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The English language consists of roughly one million words. Can a person possibly know all those lexical items? Of course not. At least not in a lifetime, that is.

HOWEVER, the more we focus on how they naturally co-occur in chunks in authentic language, the higher the chance we’ll be able to quickly retrieve them as single units, rather than trying to combine them separately. That will inevitably result in faster, richer, more fluent, and more natural speech and writing.

This is why I’ve created an eight-week course, called LEX-PRESS YOURSELF, which teaches people how to effectively acquire lexis as it naturally occurs in compelling authentic texts, such as articles, extracts from books, videos, commentaries, talks, debates, and interviews, and eventually use it to express themselves in the best possible way.

And because all language skills are important and do not exist in isolation, all four skills (reading, listening, speaking, and writing) are given equal prominence during the course, so that vocabulary acquisition happens in a natural way through rich language input, varied language-focus practice, and personalized language use.

Here’s how it works:

Before each lesson, you will be sent two different texts (written and audio) on a topic chosen by the participants, along with some questions to stimulate a discussion during the live session. You will be encouraged to notice and record interesting lexis from the materials and share it during the session.

At the beginning of the live session, there will be a series of language focus tasks, based on one or both texts. These may include activities such as comparing various dictionary definitions, noticing patterns in example sentences, consulting corpora, looking up synonyms and antonyms in a thesaurus, exploring etymology, collocations, connotation, and register, as well as various contexts in which certain lexis is used, personalizing vocabulary through learner-generated sentences, paraphrasing, etc.

After the language-focus part, there will be a free-style discussion on the topic, which can be in the main room or in breakout rooms. Active use of the new lexis will be encouraged. Teacher and peer feedback will be provided during the session.

There will be a written assignment (an essay/letter/report/article) to encourage summarizing the views expressed in the materials and during the discussion, as well as to further consolidate the vocabulary which has emerged during the session. Personalized teacher feedback will be provided for each submitted written piece.

The recording of the session will be uploaded to Google Classroom, along with a Word document, containing the language that has emerged during the session, and the materials for the following week.

The following session will begin with a short vocabulary quiz, based on the lexis from the previous session, followed by another set of language-focus activities and another discussion on a different topic.

At the end of the month, after three topics have been discussed, instead of the weekly written assignment, each participant will have to deliver a five-to-ten-minute presentation on one of the discussed topics.

In between sessions, you will have access to a supportive community (on Slack) and will be able to ask questions, exchange information and opinion with the teacher and the other participants, and stay motivated and accountable.

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• Topics of choice, so that you can discuss things that are meaningful and relevant to YOU.

• Carefully selected materials, so that you can receive stimulating and lexically rich input.

• Weekly varied language-focus activities, so that you have plenty of opportunities to explore and acquire lexis, engage with it in an active way, and build an effective learning habit of noticing, exploring, recording, retrieving, memorizing, and consolidating new vocabulary through actual use.

• A weekly Word document with all the interesting language that comes up during the lesson, so that you can further review lexis and grammar.

• A weekly vocabulary quiz to help you track your progress and keep you accountable for your learning.

• Weekly discussions and monthly presentations, so that you get lots of possibilities to develop both your interactional and presentational skills and build your confidence.

• A weekly written task, so that you can hone your writing skills and consolidate the topical vocabulary you’ve learned.

• Personalized written and spoken feedback from the teacher, so that you know what areas of language to improve.

• Community space on Slack, so that you can stay connected, ask questions, exchange ideas and materials, be accountable, and get inspired by others.

• Lesson recordings and access to all materials, so that you don’t miss anything in case you cannot attend, and so that you can rewatch and analyze your performance.

• Continued all-year-round enrollment, so that you are free to join whenever you can.

• Two payment installments, so that you can easily plan your monthly budget.

• Small international groups of up to six people, so that everyone receives sufficient attention from the teacher and fairly distributed participation time.

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Learn more here:

https://mailchi.mp/f85c370bed91/lexpress-yourself