| Lexical chunks as a whole are pre-stored in the lexicon of the learner’s brain and play a crucial role in language acquisition and teaching.Listening,as an important means of language input,is the basis on which other language skills such as speaking,reading,and writing can be developed.The importance of vocabulary input in English listening instruction is emphasized in the English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2022 Edition),but the lack of specific and effective teaching methods has led to the limited effectiveness of English listening instruction and the limited development of students’ listening skills.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the teaching methods that effectively facilitate the improvement of English learners’ listening skills from the perspective of vocabulary teaching.The purpose of this study is to verify the effectiveness of conducting lexical chunk instruction to improve middle school students’ listening proficiency and to further investigate its relationship with listening strategy use through a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods.This study utilized three primary research tools: listening tests,questionnaires,and interviews to explore the impact of introducing lexical chunk instruction in middle school English listening teaching on learners’ listening proficiency and strategy use.Specifically,a comparison examination of students’ listening scores and questionnaires before and after the experiment was carried out to identify the changes in students’ listening proficiency and strategy use caused by the 16-week lexical chunk instruction.This study proposed the following research questions based on the concepts related to lexical chunks and lexical approach:1.How does the implementation of lexical chunk instruction affect students’ listening proficiency?2.How does the implementation of lexical chunk instruction affect students’ listening strategy use?3.What is the relationship between students’ listening proficiency and strategy use after implementing lexical chunk instruction?The study’s findings demonstrated that teaching lexical chunks to middle school students improved their ability to process information while listening and had a significant impact on their proficiency.The implementation of lexical chunk instruction increased the frequency with which students used listening strategies,and there were significant differences in the use of cognitive strategies before and after the experiment.In general,lexical chunk instruction improved students’ English listening proficiency to some degree and facilitated their use of listening strategies.Additionally,there was a positive relationship between learners’ listening proficiency and listening strategies,and students with higher listening proficiency employed cognitive strategies related to lexical chunks more frequently.The results of the pre-test and post-test indicated that lexical chunk instruction had positive impacts on the listening proficiency and strategy use of middle school students,which had implications for both listening teaching and lexical chunk instruction. |
