The Application Research Of Lexical Chunks Theory

An ample vocabulary is the basis of smooth language communication in terms of listening, speaking, reading, writing, etc. The author, based on her teaching experience, further proves the relevance between vocabulary learning and language acquisition. Vocabulary learning is a bottleneck for students, and thus it seriously hinders the development of students'English learning. In this thesis, the author explores the features of Lexical Chunks and strategies of integrating Lexical Chunks into English teaching, trying to solve problems in students' vocabulary learning and improve their English language competence.The thesis establishes a framework of Lexical Chunks in English vocabulary teaching in middle school, that is, to strengthen the awareness of Lexical Chunks and to promote the use of Lexical Chunks in explicit teaching. It later has an empirical research on whether or not the strategies can improve the students'vocabulary acquisition and comprehensive ability in English. Students from Shanghai Shang Nan Senior High School are selected as the subjects. It adopts methods of questionnaires, literature research and case studies, and uses SPSS statistical software to analyze the data. The thesis concludes that the application of the Lexical Chunks is effective and useful to facilitate the students'vocabulary acquisition; it also helps them to develop their vocabulary learning and comprehensive ability in English.The thesis consists of five parts. The first part starts with a brief introduction to the background of the research including why to choose the subject, the concept of the lexical chunks and the purpose of the study. The second part is the literature review, which is made up of the concept and categories of lexical chunks, the advantages of lexical chunks in English teaching process, and the review of the previous studies in this regard at home and abroad. The third part is the experiment of applying lexical chunks to teaching. In this part the hypotheses are advanced first, and then followed with some information concerning the subjects, instruments, the procedures of the teaching experiment as well as a practical teaching example. The fourth part includes the data collection and statistical analysis and a conclusion is obtained. The fifth part concerns conclusions as well as the summary of the study and the limitations of the study.