An Application Of Lexical Chunks Approach To English Vocabulary Teaching In Colleges

Vocabulary teaching is a necessary and vital part in English teaching at college. The result of vocabulary teaching has direct influence on students ability of identifying and understanding listening and reading materials, and their oral and writing expression. Vocabulary can be seen as the basis of students' English ability. Therefore, experts have been trying to find a better way of teaching vocabulary. In recent years, Michael Lewis' lexical approach has gradually gained wide recognition and plays an important role in the field of English teaching. According to Lewis, lexical chunk is the fixed or semi-fixed structure which is abundant in a language and incorporates both lexical and syntactic features. Studies have been made to find that most native speakers store their language in the form of separate words as well as lexical chunks. Based on Lewis' theory, this thesis aims at exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of the application of lexical chunk approach to college English vocabulary teaching through an experiment.To achieve the above goals, the author chose two non English-major classes with very similar English scores and vocabulary ability as the experimental class and the control class. Before the experiment, a pre-questionnaire was given to the experimental class to check the students'vocabulary ability and attitude towards vocabulary learning. Then, a pre-test was given to both classes to ensure they have nearly the same vocabulary level. Next, the teaching experiment began. The author applied lexical chunk approach in the experimental class, while the original vocabulary teaching approach was still used in the control class. After almost one year's experiment, a post-test was given to both classes. After comparing the post-test results of the two classes through SPSS, the author found that the English vocabulary level of the experimental class was obviously higher than that of the control class. Having known that the two classes were nearly equal to each other in vocabulary level before the experiment, the author concluded that with all the other conditions remaining the same, the lexical chunk approach can effectively improve the quality of college English vocabulary teaching. To further ensure the credibility of the conclusion, the author gave a post-questionnaire which was the same as the pre-questionnaire to the experimental class. After comparing with the results of the pre-questionnaire,the author found that the vocabulary proficiency and confidence of the students were apparently improved, which confirmed the previous conclusion.