The Effects Of Teaching Lexical Chunks On Improving Students' Listening Competence

In recent years, the lexical chunk has been attracting the attention of many linguists and scholars at home and abroad. They have conducted a large number of researches into the role of lexical chunks in language learning and teaching. However, there have been few researches investigating the effects of the instruction of lexical chunks on listening competence. The present study attempts to examine the relation between lexical chunks and listening competence, and investigate the effects of teaching lexical chunks in the regularly scheduled periods on Chinese college students' English listening competence. A comparative experiment was conducted for 10 weeks. 2 classes of 71 freshmen from Fujian Medical University were selected as the subjects. They were divided into the control class (35 students) and the experimental class (36 students). Only the experimental class received the instruction of lexical chunks in their English class. After the quantitative experiment, the data were collected and analyzed. The research confirmed that college students with better ability of lexical chunks performed better in listening tests, and that the instruction of lexical chunks enhanced both college students' lexical chunk competence and their listening competence. The findings suggest that it is of great significance to introduce the instruction of lexical chunks into College English teaching.