1. By: Dannae Del Campo Méndez
TEACHING VOCABULARY TO
ADVANCED STUDENTS: A
LEXICAL APPROACH

2. The teaching of vocabulary
Aspects of lexis that need to be taken into account when
teaching vocabulary.
Boundaries between conceptual meaning:
• Knowing not only what lexis refer to, but also where the
boundaries are that separate it from words of related meaning.
Polysemy:
• Distinguishing between the various meaning of a single word
form with several but closely related meanings.
Pronunciation:
• Ability to recognise and reproduce items in speech.

3. Homonymy:
• Distinguishing between the various meanings of a single
word form which has several meanings which are NOT
closely related.
Homophyny:
• Understanding words that have the same pronunciation
but different spellings and meanings (e.g. flour,flower).
Synonymy:
• Distinguishing between the different shades of meaning that
synonymous words have.
Affective meaning:
• Distinguishing between the attitudinal and emotional factors.

4. Style, register, dialect:
• Being able to distinguish between different levels of formality,
the effect of different contexts, as well as the differences in
geographical variation.
Translation:
• Awareness of certain differences and similarities between the
native and the foreign language.
Chunks of language:
• Multi-word verbs, idioms, strong and weak collocations, lexical
phrases.
Grammar of vocabulary:
• Learning the rules that enable students to build up diferent forms
of the word .

5. Memory and storage systems
Understanding how our memory works might
help us create more effective ways to teach
vocabulary.
• Grouping • Using imagery,
• Asosiating semantic mapping,
using keywords.
• Placing new words
into a context Applying • Representing
Creating sounds in memory.
images
Mental
and
Linkages.
sounds
Reviewing Employing
well action
• Physical response
• In a structured or sensation,
way using mechanical
techniques

6. Dealing with meaning
Guided discovery
Students should star involve asking questions
using EFL dictionaries or offering examples
as early as possible, that guide the students
from Intermediate to guess meanings
upwards. correctly helps them
learning and retaining

7. Using language
• Is most likely to be learned
when a learner feels a
A lexical personal need to know it, or
item… when is a need to express
something to accomplish
their own purposes.
• Will depend on motivation,
and this is what teachers
should aim at promoting,
Production… based on their awareness of
students need and
preferences.

8. The Lexical Approach
Principles (Lewis 1993 ,
1997)
Apart from
However, he said:
identifying chunks
His most “Language consist
;it is important to
important not of traditional
establish clear
grammar and
contribution was ways of organising
vocabulary, but
to highlight the and recording
often of multi-
importance of vocabulary (with
words
vocabulary. collocation tables,
prefabricated
mind-maps, word
chunks”
trees, etc…)
Lewis also defends the use of “real” or “authentic” material from the
early stages of learning, because “acquisition” is facilitated bu
material which is only partly understood.

9. Rationale of  Plan a lesson that is based on its
the lesson : main concepts, specially
exploring the use of collocations.
Choice of  We wanted to use autenthic
material: material to expose the students
to rich, contextualise, naturally-
ocurring language.
 For the few words we predict
Noticing students will not fully understand
collocations the meaning, we will ask them to
and dealing look these up in monolingual
dictionaries and notice examples
with the to observ and record other
meaning: possible collocation of the word.

10. Group work:  Working in group help fostering
learning independence and specially
in vocabulary work, learners can
exchange knowledge and asking
others to explain unknown items.
 We find it vital that students are
Choice of given the oportunities to use the
task: language in real context .