This year sees the 20th anniversary of the publication of Michael Lewis's "The Lexical
Approach", the book that has changed the way many – but unfortunately not
enough - teachers teach and see
language. I just wanted to share with you my plans for this anniversary year.
The Education section of the Guardian has just run my "accessible" article about why Lewis's
lexical approach hasn't gained widespread currency. Judging by the comments it has reignited the debate about traditional grammar versus chunks and whether it is the publishers' reluctance or "consumers"' conservatism that hinders the spread of new ideas in ELT.
Click here to read it.
Click here to read it.
Special publications
I am currently guest-editing a special issue
of the ETAI (English Teachers Association of Israel) Forum dedicated to the
lexical approach with contributions from Hugh Dellar, Luiz Otavio Barros, Hannah Kryszewska, KenLackman and many others. The publication is only available to ETAI members but
the good news is that in an exclusive arrangement with Humanising Language Teaching (HLT) - a webzine produced by Pilgrims - most of the issue will appear online as a special lexical edition of HLT towards the end of
the year. Don't miss it!
Conference
Finally, the University of Westminster
Registration is already open. So if you're in or around London - or fancy a weekend in London - don't miss this opportunity to hear first-hand from top lexical experts. For more
information click HERE
I hope you join me in celebrating the year of teaching lexically.
I really liked that book (The Lexical Approach).
ReplyDeleteHowever because learners are all different I tend to teach both 'lexically' and grammatically, and I marry the two when I can.
It helps to learn another language too. How many of the experts actually speak another language or two..?
I can see how bare teaching is in other languages. It's pretty much 'grammar structure + single word', and so as a result I've had to find other ways to pick up cool phrases and expressions.
Congrats on the AETI issue, Ken was my senior teacher many years ago and the first to talk about TLA!
David