Lexical approach with young learners

3. Translate chunks from the target language to English (and vice versa).

To make the phrases come alive for your class, try to give students a sense of what their equivalent expressions are in English (or whatever language you’re teaching in). This would open their eyes to the many instances a particular lexical chunk is appropriate.
For example, the Spanish idiom “Entre la espada y la pared” which literally means “between the sword and the wall” is the equivalent of the English expression “between a rock and a hard place.” Highlight this in your discussions.

Of course, the conversion is never perfect, and there isn’t always a proper translation, but when the translation does exist, use it. These translations can be excellent jumping-off points for your discussions, so tell your class about English equivalents to the lexical chunks you talk about.

Idioms are excellent resources for these lexical chunks. Try to get a hold of an idiom dictionary for the language you’re teaching, like “The Big Red Book of Spanish Idioms,” “2001 French and English Idioms” or “German: Fast Track Learning from English Idioms.”

4. Incorporate earlier chunks in later lessons.

You’re probably already familiar with “bridging” as a teaching technique: It’s simply reviewing old material you’ve taught before by incorporating it into the new lessons.
Let’s say the class learned prepositional phrases like “at the corner,” “in front of” and “go beyond” just a few days ago. When you’re up for a story or playing a fun language game, include these phrases in the activities so they’ll remain fresh in your students’ minds.
In a story, for example, you can say: “The princess was tempted to go beyond the gates. Remember this phrase, class? ‘Go beyond.’ Say it with me… Again! Okay, now back to our story.”
Your lessons should be a mix of old phrases that you review and new ones that you introduce. The reviews of past lessons will give students a whiff of the familiar and give them confidence, while the new ones will make things interesting and keep the learning process moving forward.