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The
Value of Teaching Lexis in Combination
by Jake Haymes
- 1
Introduction
The impact of Lewis' Lexical
Approach and the emergence of vast computer generated lexicons
such as the Birmingham Corpus, together with a move towards
more learner centred approaches, appear to have raised the
profile of vocabulary in recent years. Since more is now known
about the lexis employed by native speakers, the climate is
right to implement a more systematic and informed vocabulary
syllabus. Previously, either because it was difficult to select,
difficult to make systematic, or felt by structural linguists,
such as Hocket, (1958) to be the easiest aspect of a second
language "Vocabulary was necessary to give students something
to hang on to when learning structures, but was frequently
not a main focus for learning itself." Harmer (1991).
By limiting learners to the minimum lexis required to activate
structures, the sentence making machine was only able to produce
output which was one dimensional and largely irrelevant to
the learner's needs and interests. Patterns were not filled
with the colour of vibrant or pertinent language and consequently
remained uninternalised.
However, perhaps because lexical
items, rather than structures or functions, describe the world
and our feelings towards it in an emotionally expressive way,
the learner has always had an innate desire to develop lexical
competence. Certainly the most common question in my classrooms
is 'how do you say…?'
Some areas of difficulty
for the Spanish learner
Gairns and Redman (1986) suggest
that "languages rarely divide up the world in exactly
the same way" and this would seem to be the reason why
learners often refer to 8.30 p.m. as the afternoon, wear clocks
on their wrists and have fingers on their feet.
Items of vocabulary in L1 which
are expressed in many ways in L2 cause considerable difficulty
for the Spanish learner. The number 0 is expressed in several
ways in English which is not the case in Spanish. Other problematic
examples of which the teacher must be aware include how, like
and as, take and carry to name a few.
Coe (1987) indicates that as
a Latin based language, the Spanish learner has a tendency
to employ cognates which, although serve to express meaning
on one level, are often inappropriately formal. Students frequently
employ permit and responsible in spoken production where a
native speaker would prefer allow and in charge. Phrasal verbs
in which meanings are more opaque cause particular difficulty
partly because they are of Germanic origin and because they
often consist of de-lexicalised verbs and particles, thus
denying the learner the possibility of referring to Latin
cognates or previous knowlegde (of the first meaning they
were exposed to) as semantic touchstones.
Anglicisms, which are becoming
increasingly pervasive in the L1, are often used erroneously
in English. Parking as a concrete noun and footing, for example,
do not exist and sueter (sweater) would be considered old-fashioned
by most native speakers giving rise to further lexical confusion
as well as stylistic inappropriacy.
Another obvious area of lexical
difficulty is the use of common collocations. These are frequently
mistranslated giving rise to non-standard variations such
as a strong breakfast and an important illness. This type
of error cannot be attributed to lack of lexical resources;
students would be capable of producing a serious illness just
as they do an important one, so the problem must lie in the
way items are presented. Such items are often considered separately
and are not always incorporated into the traditional word
lists which focus on a particular semantic field. Thus, students
will have a store of vocabulary related to health or food
for example, but they are not trained to consider the collocates
as intrinsic elements of these fields.
An indication of developing
interlanguage is the tendency to employ more nouns and a fewer
number of verbs to create multi-word units(1),
for example; have a look, have a good time, have a rest. While
these high frequency collocations also exist in Spanish, transfer
is hampered by lexical and grammatical differences between
the two languages, such as the use of a different verb in
L1 or the definite article where the L2 equivalent would require
a possessive adjective.(2) Similarly,
there is a natural inclination to rely on the first items
assimilated to express the same idea, so that learners would
simply use look, enjoy or rest in this case.
1. In this assignment
I have chosen to use multi-word items as the term to describe
language which frequently combines to create meaning.
2. For example, to wash your hands and to pull your leg.
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