The Lexical Approach

Abstract

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Overview:
Babylonia 3/2005 is dedicated to the Lexical Approach in language teaching, a pedagogical perspective that emphasizes the importance of vocabulary, collocations, and fixed expressions (“chunks”) in language acquisition. Revisiting a theme explored in Babylonia 2/1996, this issue updates and expands on lexical-based teaching through theory, practice, and tools for classroom use.

Key Contributions:
The editorial opens with a reflection on the role of multilingualism, criticizing the myth of a universal lingua franca (like English) as a threat to linguistic diversity. It reaffirms that teaching vocabulary is not merely about word lists, but about helping learners grasp meaningful, reusable chunks of language.

Michael Lewis, who pioneered the Lexical Approach, argues for a shift away from traditional grammar- and vocabulary-focused methods toward a model centered on lexis—language as patterned chunks. He calls for reflective teaching informed by corpus linguistics, noting that language is more idiomatic and genre-specific than rule-based.

Wilfried Krenn critiques and extends Lewis’s ideas by linking them with theories from psycholinguistics and socio-constructivism. He outlines criteria for effective lexical tasks and curriculum planning, advocating a stronger emphasis on repetition, significance, and learner-centered differentiation.

Practical applications are shown across languages:

• Mario Cardona presents Italian L2 activities using the Lexical Approach.
• Susanne Wokusch discusses prefabricated language in French.
• Alessandra Juri-Zanolari offers English and French ideas from her teaching experience in Ticino.
• Uwe Quasthoff and Matthias Richter introduce a German lexical database, valuable for finding collocations.
• Frederick Jopling examines electronic tools (dictionaries, concordancers) for lexical teaching.

Other contributions discuss learner autonomy (Douglas MacKevett), linguistic diversity in schools (Raffaele De Rosa), and multilingualism in the Swiss economy (Grin, Andres, Korn, Niederer). The didactic insert provides activities focused on lexical acquisition.

Conclusion:
This issue reaffirms that words and expressions are the soul of language. By promoting the Lexical Approach, Babylonia 3/2005 encourages educators to rethink language teaching through a lens of authenticity, meaningful input, and real-world usage. The shift from grammar rules to lexical patterns is positioned not as a minor adjustment but as a necessary evolution toward more effective and inclusive language education.