Page 29 - ELG1804 Apr Issue 456

COMMENT .

Why ELT fell for the Is this, as the tweet suggested, because its logic
The lexical set had attained mythical status.

is unarguable? Let’s unpick Aitchison’s original
argument.
Let us take as given that adult native
speakers with language processing deficiencies
lexical sets myth – a lexical set. They muddle them up. It may
have difficulty retrieving the correct word from
therefore follow that words are stored in lexical
sets.
But does it follow that L2 learners – and
only L2 learners – will learn and retrieve an
hook, line and individual word correctly if they learn it along
with lots of other similar words at once, as part
of a lexical set? Or will they get muddled too?
I don’t know about you, but I learned the
names of the bones in the human body by
heart in a lexical set.
I needed them to pass a school biology test. I
sinker are all bones. But I’m dammed if I know which
remember that the ulna, the tibia and the ilium
is which.
I think that Jean Aitchison’s description of
the three stages of vocabulary acquisition may
well be right, including for L2 learners.
But I believe her lexical set hypothesis has
Evidence shows learning semantically related turned into a myth. It’s time it was laid to rest.
vocabulary in groups isn’t the best way to learn

lexis, but the idea is entrenched in language MELANIE BUTLER
Editor at large
classrooms, writes Melanie Butler @MelanieButler_E

am now officially ancient. I must be. I has shown that for 20 years...’ The lexical then hypothesised that the best way for L2 acquired vocabulary in an entirely different acquisition. Indeed, they pretty
was around at the birth of at least one set hypothesis started life well. It was not learners to learn vocabulary was in lexical way. They acquired a word in three stages. much ignored everything she had
ELT myth and I expect it will outlive me. borrowed from pop psychology, nor thought sets. First comes labelling, where the child makes to say about lexis – except for her
IIf there is one thing I have learned in up by a bunch of teacher-trainers looking I don’t remember the first time I a link between the sounds and the object. lexical-set hypothesis.
forty years in ELT, it is that a good myth is for something new and sexy to present at heard the lexical-set language-learning Second comes packaging, where she They latched on to that like
hard to kill. Iatefl. It was a scientific hypothesis, put hypothesis, but I have known Jean for learns the range of meanings of the word puppies to a bone and have hung
The myth in question says that forward by the eminent psycholinguist nearly forty years. I have met her often in and its limits. on to it doggedly ever since. But
vocabulary is best learned in lexical sets. So, Professor Jean Aitchison. professional and social settings and love her Finally comes network building, which evidence against the hypothesis
words such as knife, fork, spoon and plate As part of her work on adults with work. began to build.
are best learnt at the same time, as a group. dysphasia, a speech deficiency that often I do remember, however, my reply when I think that Jean In 1990 Paul Nation, a New
Ditto shoes, hat, coat, umbrella. she first made the argument to me that we Zealand professor of applied
Doesn’t sound like a myth, right? Sounds If there is one should learn L2 words in sets because we Aitchison’s description linguistics, published a seminal
like common sense. store L1 words in sets. I said, ‘I store all of the three stages of paper showing that giving students
But it was declared a myth by Keith thing I have learned in different kinds of pasta in the same part lexical sets made it harder to learn
Folse in his excellent book Vocabulary of my kitchen cupboard, but that doesn’t vocabulary acquisition and retrieve individual words.
Myths, Applying Second Language Research forty years in ELT, it is mean I acquired it all at once.’ Nobody in the UK took the blindest
to Classroom Teaching (2004). Folse did his Jean was convinced she was right, and may well be right, bit of notice.
best to bury it in a mountain of evidence that a good myth is hard when it came to vocabulary research she British academics like Meara,
against it. In the UK, however, it remains nearly always is. including for L2 Milton and Schmidt began churning
alive and well – and littered all over our to kill So, in 1987 on the publication of her out papers on the subject. Nobody
coursebooks, as I was reminded by these seminal work Words in the Mind, Jean began learners cared.
words about EFL materials I saw on Twitter: results in the wrong choice of word, attending ELT conferences and arguing that Neurocognitive research from
‘Vocabulary should be taught in lexical sets Professor Aitchison noticed that the errors vocabulary should be taught in lexical sets involves understanding the synonyms, Bangor found that subjects who
(logical).’ produced followed a consistent pattern: to adult L2 learners. antonyms and collocations of the word, learned words in lexical sets had
Wearily, I tweeted back: ‘Vocabulary they all came from the same lexical set. She This was only one small part of what fitting it into its correct lexical set. more difficulty retrieving the
should NOT be taught in lexical sets. It posited, probably correctly, that that words Jean had to say about the mental lexicon. The British ELT community ignored correct item.
makes it harder to learn. The evidence were stored in the brain in such sets. She She argued, for example, that L1 children Aitchison’s three-stage model of Nothing happened.
28 April 2018 editorial@elgazette.com