Dánisa Garderes

&
Mariana Méndez
Teaching Didactics I

Lexis IFD de la Costa

July 27th., 2019
What is lexis?
Words of a language
and their meanings

Lexical items
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Core vocabulary set
about 2,000 words
(over 80% of all of the words
in spoken and written texts)
“What defines lexical
competence in a language
is (...) how familiar that
person is with the
different senses or
meaning of those words.”
Díaz & Painter-Farrell
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Core words in English (O’Keeffe, 2012)

Basic grammatical Modal verbs Delexical verbs

words Modal words

Stance words Discourse Basic nouns

markers
General deictics Basic adjectives Basic verbs for
and adverbs actions and events

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 Two factors make core words powerful
The ability of the same form The ability of the same form
to appear in many meanings. to combine with other forms
to make new meanings.

e.g. RICH e.g. DO

Rich people, rich food, rich in Do a favour, do a lap, do the
resources... dishes...

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What lexis
should we
teach?
 Factors to consider
✗ Communicative needs &
appropriacy
✗ Ease
✗ Frequency

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Which are the most frequent words
in English?

Most words are

structure words!

(Cook, 2008)

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“...you are more likely to remember a word
you meet every day than one you only meet
once. But there are many other factors
that make students learn words. A swear
word ‘****’ said accidentally when the
teacher drops the tape recorder is likely to
be remembered by the students for ever,
even if it is never repeated”. (Cook, 2008)
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 Getting to
know words
 What should we teach?
Grammatical properties
✗ Grammatical category
✗ Irregularities
✗ Possible and impossible
structures
✗ Idiosyncratic grammatical
information
✗ Word building
Forms of the word
✗ Spelling
✗ Pronunciation
Lexical properties
✗ Collocations
✗ Appropriateness
Meanings
✗ Denotation: General meaning
✗ Connotation: Specific meanings
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Vocabulary is everywhere
“Effective acquisition of
vocabulary can never be just the
learning of individual words and
their meanings in isolation”.
(Cook, 2008)

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Aspects of
Meaning
Components of Lexical relations Prototypes
meaning

General aspects of Synonyms, antonyms, An ideal of meaning in

meaning which are hyponyms, antipodals, our minds.
shared by many words. counterparts... “Basic” words reflect
aspects of the world that
Words function within stand out automatically
systems of meaning. from the rest of what
children see.
(Cook, 2008)

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 Levels of vocabulary acquisition
Basic-level terms Superordinate terms Subordinate terms

Table Furniture Coffee table, picnic table…

Berry Fruit Strawberry, blueberry...

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 Syntactic relations
✗ Collocations
✗ Idioms and phrasal verbs
✗ Formulaic language
✗ Lexical chunks
O’Keeffe, 2012.

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Understanding
and learning
vocabulary
Strategies for understanding
✗ Guessing from context
✗ Using dictionaries (monolingual)
✗ Relating the word to similar words in
another language (link to cognates)
✗ Deducing meaning from the form

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 Word formation
✗ Prefixes
✗ Suffixes
✗ Two-word combinations
✗ Single compound word
✗ Two separate compound words,
sometimes hyphenated

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 Strategies for remembering
✗ Repetition (discouraged)
✗ Contextualizing meaning and use
✗ Linking to personal significance or emotions
✗ Making connections with background knowledge
✗ Organizing words in meaningful groups

“The first encounter with a word is what makes it memorable”

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 How to
teach lexis
 Teaching new vocabulary in L2
✗ Visual aids & realia
✗ Basic-level terms
✗ Rhyme or meaning groups (hyponyms)
✗ Concise definitions and / or detailed descriptions

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 Other recommendations
✗ Make an impact, a good “first impression”.
✗ Tell a memorable story.
✗ Associate the word with other ideas.
✗ Propose activities to use the words to communicate
meaning.
✗ Alternate with other activities.

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https://youtu
.be/x8BcSND
HfTw
26
 Thank you!
Dánisa Garderes & Mariana Méndez

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References
✗ Cook, V. (2008). Second language learning and language
teaching. London: Hodder Education.
✗ Crystal, D. (2011, Oct. 14). From Riddle to Twittersphere:
David Crystal tells the story of English in 100 words.
Retrieved from
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8824676/From-Riddle-to-Twittersph
ere-David-Crystal-tells-the-story-of-English-in-100-words.html

✗ Díaz Maggioli, G. & Painter-Farrell, L. (2016). Lessons

learned. First steps towards reflective teaching in ELT.
Oxford: Richmond.

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References (Cont.)
✗ Hadfield, J. & Hadfield Ch. (2008). Introduction to teaching
English. New York: Oxford University Press.
✗ O’Keefe, A. (2012). Vocabulary instruction. In: Burns, A. &
Richards, J. (Eds.). The Cambridge Guide to Pedagogy and
Practice in Second Language Teaching. 236 - 245. New York:
Cambridge University Press.

✗ Ur, P. (2009). A course in language teaching. Practice and

theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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