A Shift in Study Priorities

Now that these realities of language use and linguistic behaviour are finally having a significant influence on the output of mainstream course book writers, it will not be long before we see the widespread effect of these materials in EFL/ESOL classrooms across the world. The shift in study priorities will mean that greater emphasis will be placed on providing language learners with the range of tools needed to build up thir own effective lexical store and communicative repertoire.

Developing Communicative Capability

And it is precisely these chunks, in their multiple forms, that are the constituent elements of the range of language natural English has pinpoited as the key to developing the students' communicative capabilities.

Building Blocks

The Lexical Approach's principal tenet is that the language native speakers use, whether in a formal or informal situation, is not original (i.e. it is not uniquely created for that context); but is built up in readymade, prefabricated chunks - which the speaker/writer selects from his/her lexical store (featuring, in the case of an adult native speaker, tens of thousands of chunks) and assembles together to construct what he/she wants to say.