Improving Fluency in English

Raising lexical awareness to improve and develop fluency in English

Reading and listening are good ways to learn and teach new vocabulary and to help ESL speakers become more fluent for one simple reason: we observe words in context. However, merely finding individual words that are new is just part of learning and discovering new vocabulary in one’s effort to become more fluent.> We must take a lexical approach in using reading and listening texts to learn and teach vocabulary. Taking a lexical approach begins with developing a lexical awareness. It's impossible to overlook the fact that we need more vocabulary in order to become more fluent speakers and writers, but what does it mean to "learn and teach vocabulary"? The lexical approach helps inform us. However, the lexical approach, in some ways, can be a rather “fuzzy” concept for learning and teaching vocabulary, as it asks us to call upon our natural knowledge of language, language awareness, and intuition in order to learn and teach vocabulary. Those that have a strong preference for rules and structure might not feel comfortable with the lexical approach to learning and teaching vocabulary. However, there really is no other approach. If we want to find rules and structure, then we can look to grammar.

Beyond merely giving attention to individual words, which is important as well, the lexical approach calls on our ability to observe and recognize familiar vocabulary items, which in general, we can call word combinations or phrases. We also refer to them as “lexical items”. But what exactly do we want to observe and recognize? What are we looking for in the lexical approach to learning and teaching vocabulary? There are a number of items, or we could say “lexical items’, that both students and teachers should observe and pay careful attention to in learning and teaching English vocabulary. These are the items: phrasal verbs, idioms, collocations, lexical phrases, and expressions. Now, let’s identify each of these items.

Lexical Item

We’ll start with phrasal verbs, which are very common in English and very important in developing English language proficiency and fluency. A phrasal verb consists of a verb in combination with a preposition or adverb. These words combine to form one unit of meaning. Phrasal verbs are also called two-part verbs (in some cases three-part verbs). The word combinations “work out” and “make up for” are phrasal verbs. By combining these words, a new meaning is created, separate from the meaning of each individual word. Please, note that phrasal verbs should not be confused with verb-preposition combinations. The phrase “look at” is not a phrasal verb because the combination of these two words does not create a new meaning.

Phrasal Verb- Cambridge Dictionary Phrasal Verb - Longman Dictionary

Next, we have Idioms, or idiomatic expressions. An idiom, or an idiomatic expression, is a special combination of words that can only be understood as a whole unit. The meaning of each word contained in an idiomatic expression does not allow us to understand its meaning.

Idiom - Cambridge Dictionary Idiom - Longman Dictionary

What are collocations? Collocations are words that commonly occur together, as in “economic recovery” Google Results 1 - 10 of about 2,240,000 for "economic recovery". (0.25 seconds)

Collocation - Longman Dictionary Collocation - Cambridge Dictionary

Types of collocations: According to Jimmie Hill (in Lewis, M., 2000: 63):
Unique collocations - Strong collocations - Medium-strength collocations - Weak collocations

Types of word combinations we may recognize as collocations
Verb Preposition - Adjective Preposition - Noun Preposition - Adjective Noun - Adverb Adjective - Verb Noun – wreak havoc

A lexical phrase is a pre-assembled groups of words that are commonly used and easily recognized. One can refer to a lexical phrase as a fixed expression or a semi-fixed expression: Here are few examples: That’s easier said than done. - What I’m trying to say is … - I’ve been meaning to … - Would you happen to … What I’d like to know is … - I couldn’t believe it. - I don’t have a clue. - What’s up? - What’s going on? - I was just about to … - You can’t be serious. - The thing is ...

Finally, we have expressions. What is an expression? An expression is any combination of words that form a phrase which we recognize as familiar. Any such phrase which we may not want to apply to one of the four items in this article, such as a familiar saying, a proverb, a figure of speech, or a cliché, we can call an “expression”.

Lexical awareness is important in developing fluency in English.