The Effects Of Memorizing Lexical Chunks With And Without Context On English Writing

Though most learners have learned English for years, their writing skill is still low. Monotonous sentence patterns, lack of coherence, Chinglish expressions and the like are common in their compositions. Over the years, a large number of studies have shown that lexical chunks, as multi-word units, which can be stored and retrieved from memory as a whole, are a ubiquitous language phenomenon during the process of English learning. What’s more, abundant knowledge in chunks can help improve English learners’ writing in terms of nativeness, fluency and accuracy of language output. The use of chunks is positively correlated with English writing performance. In the meantime, other studies indicate that learning vocabulary through context can facilitate its learning and use. Though many such studies have been conducted, few studies, if any, have integrated the acquisition of chunks and context with writing.Therefore, drawing on some theories about input theory, chunks and context, the present study attempts to examine the effects of memorizing chunks with and without context on English writing so as to find an effective way to improve the English writing of university students.Based on Nattinger & DeCarrico’s (2000) categorization of lexical chunks, the present research selected a variety of chunks, a total of 200, from New College English Books 1,2,3 and 4 (second edition), which were used in two ways:one was a list of individual chunks with Chinese definitions, namely, chunks without context; the other was a list of chunks, each of which was provided with examples, that is, chunks with context for students’memorization. The subjects of this study were 141 non English major students of Grade 2013 from Beijing Forestry University who were divided into a control group (n=41), an experimental group memorizing chunks without context (referred to as non-context group, n=50) and an experimental group memorizing chunks with context (referred to as context group, n=50). Both pretest and posttest were conducted for the 4-month experiment and the data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance and paired-samplers t-test.The one-way ANOVA showed that there was a significant difference between the writing scores of the experimental groups and the scores of the control group, but there was no statistical difference in the writing scores between the non-context and the context group. The paired-samples t-test showed that there was a significant difference between the pretest and the posttest for the two experimental groups, respectively. The questionnaire explained, to some extent, the causes of the experimental results in detail.It can therefore be concluded that though there is non-significant difference in the effects of memorizing chunks with and without context on writing, memorizing chunks itself is an effective way to improve English learners’ writing in terms of nativeness, fluency and accuracy of language output, which deserves attention from both teachers and students.