Journal of Foreign Language Education and Technology

Teaching the Transitivity of English Verbs in the Lexical Approach

Abstract

Diancheng Li*

Teaching English as a Second Language involves various methodologies. The present research will explore means of teaching English verbs in the lexical approach which suggests that the use of verbs be deemed to register as part of the mental lexicon. Since verbs may be used in active or passive voice, the study of transitivity will engage in the analysis of voice. Moreover, the classification of verbs also relate to the characteristics of their corresponding transitivity and voice. It is worth mentioning that some verbs such as buy may restrict the scope of their passive construction compared with verbs like give and send. Therefore, the lexical method may successfully integrate vocabulary with the relevant syntactic structures so as to make teaching and learning more concise and efficient. Besides, a circular method in which teaching, testing, and correcting processes are involved will be proposed to improve the language teaching and acquisition.