An Empirical Study On The Efficiency Of Lexical Chunks In Improving College Students' Communicative Accuracy

Although linguists and applied linguists have done a lot on the research of language accuracy in our country, it is far from enough. This study investigates whether the lexical chunks could help college students to improve their communicative accuracy. Definitions of accuracy vary from one another. However, in this thesis, I will confine my discussion of accuracy to native-like word selection and grammatical correctness. Computer analysis of the English language has revealed a widespread occurrence of lexical chunks in language use. Some researchers call them"lexical phrases"or"lexical items", others prefer the term"multi-word chunks"or just"chunks"of language. Whatever the term, it is an important feature both in language use and language acquisition and offers advantages for language teaching. Generally speaking,"lexical chunks"are wording strings consisting of several words which are stored and retrieved as a whole. They function in lessening the burden of learners in the language processing, therefore allow them to pay more attention to other aspects other than structure or word selection, hence promote the communicative accuracy.Two classes of second-year English majors in Beihua University were involved in the experiment: the experimental class and control class. A teaching treatment on the lexical chunks was addressed to the experimental class. At the end of the experiment, data from the tests of the two classes were collected and analyzed.The experiment demonstrates that the quantity of lexical chunks, to a large degree, determines the improvement of language accuracy. So the study gives rise to the further pedagogical implication. Teaching should be based on the idea that language production is the piecing together of ready-made units appropriate for a particular situation.The present research examines the results of the teaching method which makes use of the lexical chunks in improving the communicative accuracy of college students. It provides suggestions to the reform of college English teaching methods and the study methods of students. The experiment proves that the improving of communicative accuracy closely relates to the awareness of lexical chunks.This research studies the efficiency of Lexical Chunks in improving college students'Communicative Accuracy. The overriding hypothesis is that teaching lexical chunks is an efficient way to improve college students'communicative accuracy. This general claim can be broken down into two more detailed hypotheses:1. Do lexical chunks help students with their word selection?2. Does the acquisition of lexical chunks influence the students'linguistic competence?The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter one is a brief introduction to the study.Chapter two contains a literature review relevant to the present study, which presents a theoretical background for the research involving lexical chunks and language accuracy. Theoretical findings are presented from two aspects: theory of language and theory of learning. Theories of Lewis, Nattinger and DeCarrico are also briefly introduced.In chapter three, tests are designed to examine the level of college students'communicative accuracy and the improvement of it at the end of the experiment. Teaching procedures applying lexical chunks are integrated with three other principles the author considers to be of great importance in English teaching and learning. They are: consciousness-raising, the principle of"big material"from Sun Changshun's 3Bs theory, and theory of teaching in context. Then data is collected from the students'writings and speeches. Finally, through investigation research findings are concluded, which prove that lexical chunks play an important part in improving learners'language accuracy.Chapter four discusses the results of the experiment in detail. The limitations are pointed out, and suggestions for the future study in this area are also provided.Chapter five serves as the conclusion of the whole research. It sums up the findings and provides theoretical and pedagogical implications.