Lexercici

Lexercici is a term used in the field of linguistics and language education to describe a deliberate, structured practice of lexical retrieval and lexical selection in language production. The term blends "lex" from lexicon and "exercici" from Latin for exercise, signaling the idea of exercising word knowledge.

Origin and adoption: The term was proposed in the early 2000s by researchers exploring how targeted retrieval work influences vocabulary acquisition. It is not widely standardized; in most sources, it appears as a concept within discussions of the lexical approach and retrieval practice. It has been used in classroom materials and some research articles to label drills and activities.

Practice and pedagogy: Lexercici activities emphasize fast-orienting retrieval of lexemes, collocations, and semantic fields, often employing spaced repetition, semantic mapping, and context-rich prompts. Exercises may involve rapid-fire word-choice tasks, pronunciation drills, and usage in meaningful discourse. The goal is to strengthen automaticity of lexical access and reduce word-finding failures in real-time speech.

Relation to theory: In cognitive linguistics, lexercici is associated with models of lexical access that stress spreading activation and association networks. Critics caution that heavy emphasis on lexical drills should be integrated with grammar, discourse, and communicative meaning.

See also: lexicon, lexical retrieval, retrieval practice, spaced repetition.