A Study Of The Application Of Lexical Chunks Approach To English Vocabulary Teaching At Senior High School

The traditional concept of foreign language teaching regards language as the twocomponent systems of vocabulary and grammar, vocabulary and grammar are viewed as twomutually independent contents. The dominant Grammar-Translation method for many yearsregards grammar as the centre of language and language teaching. Vocabulary is viewed as acollection of individual words. In fact, combined vocabularies with the rules of grammar arenot effective expressions. In the context of foreign language teaching in terms ofcommunication goal, vocabulary has gradually received more attention. Lexical chunks wereput forward by the linguist Michael Lewis, its appearance solves the existing problems oftraditional language view and teaching method, it blends with vocabulary, grammar, semanticand context, better reflecting the essential characteristics of language, enhancing teachingeffectiveness. Meanwhile, it does not deny the positive role of grammar while emphasizingthe important role of vocabulary and lexical phrase in language learning, this provides a newperspective and method for English teaching.In order to effectively implement English vocabulary teaching, achieving the goal ofimproving students’ ability to apply the vocabulary to practical use. On the question ofwhether it is valid of applying lexical chunks to English vocabulary teaching of senior highschool, the author carried out a vocabulary teaching experiment with lexical chunks. Firstly,according to the current situation and problems with vocabulary teaching, the authorintroduce the concepts and classifications of lexical chunks and its advantages, building theEnglish vocabulary teaching model of senior high school with lexical chunks, highlighting theimplementation and vocabulary teaching experiment of lexical chunks in English teaching ofsenior one. The main purpose of the research is to verify or confirm the validity of lexicalchunks to improve students’ ability of using vocabulary.The author selected two parallel classes of Panshan No.2senior high school as theresearch objects, using two research methods of survey method and experimental method.Survey method consists of questionnaire and personal interview at the beginning and end ofthe experiment, aiming to understand students’ feelings of vocabulary learning, as well as theviews and evaluations of lexical chunks. Experimental method is that doing a comparativeexperiment of teaching in EG and CG is to verity whether lexical chunks can help students’English learning, or stimulate their English learning motivation. The author uses the SPSSpackage of social statistics for the data analysis of the pre-test and the post-test. Through theresults of the statistic and analysis, the author found that both the two classes made scoringgains, but the increasing rate of the experimental was more than that of the control. Thisproves that the application of lexical chunks approach in English teaching of senior one iseffective. The research results give the following implications for the English vocabulary teachingof senior high school: First, teachers should let students realize that the important role oflexical chunks in second language acquisition, changing their traditional views. Second,teachers link lexical chunks into students’ activities of listening, speaking, reading and writing,improving students’ abilities of collocations and recognition of lexical chunks. Third, teacherscannot ignore grammar teaching, keeping vocabulary teaching and grammar teaching balanceand coordination in teaching process. Of course, because of the limitations and inadequacy ofmy theoretical and teaching-level in practice, the research must be more developed andcompleted in future. The author believes that lexical chunks approach have certain influenceand enlightenment on the English teaching of senior high school in the future.