Which Words? A Comparison of Learner and Teacher Choices for Lexical Study

Lexical study often sits at the periphery of English lessons & textbooks in Japan, meaning that learners & teachers alike fail to give lexis the attention that it deserves. What this suggests is that learners fail to utilize these fundamental building blocks of the language, which could offer widespread benefits to their holistic English development. This limited exploratory study looks at the choices & selection criteria that various groups of learners used to select lexical items from a set text. These are compared with choices & criteria used by teachers, as well as the recommendations of scholars in the field. The author found that not only did choices vary considerably between learners & teachers, but also that these choices often did not correspond to an informed understanding of the nature of lexis. 3 Tables, 23 References. Adapted from the source document