The Effects Of Language Chunks On English Majors' EFL Writing Quality In A Chinese University

For many years, how to help EFL/ESL students improve their writing quality has been a heated topic in classroom teaching. Many researchers devoting themselves to classroom teaching have been working on a better approach to a better quality of EFL/ESL writing. This study provides a continual opportunity to observe the process of the students' English writing based on the early research. With the doubts over what can be the more effective and practical method for improving EFL writing, it sets out to empirically investigate the effectiveness of English chunks on the quality of university students' writing in Guizhou by utilizing both the quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative approach finds its focus upon the relationship between the application of English chunks and the quality of students' writing and upon three major variables: the amount of employed chunks, writing accuracy and writing fluency, while the qualitative approach explores further how the students memorize and employ English chunks in their EFL study.In this study, the participants are two natural classes of sophomore English majors at College of International Studies of Guizhou University. They are experimented and observed in terms of the correlations between the memorization and employment of English chunks and the quality of their written products. The quality, mainly involving writing accuracy and fluency, was measured by error-free T-unit (EFT). In addition, two questionnaires are adopted for the collection of complementary data. Many different definitions and terms have been generated over the phenomenon of "language chunk", which might cause much inconvenience for the EFL/ESL learners. The present study takes Ting and Qi' (2005) as a model, finding its way into the magical relations between English chunks and the quality of students' writing. The major findings are as follows:Firstly, learning and employing English chunks is a significant and effective strategy for the students in improving their EFL writing quality. However, learning and memorizing chunks alone does not resolve the complex problems they encounter in composing their EFL writing. The full development of FL/SL proficiency calls for the employment of various strategies, and memorizing and employing language chunks is only one of them.Secondly, compared with the grammatical knowledge, knowledge of language chunks are embodied with more power for the quality of students' EFL writing. English chunks occupy a primary position in the entire framework of English knowledge, while grammar a secondary position, although the knowledge of language chunks and that of grammar both play important roles in the process of writing.These research findings bear significant pedagogic implications because they may help both the EFL and ESL teachers and learners to know better the structure of English lexis. It is therefore possible for them to try some alternative teaching methodologies and approaches in English teaching and learning accordingly.