A Survey Of Lexical Use In High School Students' English Writing

This paper is based on the theory of lexical chunks given by Alternberg, and100high-rated compositions are analyzed with the help of Corpus. The characteristics of using lexical chunks in English writing are discussed, including the frequences of chunks and different usages of lexical chunks used by the higher groups. All of these provide some reference to English teaching and learning.As is found out in the research in high-rated compositions, the most frequently used are three-word chunks in number, while six-word chunks the last. Besides, lexical chunks are classified into three broad structural categories:complete clause, clause constituent and incomplete phrase, among which clause constituents are the most frequently used type, showing the significance of this type of chunks in English writing.So lexical chunks should be taken into more account in English teaching and learning, especially in the field of English writing. The paper suggests that the key point of chunks teaching lie in cultivating students’awarenesses of lexical chunks. Meanwhile, teachers should make the most of vocabulary notebooks to develop students’ autonomic learning. Moreover, it is advocated that we use lexical chunks-based approach into teaching according to various topics, functions and text types.