An Applied Study On The Lexical Approach In Oral English Teaching At Junior High Schools

According to English Curriculum Standards for Compulsory Education(2021Edition),English teachers ought to attach great importance to the development of students’ listening,reading,writing,and oral English skills,especially the cultivation of oral English skills.At present,on the whole junior high school students’ oral English levels are relatively low,and a small number of useful oral expressions are stored in their mind.However,the Lexical Approach(LA)stresses the significance of lexical chunks in English teaching and requires teachers to change the old teaching concept from focusing on single words to focusing on lexical chunks(LCs)which are combinations of correct grammar and lexical contents,so as to enrich students’ language expression.Therefore,the effect of LA on junior high school students’ oral fluency and accuracy is the crucial part of this study.Furthermore,numerous studies have shown that females are better at language learning and oral expressions than males,so this thesis Therefore,this paper also studies whether there is a difference in the effect of LA on oral abilities of male and female students.This study focuses on three research questions and the author conducts a 16-week experiment on two classes of grade two at a junior high school of Nanchang.(1)What effect does the Lexical Approach have on the oral fluency of junior high school students?(2)What effect does the Lexical Approach have on oral accuracy of junior high school students?(3)Based on the gender difference,what effect does the Lexical Approach on oral abilities of junior high school students?In order to resolve above three research questions,the author conducted two oral tests in experimental class(EC)and control class(CC)before and after the experiment.The oral tests were made up of the situational dialogue and verbal presentation.Besides,the author employed two questionnaires to conduct two surveys in EC,and also randomly selected 9learners of different oral English levels from EC for interview as a supplement to this study.Through quantitative and qualitative analyses,the author has reached the following conclusions.First and foremost,LA was conducive to improving oral fluency of junior high school students.To be specific,students were able to use LCs in oral communication,and there are fewer unnecessary pauses in their oral English.Also,the flow of speech was more natural and the language was more fluent.Secondly,LA was helpful to improve the accuracy of junior high school students’ oral English.Specifically,students were able to use more complete LCs and correct grammar in oral communication,and the contents they expressed were related to the oral tasks.Thirdly,there was no significant difference in oral English scores between males and females in EC,which proved that there was no difference in the effect of LA on oral abilities of male and female students.Moreover,LA contributed to enhancing students’ chunk awareness and increasing the number of LCs in their minds.In addition,this empirical study provides some implications for English teaching,such as enhancing students’ chunk awareness,setting up proper situations for students to use LCs,providing more idiomatic and authentic oral expressions and thus developing their cultural awareness.