An Experimental Study On The Teaching Of Lexical Chunks To EFL Senior High-School Learners

It is well known that vocabulary takes a dominant position in language and plays a critical role in language learning and teaching. Without vocabulary, none of the four skills of a language (listening, speaking, reading and writing)can be made possible. Lexical errors seem to be the most serious obstacles to the communication between second or foreign language learners and native speakers.Quite recently, computer analysis of the English language has revealed a widespread occurrence of lexical chunks in language use. Lexical chunks are frequently-occurred, fixed or semi-fixed multi-words or sentences which are beyond users'current linguistic ability and are acquired as wholes in the process of language acquisition. Moreover, they can be recalled and used automatically as wholes rather than generated from grammatical rules. Just as Michael Lewis once said, "Language consists of grammarticalised lexis, not lexicalised grammar" (Michael Lewis,1993:89).The traditional language teaching seems to go to two extremes: Structuralism focuses on language analysis but neglects language use; Communicative approach takes language use as the center but neglects language analysis. This thesis is based on Michael Lewis'new theory---Lexical Approach, which lays emphasis on the appropriate language use but doesn't neglect the analysis of regular rules of syntax. This approach, from a new perspective, leads learners to use lexical chunks in order to learn how to produce, comprehend and analyze the new language. This thesis is aimed at attesting the feasibility of lexical chunks in middle-school English teaching.The experiment is carried out in the author's two English classes. It lasts for about four months, from March 2007 to June 2007. Before the experiment, the students in two classes were asked to complete the pre-test paper respectively. The result of it shows that these two groups are almost at the same level, so one of the classes is appointed as the experimental group, and the other as the control group. The experimental group has got 28 boys and 29 girls, and the control group includes 27 boys and 28 girls. The two groups both have 5 classes each week. The textbook, Senior English for China (Book I),is used for both groups. The difference is that only the experimental group is given the instruction on lexical chunks in class. During the experiment, two exams were carried out, one was the mid-term exam in May, and the other was the final exam in June. From the results of the exams, we can find a big difference between these two groups. The report of the experimental group is much better than that of the control group. Besides, the students in the experimental group have greatly improved the accuracy of doing cloze-test, and composition. This proves that lexical chunks can effectively help students improve their abilities of collocating words, comprehending articles, and writing compositions. The experiment verifies the feasibility of lexical chunks in middle-school English teaching. It can help the students to improve their language fluency and accuracy as well as their comprehensive ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Although some limitations still exist in this study, such as the short period and only a small number of participants, it has yielded some useful findings which are believed to have great implications for later foreign language learning and teaching.This thesis consists of six parts: Introduction, A critical review of EFL vocabulary teaching, Theoretical Basis of the Study, Application of Lexical Chunks to English Teaching, Methodology and Conclusion. Introduction mainly tells us the background of this study, main ideas of lexical chunks and the structure of this thesis. Chapter Two makes a critical review of EFL vocabulary teaching at home and abroad. Chapter three presents the definitions, features, classifications and functions of the lexical chunks. Chapter four deals with the applications of lexical chunks to English teaching, including the principles and activities using this approach. Chapter five shows us the methodology of this study, which includes subjects, procedure, results and discussion. In Conclusion, the advantages of lexical chunks are listed, limitations and implications of this study are commented, and some suggestions are also given for future research.