Analysis On Lexical Chunk In English Listening Of NCEE And Its Application Strategy

It has been more than 30 years since formally brought forward "lexical chunks" by Becker in 1975. Though the commencement of this theory in China started a little late, many achievements in theory and practice have been gained. With the development of psycholinguistics and large-scale corpus linguistics, many researchers found out there are large quantities of fixed or semi-fixed expressions in human language which are characterized both grammatically and lexically. This kind of prefabricated expressions or lexical chunks can be memorized, stored and drawn as a whole in human brain. They can help speakers to promote the speed, accuracy, fluency and idiomaticity of language production. Many researchers are aware of the fact that language generation is not only the combination of words and grammar but also the process of retrieving prefabricated phrases from human memory. Considering the vital role of lexical chunks in language acquisition, more importance should be attached to this theory.As to the application of lexical chunks in daily teaching activities, previous researches mainly focus on composition and spoken language, but only a few on listening comprehension. And these researches mostly demonstrate the relationship between lexical chunks and cultivation of language skills, such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. No rules were summarized in detail so that niche-targeting teaching suggestions can be advanced. The experiment discussed in thesis is composed of two steps mainly. The first step, the author tries to set listening raw materials of recent five years' National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) as the target objects to make the conclusion of the types of high frequency chunks. The author puts forward the hypothesis that students'listening competence will be improved if more attention is paid to these high frequency chunks. The second step, the author sets 107 students from Shandong Zaozhuang Xucheng No.8 Senior High School as the subjects. They were divided into two groups: Class 17 of Grade 3 (Experimental class, 50 students) and Class 18 of Grade 3 (Control class, 57 students). There is no significant difference between these two classes in listening competence before the experiment. The experiment lasted for 16 weeks. The author taught these two classes in same process separately, but only the EC received the instruction of lexical chunks during this period. The experiment data showed that there is a significant improvement in EC after the experiment. Therefore, the hypothesis raised by the author is applicable, and with great significance in listening teaching in senior middle school.The thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one reviews the literature of lexical chunks in recent decades, the relationship between lexical chunks and listening comprehension at home and abroad. Chapter two is the rationale, which includes two parts: part one, the definition, classification and functions of lexical chunks in SLA; part two, psycholinguistics as the basis of close relationship between lexical chunks and listening comprehension. Chapter three introduces the research methodology. Chapter four is about the statistical description and analysis of the results, and some teaching suggestions about listening in senior high school.The last part is the conclusion in which the author summarizes the main findings of this research, lists its important role in theory and practice, points out the limitations and puts forward some suggestions for future research.