The lexicon (MÚGICA, 2003), in a broad sense, is the starting point for producing and understanding the structures of a language. Therefore, lexical competence represents the knowledge of the structure and functioning of the lexical system, according to which it can be effectively used by speakers to produce and understand texts.
Working with this subsystem of the language in the classroom is essential because of its impact on comprehension and textual production, but also because it is an indispensable cognitive tool in the acquisition of new knowledge (GIAMMATTEO, 2005).
Having deficiencies in this competence would have significant repercussions on the comprehension and production of texts. And if we transfer this problem to the reading of literary texts, in which, as we know, words escape their denotative meaning to find meaning in their proximate context, comprehension would be affected.
Students use language efficiently to communicate in concrete situations. But if we place them in a situation in which they do not frequent, communication is hindered. In secondary education, students find that they do not understand the texts that are proposed to them, specific texts with a vocabulary that is often technical and far from the one they use. One of the barriers that prevents access to comprehension is (GIAMMATTEO, ALBANO AND BASUALDO 2001-2002: 35) the limited vocabulary that today's young people handle.
Knowing the difficulties that students present with respect to the lexicon allows us to design a systematized work with vocabulary so that students can strengthen their reading competence. This is the objective of the project we are carrying out, "The role of lexicon in the comprehension and production of literary texts" (framed in the project "Critical reading as a strategy for the re-signification of literature in the classroom").
In this opportunity we will present, first, a brief synthesis of the theoretical foundations that served as a basis for the design of the classroom proposals. Secondly, we will present the results of the diagnostic stage that allowed us to detect the deficiencies that the 8th and 9th year students of General Basic Education of the Colegio Pía Didoménico, in the city of Catamarca, present in order to make lexical inferences in a text.