Feasibility Of The Lexical Approach To College English Teaching In China

Traditionally, language is considered to be a grammar / vocabulary dichotomy system, and grammar and vocabulary seem to be independent of each other. This deep-rooted notion is particularly prevalent in English teaching and learning in China. Quite recently computer analysis of the English language has revealed a widespread occurrence of lexical patterns in language use, which suggests a new orientation in language teaching. Michael Lewis, the author of The Lexical Approach challenged the standard view of dividing language teaching into grammar and vocabulary by arguing that language consists of lexical items and these lexical items are grammaticalized lexis. He believes that exposing learners to the right amounts of the correct input of lexical items will lead to acquisition, and it is more effective to teach and learn vocabulary in the form of lexical items or chunks than in isolation. He claims that this approach is based on the communicative approach and supplementary to it. Amazed at the challenging breakthrough to the traditional boundary of grammar and vocabulary, the thesis supposes that this approach is presumably a remedy to the low efficiency of English teaching and learning in China. Therefore, an attempt is made in this thesis to testify the theoretical feasibility of this approach to college English teaching in China. Having described the approach in detail and cited a multitude of relevant theories and findings, this thesis resorts to a statistic survey with 200 sophomores in the University of Electronic Science and Technology, in hopes of finding the major problems or weaknesses in the English teaching resulting from grammar and vocabulary perspectives. Based on the results, the paper goes further to expound the advantages of the Lexical Approach that happen to solve the problems effectively in theory and thus proves its theoretical feasibility to the college English teaching and learning in China. While researches concerning vocabulary teaching and learning strategies are in full swing in English teaching in China, few systematic studies on the Lexical Approach in the Chinese context have been developed so far. It is hoped that more related researches can be carried out comprehensively so as to bear abundant fruits in the future and indeed help the English teaching in China out of the difficult situation.