Which approach to language teaching believes, ‘language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks’?

Option 1 : Lexical Approach

Language teaching refers to a process whereby a child gains communicative comprehension or fluency over a language. It involves practice by learners where facilitation is provided by a teacher. There are several methods of English language teaching and the Lexical Approach is one of them.

Lexical Approach: The lexical approach, proposed by Michael Lewis (1993), has emerged as an alternative to grammar-based approaches to second language teaching. It focuses on developing learners’ proficiency.

• This approach focuses on developing learners’ proficiency with lexis, or word and word combinations. Lexis includes not only single words but also the word combinations that people store in their mental lexicons.
• This approach believes that ‘language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks’ as this approach is a widespread occurrence of multi-word units or lexical chunks in native speakers’ languages.
• Lexical phrases in any language offer more communicative and expressive power than grammatical structures. This approach gives special attention to collocations which helps the individuals to communicate effectively in a particular context.

Hence, it is clear that the Lexical approach to language teaching believes, ‘language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks’.

• Grammar translation is a traditional method through which language is taught with a detailed study of grammar. Thus, learners apply the rule of grammar in translating sentences from their mother tongue to the target language. 
• Communicative approach is a method of language teaching which makes learners confident to communicate effectively by involving them in real communication. It highlights the importance of real communication.