Unit 2

Lexis

When we talk about lexis the first thing that comes to our mind is “vocabulary “in this unit I checked some relevant aspects about it. First of all, what is the meaning of lexis? It refers to individual words or set of words which have a specific meaning. For example: First of all, there is the meaning that describes the thing or idea behind the vocabulary items. The denotation of a word is its explicit definition as listed in a dictionary. Let’s use the word “home” as an example. The denotative or literal meaning of “home” is “a place where one lives; a residence.”  Then there is figurative meaning when speech or writing is not literal, it is figurative meaning we can give another meaning for heart for example.  “The tree of life or family tree” This imaginative meaning comes from, as a special form. It depends on in which context or situation the word is used. On the other hand, we can say that the meaning of some vocabulary items can also come from their form for example, prefixes, suffixes or compounds (nouns made from two or more separate words.   To arrive at an opinion, We have to take into account two important features when we want to any vocabulary teach there are , the context(situation) and the form because it helps students to deduce the meaning of any word beside it we never should teach vocabulary in an isolated way. Second of all, within the study of this unit we find some relevant lexical features that most of students have problems with the proper use of them for instance; collocations are words that often occur together e.g. do homework, take a nap, arrive at, depend on, to take a holiday and so on. Additionally, idioms of fixed expression as they can´t be changed but their meaning is usually different from the combination of the meaning of individual words they contain so it is a big challenge to teach or learn they cannot be translated literally. They are common phrases or terms whose meaning is not real, but can be understood by their popular use. e.g. Shape up or ship out means  tell someone that they should leave if they don't improve their bevaviour  or performance . Finally another important in language teaching and learning  are false friends are pairs of words or phrases in two language or dialects (or letters in two alphabets, that  look  or sound  similar, but differ significantly in meaning. e.g An example is the english embarrassed and the Spanish embarazado, As conclusion, we need to take in to account  when we teach  learners new words we need to check if these words are homophones or homonyms or have any false friends in their language. Then we can point this out to learners and help to save them from misunderstandings to make activities to help our students extend their knowledge of words. 

References:

TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC,. (2011).Grammar vs lexis or grammar through lexis?. Retrieved 23 April 2015, Obtenido de  https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/grammar-vs-lexis-or-grammar-through-lexis

Philseflsupport.com,. (2015). Grammar & Lexis. Retrieved 23 April 2015.