ITI DELTA Module Two Lexis Focus LSAs

To complete an assignment successfully, you should also have looked at the writing style guide, the background assignments: general content document and the lesson planning document.

Finding a lexis focus

You need to think about what the part one (background assignment) and the part two (lesson) will contain when you are considering what your focus might be. Remember the scope of the part one will be wider than the lesson aim in the part two. They will be assessed separately, so each needs to be complete in itself, but they also need to fit together. You might start with reading . What have you heard about that sounds interesting ? Find something to read on that and then see where it leads. Or choose one of the very general books on the reading list to get a general background. The sessions for this subject are early in the course and they may spark an interest for you. Decide what you think your learners need and work back from there. What do you hear them doing that really needs attention (or not doing) ? Remember you will need to be able to describe a system in the background assignment, so you must choose an aspect of the language. Dont get distracted by activities such as recycling or storing lexis these will be part of approaches. If you are in doubt as to whether a focus would work, ask on the forums and one of the tutors will answer you.

Focuses that have worked in the past

TASK ONE Which of the following look workable ? (7 are). Of the others, why would they not be a good focus ? A. B. C. D. E. F. Affixation Sense relations Vocabulary Vocabulary notebooks Adverbs of manner Collocation G. H. I. J. K. L. Ways of learning lexis Lexical phrases Adjectives Presenting vocabulary Multi-word verbs Compounds

DELTA Module Two with ITI Istanbul

The analysis section of a lexis assignment This section is about language, not about what learners do or what teachers should be doing. Be concise. Say how / where your focus fits into lexis as a whole. Even though you do not have simple
headings that will work for any assignment in this area (the form, meaning and use and phonology works ok for some lexical areas, but not for others), you should still try to find some way to break your ideas down into headed sub-sections. Remember that any terminology you use should be defined. . Be particularly careful to define your terms clearly early on in a lexis assignment, as there are some terms that different writers define and/or use in different ways (e.g. collocation or lexical phrases). Remember to quote from your reading (and to vary the authors, not to have five or six quotes in a row from Lewis). Remember to add some kind of evaluative points of your own at some stage. What do you think of the ideas you are presenting ? Are they accurate ? Do they fit with the language you see in the real world ? Are the ideas organised in a way that is helpful for teachers or learners ? Does one writer get things across more effectively than others ?

Issues
As you outline a particular issue, say how it connects to the information you have presented in the analysis. Keep a clear view of your focus - dont list things that are generally true of lexis e.g. it is difficult for learners to remember words. You need to make them specific to the focus you have chosen. E.g. in an assignment on affixation many learners note a word in the form that they first see it, but dont think to make a note of how the negative (etc) is formed, so they end up learning each form of the word completely separately, which is harder than thinking about affixation and learning a few of the word family together. You need to illustrate your points with examples from your learners. You can always canvas the staff room for what other teachers see as typical learner errors for this point. Think about L1, culture and learning style. Dont forget to mention different problems that relate to different levels (if you have not narrowed your focus to one level). If you can also refer to other nationalities you have taught, then do so.

Suggestions for teaching This section should be largely practical. Bearing this in mind, it is better to work with sub-headings
such as awareness raising activities and production activities or activities for lower levels, for intermediate learners and for higher levels. Some lexis focuses can also lend themselves to a section for recycling activities the kinds of games where the items are known, but are used out of context the repetition involved in the game helping the learners to fix items in their minds. If you talk about the psychology of remembering words, or the activity of finding useful ways to store/ record them, do so very concisely and make it relate clearly to your focus what specifically could help them to store collocations better. Do not get into a lengthy consideration of vocabulary notebooks that relates to lexis as a whole. Remember to describe at least a couple of your activities in detail. How would you set them up, on what topic ? Write in one or two example questions or prompts. You can put in photocopies of whole activities in an appendix for completeness, but they must be described in sufficient detail in the main body of text that a reader does not need to see the copy to understand the activity. Show how activities relate to the first two sections of your assignment. E.g. which issue do they address ? Remember to explain what activities entail, not just to use a name that might not be universally understood for them. If you have not narrowed your focus by level, then remember to include activities that are suitable for a variety of levels.

DELTA Module Two with ITI Istanbul

Reading and research when it is a lexis focus

General introductory overviews any one of these would be a good place to start. You do not need to read a lot of them, they cover the same sort of areas. Bauer, L. 1998 Vocabulary Routledge Carter, R. & McCarthy, M. 1988 Vocabulary & Language Teaching Longman Gairns, R. & Redman, S. 1986 Working With Words CUP Mc Carthy, M. 1990 Vocabulary OUP Morgan, J. & Rinvolucri, M. 1986 Vocabulary OUP Nation, I. 1993 Teaching and Learning Vocabulary Longman (and three more very similar titles since then) OKeefe, A., McCarthy, M. Walsh, S. 2009 Vocabulary Matrix: Understanding, Learning, Teaching.Thomson ELT Schmitt, N. 2000 Vocabulary in Language Teaching CUP Singleton, D. 2000 Language and the Lexicon Arnold Thornbury, S. 2002 How to Teach Vocabulary Longman Books on more specific areas Lewis, M. 1993 The Lexical Approach, LTP Lewis, M. 1996 Implications of a Lexical View of Language in Willis, J. & Willis, D. (eds) Challenge and Change in Language Teaching Heinemann Lewis, M. 1997 Implementing the Lexical Approach, LTP Lewis, M. (Ed) 2000 Teaching Collocation: Further Developments in the Lexical Approach LTP Nattinger, J. & DeCarrico, J. 1992 Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching OUP Pawley, A. & Hodgets Syder, F. 1993 Two Puzzles for Linguistic Theory: Nativelike selection and Nativelike fluency in Richards, J.C. & Schmidt, R.W. (eds) Language and Communication Longman (These last two are in a sense the origin of the lexical approach slightly more academic and less popularist than Lewis) Sinclair, J. 1991 Corpus, Concordance, Collocation Willis, D. 1990 The Lexical Syllabus The lexical syllabus by Dave Willis is available in pdf if you can cope with reading a book on screen free to download http://www.cels.bham.ac.uk/resources/LexSyll.htm Articles use the links on the Moodle to Nation and Schmitts web sites. Hill, J. April 1999 Collocational competence ETP Issue 11 Hunston, S. Francis, G. & Manning, E. 1997 Grammar and Vocabulary: Showing the connections ELT Journal 51/3 Lindstromberg, S. 2003 My Goodbye to the Lexical Approach HLT Year 5 Issue 2 (This ones on line) Ooi, D. & Lee Kim-Seoh, J.1996 Vocabulary Teaching: Looking behind the word ELT Journal 50/1 Thornbury, S. 1998 The Lexical Approach: A Journey without Maps? MET 7/4 Activities Most of the general introduction texts cover activities as well. All of the big publishers do spiral bound phtocopiable games books for varying levels of vocabulary. e.g. Hadfield, J. 1998 Elementary Vocabulary Games Longman ODell, F. & Head, K. 2003 Games for Vocabulary Practice Cambridge Watcyn-Jones, P. 1993 Vocabulary Games and Activities for Teachers 1 and 2 Longman

DELTA Module Two with ITI Istanbul

TASK TWO

Turn this document over or turn away from the screen and make a list that summarises the most important points imagine you were summarising it for another CP (there are 12 points in the key list). Then check the key below to see if we agree.

DELTA Module Two with ITI Istanbul

Task One Answer Key A. This usually works well as a focus, though some people get really into it and have to cut it down to just prefixes or suffixes. B. This can work well, you should restrict it to just a couple of sense relations (antonymy etc) as there really are quite s lot out there. C. This will not work as it is really only another way of saying lexis and thus you will not have narrowed your focus. This is a problem because it means you dont meet criteria 2 a and b and in any case it leaves a subject far too big to be covered at all adequately. D. This will not work. It is not about the language system of lexis, it is about ways of helping learners learn lexis and as such could be mentioned in approaches, but should not be an assignment focus. E. This can work well. F. Collocation can work well, though be careful to define what you understand and wish to focus on at the beginning. You will need to choose some areas, not try to cover all of it. G. This subject does not work. Again, it is part of approaches, not a suitable main focus. H. This can work well, though it is a big area and some people find it easier to restrict it in some way. I. This is too big you need to narrow further and as with many of the systems focuses, that s probably best done through an area rather than a level. J. This is another one that is part of approaches, not a suitable main focus. K. This works well. L. This works well.

Key to task two HOW TO WRITE A LEXIS FOCUS ASSIGNMENT BE SURE TO FOCUS ON THE SYSTEM, NOT ON ACTIVITIES OR APPROACHES IF IN DOUBT ABOUT A FOCUS ASK A TUTOR THE ANALYSIS IS ABOUT LANGUAGE, NOT TEACHERS OR LEARNERS USE SUB-HEADINGS IN YOUR SECTIONS BREAK YOUR IDEAS UP INTO CHUNKS DEFINE AND ILLUSTRATE TERMINOLOGY QUOTE FROM READING AND ADD SOME EVALUATIVE COMMENT DONT LIST GENERAL LEXIS ISSUES, MAKE THEM FOCUS SPECIFIC ILLUSTRATE ISSUES WITH EXAMPLES FROM YOUR OWN LEARNERS SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING SHOULD BE A VERY PRACTICAL SECTION GIVE DETAILS AND EXAMPLES WHEN DESCRIBING ACTIVITIES MENTION DIFFERENT LEVELS / SITUATIONS (& IF POSSIBLE NATIONALITIES) IN ISSUES AND APPROACHES MAKE LINKS ACROSS ALL THREE SECTIONS

DELTA Module Two with ITI Istanbul