Case Analysis Of High School English Vocabulary Teaching Based On Lexical Chunk Theory

Lexical chunks are fixed or semi-fixed combinations of many vocabularies,covering collocations,phrases,idioms,etc.Since the 1950s,lexical chunks have attracted the attention of researchers.Michael Lewis believes that lexical chunk can help students avoid negative transfer of their mother tongue and improve the accuracy and flexibility of vocabulary use.There are two research questions in this study.Observing and analyzing how teachers use lexical chunks in high school English vocabulary teaching come first.Then it also observes the influence of the use of lexical chunks in English vocabulary teaching on students’ vocabulary learning.Under the guidance of lexical chunk theory by Michael Lewis and Nattinger j.r&De Carrico j.s.,the thesis firstly reviews the development of chunk theory in domestic and foreign countries,dividing the lexical chunk into fixed chunk(poly-words,collocations)and semi-fixed chunk(phrase constraints,institutionalized expressions).Secondly,based on the lexical chunk theory,this study focuses on the classroom observation and discusses how these two categories of lexical chunks are applied in practical vocabulary teaching.Lastly,it finds the lexical chunks’ positive influence on students’ vocabulary learning with the questionnaire.Using case analysis,it is found that when two teachers teach vocabularies,they both use fixed and semi-fixed lexical chunks,especially poly-words and phrase constraints.Then it followed by collocations and institutionalized expressions.When interpreting the meanings of new vocabularies,teachers often use the synonyms of poly-words and phrase constraints.Collocations are often used in the discrimination of part of speech.And the output of vocabulary is mainly carried out by institutionalized expressions.Therefore the study provides some suggestions and enlightenment on the use of lexical chunks in vocabulary teaching in senior high schools.In the last part of the study,it summarizes the findings of this thesis,the enlightenment and limitations of the use of lexical chunks in vocabulary teaching.