An Investigation And Analysis Of Chunk Theory In Elementary And Foreign Language Teaching

The "chunk theory"(formulaic language) has drawn more and more attention ever since it has been explored, and the area where it could be applied reaches from cognitive psychology computer language to second language acquisition and teaching. Many valuable achievements have been obtained in the area of English teaching. Recently more research into the application of the chunk theory in CFL area has improved its importance and maneuverability. But this theory has been mostly applied in mediate and advanced learning level, fewer for the elementary level. This essay, based on current findings of chunk studies, taking 《New Practical Chinese》book Ⅰ Ⅱ as start point, course offering in Confucius Institute in PUCP as example, by selecting and analyzing the chunks in two books, doing questionnaires, seeks to achieve a construction of chunk list for elementary level and make some suggestions for using chunk theory in the elementary level of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. It is consisted of4chapters.The first chapter includes introducing the origin and aims of the study and its limitation.The second chapter summarizes the development and major achievements of the chunk theory with a detailed description of the lexical chunk definition, function and its division of standards, and a theoretical foundation from a psychological point of view.The third chapter first goes through the existing works and discussion of the clarification of lexical chunks, starts from the practical teaching circumstance, with practical criteria of clarifying the chunks and forms the categories. The lexical chunks from the text book 《New Practical Chinese》 Ⅰ, Ⅱ have been selected and some more have been added based on the vocabulary in them. It then analyzes the frequency of each group of chunks for each level (from initial to basic5) and compares it with" the list of chunk items for elementary Chinese teaching". Similarities and differences have been carefully compared and analyzed, while the necessity of "refining" the chunks and a transition from "under chunk" to a "generic/upper chunk" have been pointed out and discussed.In the fourth chapter two questionnaires are delivered to students from level Basic4,5and Intermediate1,2,3in Confucius Institute of PUCP. Based on the analysis of the result some suggestions for teaching Chinese in elementary level are made correspondently. The fifth part is the conclusion.