An Empirical Study On The Effect Of Lexical Chunk Teaching On Senior High School Students’ English Writing Ability

English writing ability refers to the ability to use English to construct discourse to express and communicate in a specific context.It is mainly reflected in the four aspects of accuracy,richness,coherence and appropriateness of writing,which can reflect students’ ability to apply language more objectively.General Senior High School English Curriculum Standards(2017 edition,revised in 2020)(hereinafter referred to as the Curriculum Standards)has set higher requirements for senior high school students’ writing ability.A survey on the current situation of senior high school students’ English writing ability shows that senior high school students generally have many problems in writing,such as improper use of vocabulary,many grammatical errors,single syntax type,and lack of coherence and logic in writing structure.Many scholars and front-line teachers have conducted a lot of research and studies on this issue,but with little success,and students’ writing ability has not reached the expected goal.It has been found that mastering lexical chunks can help improve the accuracy and authenticity of language expressions,and enhance the fluency of language expressions and the organization of discourse,but these studies are mostly theoretical,with relatively little empirical research.In recent years,although there has been an increasing amount of research on the application of lexical chunks,they mainly focus on vocabulary and reading teaching.Based on chunking theory,formulaic speech,and data-driven learning theory,this study started from observing,hypothesizing,and verifying lexical chunks to improve students’ writing ability by helping them analyze,understand,and apply lexical chunks as an effective teaching approach,and then elucidated the positive effects of lexical chunk-based teaching on senior high school students’ English writing.This study aimed to address the following questions: 1)What are the effects of lexical chunk teaching on students’ writing ability? What,if any,are the specific aspects of writing ability? 2)How did students’ attitudes toward English writing change after the experiment?This study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods(mainly including the experimental method,questionnaire and interview method),and two parallel classes of a senior high school in Sichuan Province,were selected as the subjects of the study.Before the experiment,the author conducted an independent samples t-test on the writing scores of the two classes using SPSS 26.0,and the results showed that there was no significant difference in the writing scores of the two classes,and thus the experiment could be conducted.Before and after the experiment,students in both classes took a writing test,and immediately after the test,the author collected students’ compositions,scored them uniformly using a PTA-based writing scale,and saved the data.During the experiment,both classes were taught by the author,with the Experimental Class(EC)using a lexical chunk-based teaching,and the Control Class(CC)using a traditional teaching method.To assist in testing the validity and reliability of the research data and results as well as students’ attitudes toward the English writing,the author conducted interview with the students in the experimental class after the experiment.After the experiment,the following results were obtained: 1)After the analysis of the writing tests before and after the experiment by SPSS 26.0 and the statistical data on the number of lexical chunks and the number of correct sentences in the students’ six compositions across the experiment by using Excel and a calculator showed that students’ average writing score increased by 5.83,and the number of lexical chunk in writing increased by an average of about four compared with before the experiment.2)According to the analysis of the questionnaire,students took less time in writing,made significant improvements in grammatical errors and improper word collocations,and were able to write more correct sentences.3)According to the results of the interview analysis,most of the students hold a positive attitude toward English writing,and believed that lexical chunk teaching was very helpful in improving their writing ability,and it also increased their attention and interest in lexical chunks and English writing.Therefore,this study can provide the following implications for English writing teaching: 1)Teachers should pay attention to the cultivation of students’ awareness of lexical chunk in writing teaching.Lexical chunks are the basic units of language and their number is infinite,so it is more effective and feasible to develop chunk awareness than to memorize them.2)Teachers should strengthen the development strategies to memorize lexical chunks.The lexical chunks are longer and more complex than the individual words,so the development of chunk memorization strategies will help students accumulate more chunks effectively.3)Teachers should strengthen the development of chunk application strategies.The ultimate purpose of memorizing lexical chunks is to apply them,so teachers can appropriately provide students with contexts for using lexical chunks in class and infiltrate strategies for applying them.