The Lexical Syllabus: A New Approach to Language Teaching

by Dave Willis

Describes a new approach to language learning and teaching. Derived from the COBUILD project, the syllabus has been shaped by extensive evidence of what is important in modern English. It documents the useful words and patterns of the language, providing insight into language use.

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 2, 1990

About the author

Dave Willis began his TEFL career working overseas as a teacher in Ghana and Cyprus. He joined the British Council and worked for twenty years as an English Language Officer in Iran, Singapore and London. From 1990 to 2000 he worked as a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for English Language Studies, at Birmingham University, working mainly on MA TEFL/TESOL programmes.

He has published widely on discourse analysis, the subject of his PhD thesis at Birmingham, on the description of grammar and lexis for ELT, and on task-based methodology. He is now retired from full time work, but maintains an active interest in ELT by researching, writing and travelling widely as a consultant and to international conferences. Currently his main area of interest is how to integrate grammar and lexis into a task-based approach.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dave Willis' 'Lexical Syllabus' was originally going to be called 'The Lexical Approach', but someone else beat him to it. I am glad it happened this way round, as both books benefit. Full of insightful facts and clear guidance derived from experience, Willis' book provides both a clear rationale for placing lexis at the centre of language teaching and a practical approach to the problem of designing a lexical syllabus.
This book is now unfortunately out of print. However, you can see why a lot of people still have not caught up with Dave Willis by downloading your own copy from here.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful insight, but I think unrealistic in practice. Nonetheless it's a good text to read to develop perspective in possible alternatives to the "standard" language teaching methodologies.