An Empirical Study On The Application Of The Lexical Chunk Approach To Senior High Oral English Teaching From The Perspective Of The Schema Theory

The ultimate goal of learning English is to communicate with others effectively and oral English plays a vital role in communication.Therefore,great importance should be attached to oral English teaching and learning in senior high schools.Scholars,researchers and the teachers at home and abroad have found that increasing the input of lexical chunks in English teaching can improve English learners' language competence.According to the relevant researches in lexical chunk approach,lexical chunks are characterized by ‘fixed forms',‘easy to extract' and ‘no need for grammatical analysis in a short time'.They are widely used to improve English learners' listening,speaking,reading and writing competence.Schema theory has the characteristics of being ‘easy to activate target learners',‘easy to comprehend' and ‘providing some support for memory'.It has been applied to improving English learners' reading,writing,listening and speaking.There are both differences and connections between the lexical chunk approach and the schema theory.However,the study of combining the schema theory with the lexical chunk approach and applying it to senior high school English teaching,especially oral English teaching,is very limited.Based on the current situation,the author conducts an empirical study,applying the lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory to senior high school oral English teaching in order to examine the following three questions:(1)Can the application of the lexical chunk approach to senior high oral English teaching from the perspective of the schema theory improve senior high students' oral English ability?(2)In what ways does the lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory improve students' oral competency?(3)Does the lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory enhance students' understanding of lexical chunks and improve senior high school students' attitude towards,motivation and efforts in learning English?In this study,two parallel classes in senior grade two of Chengdu Aerospace High School are taken as participants,and a three-month teaching experiment is conducted.Before and after the experiment,the author carries out the pre-test and post-test for the experimental class and the control class respectively,in addition,the pre-test and post-test of the questionnaire are employed in this experiment.Through the analysis of the data obtained from the experiment,the author draws the following conclusions:(1)The lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory can improve senior high school students' oral English ability.Students in EG have better oral performance than those in CG.(2)The lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory can help senior high school students to use accurate words,expressions and grammatical items in oral English.Students' sensitivity of dealing with different discourses,daily situations and familiar topics is improved.What's more,the lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory helps to deepen the interaction between students.(3)The lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory enhances students' understanding of lexical chunks.Though,this new approach can't change students' motivation in learning English,the lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory can help to improve senior high school students' attitudes towards and efforts in learning EnglishTo sum up,this study verifies the effectiveness of the lexical chunk approach from the perspective of the schema theory in improving senior high students' oral English ability,and it also provides some new teaching ideas for senior high school oral English teaching.