Ricerc@Sapienza

The authors's hypothesis in this article is that successful vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language can only take place if teachers and learners are aware of the complex inner meaning structure of lexemes. For this purpose , in the first part of the article the primary role of lexical elements in linguistic interaction will be demonstrated and the relevance and complexity of lexical language acquisition in a foreign language is discussed. The following part is devoted on an introduction of the "educational linguistics/ linguistica educativa" according to De Mauro / Ferreri (2005). Finally, using the example of high-frequency words and phraseological units (4), the conceptual nature of the lexemes is presented and the importance of a metalinguistic approach to lexical acquisition in a foreign or second language is argued.