Lexis and Grammar
What is the most frequently used word in the English language?
the
What are lexical chunks?
multi-word expressions / prefabricated strings of words that are often used together and are stored together, e.g. compounds or phrasal verbs
Explain one lexical activity!
e.g. word-ladder, word-spider, word thieves, guessing the category, antonyms,…
What is the mental lexicon?
contains information about the form, meaning and use of words, is systematically organized
What does the lexico-grammar approach generally suggest?
The relationship between lexis and grammar is seen as a continuum.
„All men are created evil.“ What principle of the mental lexicon failed in this utterance?
Clang association: words that sound similar are stored together-wrong word selection due to phonological similarity (equal)
Explain the difference between the interventionist and non-interventionist grammar instruction!
interventionist: conscious learning of grammatical rules;
non-interventionist: acquiring rules subconsciously through exposure to input and communication
Give an example of an activity for form-related practice for lexical items!
e.g. pronunciation drills, grids or crosswords, filling in gaps,…
There are four hypotheses concerning the relationship of the L1 and L2 lexicon. Which one is favoured by most researchers nowadays?
subset hypothesis:
L1 and L2 words stored in different subsets but closely connected and not completely separate
Explain three challenges which EFL learners face regarding their mental lexicon!
semantic features learned incompletely,
exact semantic coverage of words difficult,
L1 may have a different system of semantic differentiation,
L1 activates words that are semantically/phonologically similar,
difficulties with register