Unit 2 Lexis

 

Unit 2

Lexis

Lexis play a vital role in improving students' English proficiency in English learning Lexis is a term in linguistics, which refers to the vocabulary of a language. Lexis means "word" or "phonetic". The study of vocabulary and lexis, or a collection of words in a language, is called lexis.

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The word lexis, derived from the "word" in ancient Greek, refers to all words in a language, that is, all vocabulary of a language. Plato and Aristotle talked about the effective linguistic usage of vocabulary. (Page 571). According to Jackson and Amvela (2000) proposed vocabulary, lexis, and lexicon are synonyms. Nevertheless, some other words distinguish between lexis and vocabulary.

 In lexis, there are words that have different kinds of meaning. For example, denotation means the literal meaning of a word in contrast to the feeling that the word suggests, on the other hand, there is connotation is the emotional and imaginative association surrounding a word (Halves, 2018). The meaning of vocabulary matters can come as form, such as prefixes, suffixes and compounds. Compounds are words composed of multiple free morphemes. Like many other languages, English often uses compound words. English compounds can be classified in several ways, such as word categories or the semantic relationship of their components. Examples of word classes. Modifier. Collocations are words that occur together.   More examples of matching are doing homework, making a bed, taking risks, etc. Idioms are expressions that have a figurative meaning when certain words are combined, which is different from the literal definition of individual words. Chunks refer to languages ​​that appear in (semi) fixed units, and we usually use them as a kind of learning. In lexis, there are words that have a relationship with one another for example false friends are words with identical forms but different meanings in the two languages. Homophones are words that have the same pronunciation but different meaning or spelling.

In this unit, we learned that lexis is an important part of the process of learning a second language or foreign language. English learners need to understand the form and meaning of words so, learning new vocabulary also means understanding the entire conceptual system of words. During internships, we observed that the learners depend on a dictionary to increase vocabulary but it is necessary to implement activities for which they cannot use the dictionary and try to develop their knowledge using innovative methodologies. For example, an effective way to master the rote memorization of words and to ensure that the words are kept in the students' memory is to use flashcards. Write the word on one side of the card and the definition and pronunciation of the word on the other side. Some of the students are visual. You can assign homework to students to create word maps. Every student is required to create a word map for five words in the vocabulary class. You can ask them to write words in the center of the page and connect their different conjunctions and synonyms at their branches. 

Bibliography:

 

 Jackson, H., & Amvela, E. (2000). Words, meaning, and vocabulary: an introduction to modern English lexicology. London; New York: Cassell, - Open linguistics series

Halves, D. (2018, 10 agosto). GRIN - The Importance of Lexis. How do primary school kids acquire knowledge in vocabulary on an ESL/EFL basis? The Importance of Lexis. How do primary school kids acquire knowledge in vocabulary on an ESL/EFL basis? https://www.grin.com/document/511512

Extra material:

Lexis, lexical competence and lexical knowledge: A review (N.^o 2-10). (2017, marzo). Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 8. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314294628_Lexis_Lexical_Competence_and_Lexical_Knowledge_A_Review