A Study Of Language Chunks In Chinese Second-year English Majors' Writing

As a multi-lexical meaning unit, language chunk combines the features of both lexicon and grammar and is regarded as the basic units in English use as well as ideal units in teaching and learning. In view of its vital role in language development and teaching, it is of value to carry out studies on language learners'use of chunks.In order to investigate the features of language chunks used in second-year English majors'writing, whether there are any differences in language chunks'use across high and low writing achievers and whether there is any correlation existing between the use of language chunks and writing achievement, descriptive statistics, independent samples t-test and multiple linear regression analysis were performed to analyze the use of language chunks in English compositions written by 100 second-year English majors randomly sampled from learner corpus—WECCL.Conclusion was drawn as following:first, among the language chunks applied in the compositions, polywords, phrasal constraints and sentence builders were used more frequently; second, significant differences could be found between high-grade group and low-grade group in the frequency, types and variety of language chunks as well as the use of three types of language chunks (polywords, phrasal constraints and sentence builders); third, three types of language chunks (polywords, phrasal constraints and sentence builders) had positive correlation with the writing quality, while the use of institutionalized expressions had negative correlation with the writing quality. Polywords and sentence builders contributed most to the writing achievement.It is hoped that this study of general features of language chunks used in second-year English majors'writing can raise languageteachers'awareness of the importance of languagechunk in improving writing proficiency to help students be conscious of this kind of fixed or semi-fixed language unit, so that to stimulate the combination between the language knowledge and communicative ability and cultivate language learners'integrated English proficiency.