Many ‘grammar’ errors (I am agree, it is depend of, I feel myself sad) are micro-grammar: ignorance of a word’s grammatical company (colligation), not failure to apply big rules. Teach the pattern with the word.
Claim
Summary of Hugh Dellar’s IATEFL webinar: “the crux of the Lexical Approach is a different approach to teaching grammar”. Lewis (2000: 149–150) called it more grammatical than a structural syllabus.
Theory
Firth (collocation, colligation); Hoey’s lexical priming (L1 primings explain transfer); Lewis (ed.) 2000 Teaching Collocation; Willis, Rules, Patterns and Words.
Procedure
- Teach words with their patterns: it depends (on), I agree (with), not depend + definition.
- Reformulate learner output with natural examples.
- In correction, target word grammar, not tense.
- Use learner-dictionary pattern data (there is (no) possibility that…, the possibility of…).
- Contrast with L1 where useful.
Limits & critique
Geoff Jordan (comments): what counts as a “pattern”, how many are there, and why is bottom-up better? Selivan: “hundreds or thousands… don’t quote me on that.” The argument is largely assertion.
Apply in my context (Claude)
- “I am agree” is a classic error of Uzbek- and Russian-speaking learners, plausibly primed by L1 patterns where “agree” is adjectival (Russian я согласен, Uzbek roziman). A colligation card (“agree = verb, no am”) fixes it faster than a present-simple review.
Connections
Most errors are priming gaps, not grammar gaps · Grammar should be taught through lexis, not PPP rules · Errors are often developmental, not L1 transfer