, Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
* Lewis, Michael (1997). Implementing the Lexical Approach: Putting Theory Into Practice. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
* Lewis, Michael (2000). “Language in the lexical approach”. In Teaching Collocation: Further Developments In The Lexical Approach, Michael Lewis (ed.), 126-154. Hove: Language Teaching Publications.
* Schmitt, Norbert (2000). “Key Concepts in ELT: Lexical Chunks” ELT Journal 54(4): 400-401.
* Thornbury, Scott (1997). “Reformulation and reconstruction: tasks that promote “noticing” ELT Journal 51(4): 326-334.



作者簡介

◎ Quentin Brand is a teacher, author and consultant of some 15 years experience, with 6 years experience teaching business English in Taiwan. His current interests include the teaching of writing using a lexical approach and corpus linguistics. His e-mail: quentin.brand@msa.hinet.net

◎ Joseph Lavallee has been teaching English in China and Taiwan for more than 7 years and is currently a faculty member at Ming Chuan University here in Taipei. His interests include reading in the EFL classroom, corpus linguistics and the lexical approach. His e-mail: lavallee@mcu.edu.tw


[1] Lexicon literally means “dictionary”. It is the name given by theorists to the hypothetical memory bank of language items which form the basis for language production and comprehension.

Appendix
　
◎Answers to tasks

Task 1:
such things
such a large
in such a manner that v.p.
such a big n.p.
such a lot of n.p.
such a case
in such a way that v.p.
such a success
such a long time
such a good idea
such a large amount so busy
so many n.p.
so that v.p.
so cold that v.p.
so much n.p.
so far
so funny that v.p.
so easy
　 so enjoyable
so excited
so good
so important
so kind
so long
　

Task 2:

set-phrases


chunks


word partnerships
…so that's ready to go.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
Could I have some more sugar, please?
I think we should wait.
If you have any questions, please call me.
In conclusion, I feel the time is right for…
It would be better to wait and see.
Would you mind…?
It's raining cats and dogs
Let's turn now to profits.
On the other hand, …
There's every possibility of a typhoon.
Time and tide wait for no man.
What are you talking about?
What do you think of my new….? 　 be based on
be busy V/ing
be busy with s/th
be capable of
be committed to V/ing
deal with
decide to
for example
for many years
in and out
of course
in the meantime
in the middle (of the)
take on
up and down 　 traffic jams
dangerous crosswalks
air pollution
encounter difficulties
find an easy solution
have a break
have a situation
potluck dinner
party time
answering machine
take a risk
take action
take precautions
a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity 　

Example 2 task 2:

be famous for s/th
walking tour
go to
find out
walk down to
order s/th from s/o
help s/o V
trip to

Example 3 task 1:

interrupting


allowing


returning to your point
If I could just come in here …
Look, I'm sorry to interrupt but, …
May I come in here?
May I interrupt you for a moment?
May I?
Sorry to interrupt, but…
Can I add here that …
Can I add something?
Can I just point out that …
Excuse me for interrupting, but …
Excuse me.
I don't mean to interrupt, but …
I'd like to add something here if I may.
Sorry.
　 Oh please do.
Yes, of course.
Yes.
Go on then.
Sure.
　 In any case …
So, to return to…
Well,…
What was I saying? Oh yes.
Where was I? Oh yes.
Anyway, …
Coming back to what I was saying earlier, …
Well, as I was saying before I was interrupted,…
Going back to what I was saying before …
To get back to what I was saying…
Well, anyway, as I said before…
　

preventing
Hang on.
Hold on a moment.
You've interrupted me.
Can I just finish?
If I might just finish.
Just a moment.
Please let me finish.
Sorry.