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The Lexical Approach: 20 years on...




This year sees the 20th anniversary of the publication of Michael Lewis's "The Lexical
Approach", the book that has changed the way many – but unfortunately not
enough - teachers teach and see
language. I just wanted to share with you my plans  for this anniversary year.










Article


The Education section of the Guardian has just run my "accessible" article about why Lewis's
lexical approach hasn't gained widespread currency. Judging by the comments it has reignited the debate about traditional grammar versus chunks and whether it is the publishers' reluctance or "consumers"' conservatism that hinders the spread of new ideas in ELT.

Click here to read it.




Special publications


I am currently guest-editing a special issue
of the ETAI (English Teachers Association of Israel) Forum dedicated to the
lexical approach with contributions from Hugh Dellar, Luiz Otavio Barros, Hannah Kryszewska, KenLackman and many others. The publication is only available to ETAI members but
the good news is that in an exclusive arrangement with Humanising Language Teaching (HLT) - a webzine produced by Pilgrims - most of the issue will appear online as a special lexical edition of HLT towards the end of
the year. Don't miss it!




Conference


Finally, the University of Westminster
is organising a conference on lexical teaching on 11 May. The conference featuring Michael Hoey and Hugh Dellar as keynote speakers will introduce you to developments in lexical approaches to language teaching in recent years and consider lexical teaching in areas such as EAP and exams, teaching the four skills and teacher training. Workshops given by Ivor Timmis, Mura Nava, Nick Billbrough and yours truly will provide practical techniques and tasks for the lexical classroom. 








  


Registration is already open. So if you're in or around London - or fancy a weekend in London - don't miss this opportunity to hear first-hand from top lexical experts. For more
information click HERE




I hope you join me in celebrating the year of teaching lexically.




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