An Empirical Study On Lexical Chunk Competence And Learning Strategies Of Non-English Major College Students

With the rapid development of corpus linguistics, lexical chunks are attracting more and more attention of researchers and teachers for their importance in language acquisition and teaching. Though there is no fixed definition of LC, most researchers agree that lexical chunks are prefabricated, fixed or semi-fixed multi-word units, which can be memorized and retrieved as a whole by learners without generation or analysis by grammatical rules. Being ready-made, LCs can help speakers reduce processing effort and speak fluently and accurately. LCs are pervasive in both spoken and written language of English. The main difference between native speakers and non-native speakers is that the former can recognize and produce a much larger number of ready-made chunks, which enable them to process and produce language at a much faster rate. In this sense, LC competence is an important indicator of language proficiency, just as proposed by such researchers as Pu Jianzhong and Diao Linlin.Research on LCs in China started roughly from 1997. In comparison with a host of theoretical studies in this field, empirical studies are relatively few. Presently, most empirical studies on LC do not involve LC learning strategies used by Chinese learners of English, which is predicted by Duan Shiping to be focus of attention and a new trend in the research field of second language acquisition in the 21st century. One aim of our study is to explore the status quo of LC competence of first-year non-English major college students and its relationship with language proficiency. In addition, we also intend to investigate strategies employed by them in learning LCs and the relationship between LC competence and LC learning strategies. Based on the results, the author attempts to put forward theoretical implications and pedagogical suggestions on English language teaching.130 first-year non-English major students from Shandong University at Weihai participated in the study. The data of the study were obtained from one LC competence test and one LC learning strategies questionnaire and one interview with six students. The participants were asked to complete the test within 50 minutes and the questionnaire within 15 minutes. And the interview was carried out immediately afterwards. The participants'performance in the test and questionnaire is analyzed by SPSS software. The results of the interview provide qualitative analysis of the study.Results of the study reveal that first-year college students of non-English major are generally at a low level of LC competence. LC competence and English proficiency are significantly and positively correlated. In terms of LC learning strategies, students usually adopt GU (guessing strategy), DT (dictionary strategy), and NT (note-taking strategy). In terms of SA (selective attention), SI (self-initiation), GU, DT and NT, there is a remarkable difference between high-competence group and low-competence group. Four learning strategies significantly correlate to LC competence:SI, GU, DT, and NT. When all the ten strategies are considered simultaneously, they could account for 14.6% of LC total score.The results imply that we should reconsider the nature of language and strike a balance between lexis and grammar. The results suggest that we should focus more on LCs and raise students' awareness of LCs in language teaching. In addition, we should also recommend proper learning materials for students and train LC learning strategies among them.