An Overview Of The Lexical Approach And Its Implementation At A Public Elementary School In South Korea

Abstract

Michael Lewis’ Lexical Approach attempted to turn the EFL world on its head by proposing that language acquisition comes from lexis rather than grammar. Lewis states that “language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks” (1997:3). Lewis’ 1997 handbook, ‘Implementing the Lexical Approach’, encourages teachers to focus students’ attention towards chunks of language by altering a large number of their classroom procedures. This paper outlines traditional views towards language learning before observing the principles and criticisms of the Lexical Approach. Finally, it details the author’s teaching context at a public elementary school and the experiences he had whilst implementing a weak version of the approach teaching eight to ten-year-old students.