A Study Of Chunks In Elementary Level CFL Teaching

Ever since being proposed, the language chunk theory has displayed great valueand potential for the field of language research and language pedagogy; it thus attractsa growing attention. This work, based on current findings from chunk studies, takingchunks identification in elementary level Chinese textbook as a starting point,investigates constructing chunks for elementary level CFL teaching. It seeks tocontribute to the construction of chunk explorations in the field of teaching Chinese asa foreign language. It is constituted of7chapters:The first chapter, upon introducing the origin and significance of this study,sketches out research questions and main points of the following chapters.The second chapter summarizes the development and major achievements of thetheory of language chunks. Although the formation of chunk theory takes a long time,it exhibits huge theoretical dynamics and application values upon appearance. Manyinformative explorations and researches of chunks have been conducted in the field oflinguistics and applied linguistics so far. However, there are still several issues thathaven’t drawn convergent opinions or been effectively solved, which, in turn indicatesa need for further investigations, especially in the field of teaching Chinese as aforeign language, within which chunk studies are still at the beginning stage.Therefore, the present study will be beneficial not only for getting a betterunderstanding of chunk theory in general, but also for Chinese teaching.The third chapter examines the definition, identification and classification ofchunks in Chinese and Chinese teaching, which help build a solid theoreticalfoundation for selecting and constructing chunks in the following chapters. Based onprevious studies, the current work defines chunk in a more detailed and organized way.Through an analysis of interrelationships between language units, and betweenlanguage units and chunks, while taking into consideration the circumstances oflanguage teaching, the meaning and scope of chunks are outlined and defined. Withthe guidance of definition, based on in-depth analysis of existing works anddiscussions of applicability, a set of11chunk identification criteria, including features of form, internal structure, condition of occurrence, intuition, is formed. These criteriaare eventually used for establishing a chunk classification framework within whichnew categories are formed.The fourth chapter presents the necessity and feasibility of including chunks in theelementary level Chinese teaching. Regarding the necessity, this chapter first analyzescharacteristics and difficulties of teaching Chinese in the elementary level, then, withtheoretical and empirical evidence, it proves how chunks could be used for enhancingefficiency as well as improving current situations of teaching. Regarding feasibility, itidentifies three favorable factors, i.e. learners’ attitude, teaching practices, andresources of Chinese language chunks. This chapter builds a solid foundation forconducting chunk-based studies in the field of Chinese teaching.The fifth chapter concentrates on selecting chunks for elementary level Chineseteaching. The selection is based on a corpus formed by8sets of representativeelementary Chinese textbooks. Under the guidance of criteria and principles formed inthe third chapter, while referring to several authoritative dictionaries, a preliminarylist which includes all the potential chunks is firstly formulated, then meticulouslyscreened, narrowed, classified, and eventually, settled. This list, a preliminaryselection of chunk items from elementary Chinese textbooks, including242items,constitutes the major part of the final list in the sixth chapter.The sixth chapter, building on all theoretical and practical works that have beendone in the previous chapters, displays the major findings of this study. Firstly, thepreliminary list formed in the fifth chapter is expanded:79chunk items selected fromseveral (national lexical and grammatical) syllabuses (i.e. Hanyu Guoji Jiaoyu YongYinjie Hanzi Cihui Dengji Huafen, Hanyu Shuiping Cihui and Hanzi Dengji Dagang,Hanyu Shuiping Dengji Biaozhun and Yufa Dengji Dagang), together with39otherchunk items are added. Then questionnaires based on the expanded list are sent to10professionals in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language for furtherjudgments. Finally, the list of chunk items for elementary Chinese teaching, including313items that are subcategorized as nuclear/core chunk items and extended chunkitems, is formed.The seventh chapter concludes this study by summarizing major achievementsand innovative aspects, as well as pointing out the limitations and issues that need tobe investigated in the future.To sum up, this study, building on theories and existing findings of language chunks, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives, investigates the constructionof language chunks in elementary level Chinese teaching. It will be helpful andinformative for future studies that focus on chunk theory and its teaching application.Hopefully, it will also be beneficial for deepening the researches on Chinese languagechunks as well as promoting the combination of chunk theory and Chinese languageteaching.