An Empirical Study On The Effect Of Chunk-based Dictation On Grade Eight Students’ Sentence Completion Ability

The test of sentence completion requires students to fill in the blanks of English sentences according to Chinese which have been given. It tests students’ ability of using language in specific contexts and displays the importance of translation in current English learning. Although most Grade Eight students grasp the knowledge of vocabulary and grammar, it is difficult for them to make sentences which are in line with Chinese and conform to English idiomatic expressions at the same time. The key points in sentence completion are some important sentence patterns, collocations, usage of words, idiomatic expressions and so on. These units are lexical chunks which combine the advantages of vocabulary and grammar. The more lexical chunks one grasps, the more authentic sentences he makes. Moreover, dictation is regarded as an effective form to practice lexical chunks in class. So the writer tries to combine the lexical chunks with dictation practice and expects to improve Grade Eight students’ ability of completing sentences. This research explores the effect of chunk-based dictation on Grade Eight students’ sentence completion ability on the basis of previous references about lexical chunks. The research has two research questions:(1) Is the awareness of lexical chunk increased in Grade Eight students? (2) Does chunk-based dictation have a positive effect on improving Grade Eight students’ sentence completion ability?In order to answer the two research questions, Class 4, Grade 8 of Bin He Middle School is the experimental group and Class 8 is the control group. During the four months’ research, the experimental group uses chunk-based dictation while the control group uses traditional words dictation. Scores of sentence completion of the two groups before and after the research are collected, so are the scores of chunk-based dictation in the experimental group. According to the analysis of scores of the two groups before this research by using the independent t-test, it is clear that there is no statistical difference on students’ ability of completing sentences between the experimental group and the control group. After this research, scores of the two groups are analyzed by using the independent sample t-test. Also scores of the experimental group’s pre-test and post-test and the control group’s pre-test and post-test are analyzed by using the paired sample t-test respectively. It is seen that there is statistical difference in the two groups after the research. Compared with the control group, students’ ability of completing sentences in the experimental group improves. According to the analysis of fifteen times’ scores of chunk-based dictation in the experimental group, it is shown that scores of chunk-based dictation increase gradually on the whole.The results of the empirical research show that the students’ awareness of lexical chunks in the experimental group increases after the research. Because of the chunk-based dictation in class, students will notice and remember lexical chunks. With the increase of the awareness of lexical chunks, the mean value of scores of chunk-based dictation will increase. Compared with the traditional words dictation, chunk-based dictation has a positive effect on improving Grade Eight students’ sentence completion ability. In further English teaching, the teacher should introduce the knowledge of lexical chunks to the students and use chunk-based dictation in class. In a word, chunk-based dictation in English class is feasible and effective in improving Grade Eight students’ ability of completing sentences.