The author will attempt to demonstrate the central role of lexicon in language acquisition, the significance of lexically-oriented grammar in the context of communicative methodology, and will outline the organization of the mental lexicon and its implications for teaching. High-level grammatical rules are derived from specific instances of the language in use. Whenever the language material is not subject to clear-cut rules, it is treated as a vocabulary item. More grammar forms are studied as vocabulary items, each instructional sequence is built around some specific lexical item. The knowledge of a lexical item includes more background grammatical information and information about the way words combine and operate in a sentence.
Translation aids better comprehension of the language phenomena.
Particular attention is given to the verb. The lexical approach to teaching grammar binds the learning of vocabulary and grammar more closely than it is usually done in the textbooks. The author designed and conducted an experimental course based on a lexically-driven curriculum and its implementation is still under way. Further empirical study will investigate the effect of the approach.