Lexical Chunks And Their Implications In Chinese Learners' Second Language Acquisition

It is now generally accepted that learners of English need to have command of a wide range of lexical units, which are for a native speaker processed as prefabricated chunks, fixed, or semi-fixed expressions.In this thesis, we object to finding out that to what degree Chinese learners rely on lexical chunks in the target language production, in addition to which, we would also like to find out the correlation between chunk competence and learners'dependence on chunks during target language production, as well as the correlation between chunk competence and learners'target language proficiency.Brief introductions to the background and the research will be provided at the beginning of this thesis. Then we would review in detail the literatures in this field both at abroad and at home, including the characteristics and definition of lexical chunk, its classifications, the use of chunks in language processing, the functions of chunks and some empirical researches that have been previously done on lexical chunks in second language acquisition.Based on the theories and the objectives we established, we would carry out the research that will cover two groups of subjects, one group are students from non-English major class, studying in Grade two in a university, and the other group are students from English major class, studying in Grade three in the same university. The research also contains a paper which includes two parts: multiple choice and short article composition. The research subjects, data collection instruments, research methods, as well as the data analysis methods would be described in detail.The data presentation and discussions, which comes next is the most important part in this thesis. SPSS11.5, a statistical analysis software, would help us get the...