How to be a more lexical teacher. Write down all the language you taught in your most recent lesson(s). Be as specific as possible. You have two minutes.

How to be a more lexical teacher

Write down all the language you taught in your most recent lesson(s).

Be as specific as possible.

You have two minutes.

Let’s share some of the language you recalled

Put the words in each group in order of frequency. You have five minutes.

1 ambitious / fun / serious / hard-working2 arise / supermarket / store / blonde3 trademark / controversy / criticism / headline4 paramedic / contend / Muslim / whereby5 after he / in terms of / singer / by the time

You have two minutes to write an example of these words and structures.

ambitiousbeardMuslimparamediccriticismpast continuousarisein terms ofwhereby

Where I'm coming from

Strategies / Learning Indonesian in JakartaCobuild Course and Dave Willis's Lexical SyllabusConversation GambitsThe Lexical Approach and TBLDogme before DogmeInnovations, Outcomes and the CEFRPrimingDemand High ELT

Some assumptions - Are you in the same place?

• Words and grammar are interdependent• Grammar plus words isn't true or helpful• 'Natural' examples are important• It’s important to think about the outcome to get input• There's great value in 'spontaneous teaching' responding to

students 'emergent' language• Meaning can be studied and learnt• Usage comes from exposure and use over time• Games, activities, classes can easily be language-poor, often

pointless and an avoidance of teaching

Assessing frequencyserious fun ambitious hard-working122 52 16 2

arise store supermarket beard96 93 17 9

criticism controversy headline trademark47 21 16 2

whereby Muslim contend paramedic20 17 9 1

in terms of by the time after he singer99 37 19 18

after the219

Numbers refer to occurrences per million in BNC: source phrasesinenglish.org / Macmillan dictionary

The attraction of simple examples

She is ambitious.He has a beard.She is Muslim.He is a paramedic. She receives a lot of criticism.The phone rang while I was having a bath.A problem has arisen. My job is bad in terms of money.whereby ….

Explaining the attraction

• availability bias• representational bias / simple X is Y pattern• priming

Frequent words:- are what students will see / hear and want to speak / write.- might be the ‘glue’ as much as grammar.

Single words / simple examples:- may not illustrate meaning.- may not reflect actual use.- will not provide sufficient exposure to grammar!- will not recycle frequent words sufficiently.

Chess masters and 10,000 hours

Why it might be a problem

Getting better at judging frequency

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/red-word-game/http://www.lextutor.ca/freq/train/GoogleFind a friend

ambitious

adverb - adjectiveadjective - noun

Getting better at giving examples:Collocation

What about collocations of collocations?

extremely, hugely, overly, too, wildlyruthlesslyartistically, politically, sociallyattempt, plan, programme, proposal, ventureaim, goal, target

adv - adj - nounadj - noun - verbverb -adj - nounnoun - verb - adj - noun

When? Why? Who to?

beardMuslimparamedicwhereby

Who was the guy with the beard? I haven’t seen him before.

As a Muslim, I believe we have a responsibility to help everyone.

When the paramedics arrived his heart had stopped beating, they got it going again and then rushed him to hospital.

Immunization is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine

www.who.int/topics/immunization/en/

overly ambitiousface criticism

From collocation to story to example

How did the workshop go?> I was overly ambitious as usual. I didn’t do half of what I’d planned.

> It was OK, but I was overly ambitious and I ran out of time / I didn’t finish

Miliband has faced a lot of criticism about his leadership, because he’s basically weak and he’s not doing enough to challenge the Tories.

From examples to noticing: grammarWho was the guy with the beard? I haven’t seen him before.

As a Muslim, I believe we have a responsibility to help everyone.

When the paramedics arrived his heart had stopped beating, they got it going again and then rushed him to hospital.

Immunization is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine

How did the workshop go?>OK, but I was overly ambitious as usual and I ran out of time / I didn’t finish

Miliband has faced a lot of criticism about his leadership, because he’s basically weak and he’s not doing enough to challenge the Tories.

- Why haven’t seen him before?- Why had stopped beating not stopped beating?- Why a person is made immune not a person made

immune?- Why he’s not doing enough, not he doesn’t do enough?

From examples to noticing: patterns and vocabulary

Who was the guy with the beard? I haven’t seen him before.

As a Muslim, I believe we have a responsibility to help everyone.

When the paramedics arrived his heart had stopped beating, they got it going again and then rushed him to hospital.

Immunization is the process whereby a person is made immune or resistant to an infectious disease, typically by the administration of a vaccine

How did the workshop go?>OK, but I was overly ambitious as usual and I ran out of time / I didn’t finish

Miliband has faced a lot of criticism about his leadership, because he’s basically weak and he’s not doing enough to challenge the Tories.

Who was the guy with ………..? I haven’t seen him before.

As a ………., I believe ……. .

When the paramedics arrived... … stopped / broke down .... got it going again rush him to hospital

…….. is the process whereby ... resistant to an infectious disease, [academic lang]

How did …. go?as usual / ran out of time

faced a lot of criticism about ...…. ’s not doing enough to...

Questions that check understanding and generate language

Why might you ...?How might you feel if ...?What might you say if ...?What happens if ...?What's the opposite of ...?What preposition goes with ...?What verbs go with ...?What else ....?

Recognizing what’s frequent and useful is not a given.

Giving good examples is difficult especially if they require complex sentences.

Need to notice and plan language within coursebooks.

Practice!

How might we develop words we previously taught.

Other ways to be more lexically focused1 Plan what language not what activity.2 Plan not just to complete aims, but to allow for students’ talk.3 Think about what students might say in Speaking tasks.4 Write dialogues for particular situations.5 Brainstorm new lexical sets / networks.6 Write your own exercises.

Find a buddy and ...7 Discuss interesting errors you came across.8 Discuss interesting questions I was asked in class today.9 Discuss new language you'd never taught / thought about teaching until it came up in class.10 Discuss what you learnt about your students.