Lexicalise Your Lesson 2: Teaching Grammar

1. Lexicalise Your Lesson 2: Teaching Grammar Leo Selivan

2. Background Michal Lewis. THE LEXICAL APPROACH. LTP 1993 Michael Lewis. IMPLEMENTING THE LEXICAL APPROACH. LTP 1997

3. Key principles • Language consists of “chunks” (collocation is the most important kind) • Acquisition is not linear • Syllabus organised around meaning • Language consists of grammaticalised lexis – not lexicalised grammar

4. A bit of history • Advances in corpus linguistics Collins COBUILD Project • Dave Willis’s Lexical Syllabus (1990) 700 most frequent words cover 70% of text

5. Taxonomy • Collocations • Polywords (e.g. phrasal verbs) • Sentence frames (the … er, the … er) • Situational utterances (See you later, I should get going) based on Nattinger (1992)

6. Collocation • V+N make a mistake achieve a goal • Adj+N demanding job • N+N knee injury • Adv+Adj deeply wounded • V+Adv talk freely • N+V (actions) bees buzz

7. Traditional ELT No wonder learners make mistakes

8. Grammar and Lexis What grammar structures do you associate the following groups of words with? • always / sometimes / usually / never • for / since / never • …ago / last year / yesterday

9. Grammar and Lexis But consider this: • We are already doing a lot to combat crime in the city • Ben was already 17 when we moved to Birmingham.

10. Misconceptions about grammar • Grammar is not a supposed set of rules • There is no evidence that explicit knowledge of grammar aids acquisition • Grammar is not a set of transformations • Grammar is often oversimplified to the point that it does not make any sense • Spending a lot of class time on “traditional” EFL grammar condemns learners to remaining on the intermediate plateau.

11. Misconceptions about grammar • You’re looking good • I’ve been wanting to do this for ages. • Look. It’s been snowing! • Wow! Did you see that?!

12. Grammar and Lexis • May I …? • I might… • I’ll see you tomorrow. • I hope so. • Can you wait a minute? – Can’t you wait a minute?

13. Teaching grammar • Structure-based learning • Item-based learning Consciousness Raising

14. TASK 1: Reflect Think of a grammar rule (in your coursebook or other materials you use) which you found not very helpful? Why was it unhelpful? Discuss in pairs.

15. I should really get going. • Is there anything you need? • I’m not stupid, am I?! • When it comes to… • There’s been a lot of opposition to… • Who do you work for?

16. TASK 2: Correct errors Are you happy with this view of grammar? Discuss in pairs.

17. Error Correction Collect Correct many grammatical errors are actually the result of lexical deficiencies and that what is thus needed is NOT more grammar correction and study, but rather more lexical input

18. Present Perfect Superlative It is the best / most … I’ve ever …

19. Past Perfect It was not as … as I’d expected.

20. Topic: Travel Have you ever been to…?

21. Useful objects pen / eraser / pencil Have you got (a) …?

22. House bathroom / living room / bedroom shower / bed / sofa Where is Mike? • He is in the bathroom, having a shower. • He is in the living room, watching TV. • He is in the bedroom, playing computer games.

23. De-lexicalised words took the dog out for a walk You took advantage I took it as a compliment Let’s take the bus Do you mind taking my photo? How do you take your coffee? With milk? Who do you take me for?!

24. De-lexicalised words • low-semantic content words with a vast number of common collocates Put Get Make Go Set Have Do Take See

25. TASK 3: Correct errors We studying in the same school. What does his job? It’s [the film] about people who live in England at the last century. I don’t know how to tell it. People which learn languages need a lot of practice.

26. Misanalysed grammar items • Will as the future • Would as 2nd or 3rd conditional • Reported speech Based on Willis (1990)

27. Immediate advantages of LA • Increased fluency (speaking & writing) • Faster comprehension when reading • Better comprehension, especially when listening to fast speech

28. Bibliography • Hill, Jimmie & Lewis, Michael (1997) The LTP dictionary of selected collocations Hove: LTP • Hill, Jimmie, Lewis, Morgan & Lewis, Michael (2000) Classroom strategies, activities and exercises in Lewis, Michael ed. Teaching collocation Boston: Thomson Heinle • Lewis, Michael (1993) The lexical approach Hove: LTP • Lewis, Michael (1996) Implications of a lexical view of language in Willis, J and Willis D, eds. Challenge and change in language teaching Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann • Lewis, Michael (1996a) Implementing the lexical approach Hove: LTP • McCarthy, Michael & O’Dell, Felicity (2005) English collocations in use Cambridge: CUP • Nattinger, James, & DeCarrico, Jeanette. (1992). Lexical phrases and language teaching. Oxford: OUP. • Pawley, Andrew & Syder, Frances (1983). Two puzzles for linguistic theory: Nativelike selection and nativelike fluency. In J.C. Richards and R.W. Schmidt (Eds.), Language and communication (pp. 191-226). New York: Longman. • Sinclair, John (1991) Corpus, Concordance, Collocation • Willis, Dave (1990) Lexical Syllabus:Collins ELT