The Application Of Lexical Chunk Approach To Toefl Writing Teaching

Lexical Approach, based on Michael Lewis'theory that"language consists of grammatical lexis--not lexicalized grammar", lay great emphasis on chunks. Lexical chunks are the unity of grammatical rules, semantic meanings and pragmatic contexts.As large linguistic units which appear in real language output at high frequency and are more fixed in structures, lexical chunks play a vital part in everyday communication, contributing to the ease, accuracy and fluency in language output.Based on Lewis'lexical approach, the author tries to teach English writing with the application of lexical chunks. The purpose of doing this is to verify the feasibility of lexical approach in English writing based on the results of the students'questionnaire and the test scores.This paper is mainly composed of the following six parts:The first part is a brief introduction which consists of the origin of the thesis, significance of the study, the mechanism employed in the research and the organization of the thesis. The second part is literature review about Lexical Chunks and Lexical Approach. The third part is a theoretical framework, including the definition and classification of lexical chunks, criteria of identifying lexical chunks as well as its functions; then the relative theories such as the background of Lexical Approach; besides the key principles, definitions and pedagogical implications of Lexical Approach, the place of grammar in the lexical chunks teaching are also included. Based on Lewis's Lexical Approach, in the fourth part the author tries to teach English writing with the application of lexical chunks, some teaching principles and examples are presented in this part. The fifth part is about how the research is designed and carried out in real instruction classroom and the teaching procedures. The last part consists of several major finds as well as the limitations of the research.The following two chapters deal with the experiment, the results and the discussions. In order to prove the feasibility of lexical approach in English writing class, the author conducts an experiment among the students from several TOEFL classes during a time span of one year. Two classes ale randomly selected as the experimental class and the control class. The experimental class receives special instructions on lexical chunks while the control class is taught in the traditional teaching method. The result is that the students in the EC perform actively and the class atmosphere is harmonious, the teaching and learning are consummated with each other. What's more, after a period of a semester's training, the students who receive instructions on lexical chunks make great improvement in English writing: they write more accurate and fluent than those students who have not, which suggests that teachers can use the instructions of lexical chunks to enhance learners'writing competence.The last part is the conclusion of the thesis, including major findings, suggestions on lexical teaching and learning, pedagogical implications, limitations and suggestions for future study.The main contributions of this research to the study of lexical chunks are: 1) it provides a scientific empirical example for the researching and expanding the theory of lexical chunks; 2) the research implies that Lexical Approach can indeed improve English learners'ability to produce their English writing; 3) it not only proves the feasibility and the adaptability of lexical chunks in English teaching, but also settles the foundation of Lexical Approach in foreign language teaching.