UNIT 2 - LEXIS

UNIT 2 –  LEXIS

Words or group of words that have a special meaning is referred to as Lexis which is related to vocabulary. Besides, Spratt,  Pulverness, and Williams  (2011), say that Lexis refers to individual words or sets of words.

Words can have different kinds of meanings and the meaning depending on the context of the text or the ideas behind the vocabulary word. The meaning is known as denotation. The denotative meaning and figurative meaning. The denotative meaning describes the things behind the vocabulary and the figurative meaning comes from denotative but it has a different meaning. Besides, the meaning of the words always changes, that’s why it is indispensable to know the definition of some lexical items. For instance, Grammarly (2019), explains that compound nouns are when two or more words are used to join to create a new meaning. Ex: ice cream. According to the Cambridge dictionary (2019), collocation is words that go together or form concrete relationships, that is, words that usually go together. Collins dictionary (2018), says an idiom is a group of words that have a different meaning when used together as opposed to whether the word is used individually. Chunks are groups of words that can be found together. They are learning as one piece. In addition, there are several confusions between these terms homophones and homonyms, for that reason, it is important to explain the difference between them. The homophones have the same pronunciation but different meanings and spelling but the homonyms have the same spelling and pronunciation but different meanings.

In conclusion, the knowledge that I acquired in Unit 2 of “The TKT Course Modules 1, 2 and 3” are that each word has a different meaning because it depends on their context or the ideas behind the vocabulary word.  Also, I learned the definition of some lexical terms to differentiate the correct meaning of the words.

British Council (2017) suggests that teachers may introduce some lexis-based activities if they apply these activities in their classes:

-    - Teachers know that using illustration is perfect to teach vocabulary because students can practice pronunciation and spelling. Teachers can ask students to play charades which is about a student takes a card stands in front of his/her classmates and puts the card on his/her forehead and the rest of the students do mimics for his/her partner to guess the word on his/her forehead.

-          - The teacher can ask students to find 10 new words in a reading on a specific topic, students should work in groups of 4 or 5 people. First, students should look for the definition of words and understand their meaning in their mother tongue. Then, each group has to create a song, a poem or a chant with those 10 words. The best song wins a surprise prize.

References

Council, B. (2017). Chunks. Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/chunks

council, B. (2017). Presenting vocabulary. Retrieved from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/presenting-vocabulary

dictionary, C. (2018). Idiom definición y significado: Diccionario Inglés Collins. Retrieved from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/es/diccionario/ingles/idiom

Dictionary, C. (2019, 10 23). Collocation gramática inglés en "English Grammar Today" . Retrieved from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/gramatica/gramatica-britanica/collocation

Grammarly. (2019, 5 16). Retrieved from https://www.grammarly.com/blog/open-and-closed-compound-words/

Spratt, M., Pulverness, A., & Williams, M. (2011). The TKT Course Module 1, 2, 3 (Second). Cambidge: Cambridge University Press.