The Function Of Reciting In Middle School English Teaching

As a traditional method of acquiring first or second language literacy, reading a text repeatedly and learning certain language chunks by heart, are still extensively practiced in China. But little research has been conducted on this method except Ding Yanren' dissertation. In English teaching practice, teachers have different requirements on text. Some requires students to recite the whole text, some requires students to recite phrases, and some only requires students to understand and read the text. This research focuses on whether there are different effects on students' achievements if teachers give different requirements.This research was conducted in Meiliang Middle School. It consisted of three studies which investigated whether there were different effects on students' mastering chunks if the teacher gave different requirements, how they used them in writing, and what beliefs they held about this method.It is found that the practice of text memorization facilitates the learning of language chunks, that different requirements on text have different effects on students' chunk learning and that using chunks enables learners to keep pace with idea development during the composing process. It is also found that students hold conscious beliefs of memorizing texts as effective in helping them improve their speech and writing.The results support a view of language as operating both on grammar and on chunks, and this dual-nature view implies that in addition to learning grammar, the practice of memorizing chunks has its place in the second language classroom.