Application Of Lexical Phrases In EFL Reading

Lexical phrase is described as 'chunks' of language of varying length, it offers a promising new direction for language teaching. The approach draws linguistic theory for grammars of what to teach in their language classes and the theories of language competence about how best to present language in a classroom, it as social interactions, necessary topics, and discourse devices seems to us the most effective distinction for pedagogical purpose. Lots of linguists have done much research on it. It is very useful for English learners and EFL teaching.This study seeks to investigate the effect of lexical phrases on EFL reading. Three intact classes of non-English major freshmen were assigned to experimental and control conditions. The experimental classes receive guidelines of lexical phrases approach, while the control class follows the traditional way of teaching. The hypothesis is to teach and train freshmen of non-English major with the lexical phrases approach will be helpful for them in English reading, and the students with the knowledge of lexical phrases can lead to dramatic improvement in English reading. Tests and questionnaire survey were conducted among the students in the EC and in the CC. Then the data was collected and analyzed. The analysis reveals that the reading achievement of the students in the EC is better than that of the students in the CC. The reading speed is faster, too.From the findings we know the students with the knowledge of lexical phrases can get better performance in English reading and improve their reading speed as well. The lexical phrases approach will be helpful for them. Finally, some problems and limitations involved in the experiment are analyzed and some proposal for further research is put forward.