Lexical approaches to
language teaching emphasise the importance of vocabulary in language
learning. A lexical syllabus is organised according to the vocabulary
that is to be taught rather than the grammar or the functions. A large proportion of the language we produce
seems to be memorised 'chunks of language', rather than original
creations generated through combining our grammatical and lexical
knowledge. Examples are the _____er, the
_________er (as in the bigger, the better), you must be joking, to cut a long story short.
These 'pre-fabricated chunks' are given various names such as lexical phrases,
holophrases, gambits and lexicalised stems. What they are called does
not really matter, but it is very useful for the language teacher to
recognise and teach these chunks.