Lexical approach

[Maxwell999]

Does anyone know of any coursebooks, using a lexical syllabus?, only know Willis COBUILD course, but don't know what it is like and only 3 books.

Is it possible to adapt other coursebooks into a lexical syllabus, or create your own? How?

Thanks Nick

[Alex Case]

Innovations, previously LTP (Brighton) and now taken over by someone and in a new edition and two levels. Also ex-LTP business books like Business Matters (also now new publisher and edition). Innovations okay but only really suitable for students in the UK, Business Matters great but a bit heavy for some less dedicated students, especially pre-experience ones, so imo it depends on the writers more than the approach

[Maxwell999]

Thank you. Are there any text books that you recommend? Ones that are rich in language and easy to adapt to suit students needs

[Alex Case]

Personally, I don't support a hardcore lexical approach like that in Innovations in most classrooms. Most of the activities you can do with collocations etc are boring and/ or uncommunicative, and students find the seemingly endless succession of seemingly unrelated points overwhelming. I say teach them how to notice the language for themselves in reading texts, how to sit down and learn them if they want to, and how to look them up when they are writing, and then just concentrate on getting them to read read read outside the classroom. Other than that, I think the most useful insights are to teach vocabulary in longer strings of language and to make sure you cover the most used forms (e.g. If I were you) when you cover a grammar point

Here is my (developing) philosophy of vocabulary teaching explained in a bit more detail:

http://edition.tefl.net/articles/lexis/ ... ocabulary/