Lexical Phrase Resources

Introduction

Nattinger and DeCarrico (1992) define lexical phrases as "collocations...that have been assigned pragmatic functions." They define collocations as "strings of specific lexical items... that co-occur with a mutual expectancy greater than chance." (p. 36) The writings of Michael Lewis (1993, 1997) have subsequently focused on putting these concepts to better use in second language learning and acquisition in what he has called the "Lexical Approach".

This page is devoted to developing resources to put the insights from these studies to better use in the classroom. That includes resources to help determine what language functions are relevant to the situations the learner is using his second language in, like notional-functional inventories and syllabuses, as well as resources to help determine which collocations are important.

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Lexical Approach Exercises

Michael Lewis's Prototypes

Collocations of: give,have,make,take,do,pay,hold

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Bibliography

Gitsaki, Christina. (1996) The Development of ESL Collocational Knowledge. PhD Dissertation, University of Queensland.
Keller, E. and Warner, S.T. (1976) Gambits 1, 2, 3. Canadian Government.
Lewis, M. (1993) The Lexical Approach: The State of ELT and a way forward. LTP.
Lewis, M. Pedagogical Implications of the Lexical Approach (Journal article. Full reference not available)
Lewis, M. (1997) Implementing the Lexical Approach. LTP.
Nattinger, J.R. and DeCarrico, J.S. (1992) Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching, OUP

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