An Empirical Study Of Implementing TheLexical-Chunk Approach To Improve EFL Learners’ Writing Performance In Senior High Schools

According to New English Curriculum Standard, English writing is one of the communicative skills, which focuses on improving the students’ability to think and express their ideas in English and laying a good foundation for their further development. Up to now, there have been many English teachers and researchers applying various approaches to improving students’writing level. However, the situation of writing is far from satisfaction. When writing, quite a few students have a blank mind, or they translate the sentences word by word, which appears chaos phenomenon with words, sentences and grammar mixed. As for the reasons, the stereotyped teaching methods may be the key problem. Moreover, writing teaching is not placed on a vital position. Faced with this situation, the author attempts to use the Lexical-Chunk Approach in the senior high school, hoping to help the students.The Lexical-Chunk Approach, based on Michael Lewis’theory which stated that "language consists of grammatical lexis not lexicalized grammar", is a new emerging teaching theory. Chunks can be stored and retrieved as a whole from memory when needed, which is regarded as an ideal unit for writing teaching.In order to verify the positive effects of chunks on English writing, the author carried out an experiment in two classes in Tianjin Qingguang Middle School, to answer the two following questions:1).Whether or not "the Lexical-Chunk Approach" can enhance senior high school students’interest, and change their attitudes to writing?2). Whether or not the students who have a better command of lexical chunks tend to show a higher proficiency level in writing than those who have a poor command? It lasted for about a year. Before the experiment, the author named the two classes experimental class and control class. In the experiment, chunks were introduced in the experimental class, during which the author arranged a variety of activities, aiming to help the students apply the chunks accurately. At the same time, the control class was generally taught in the regular method. In order to ensure the reliability and validity of the experiment, the author designed two questionnaires as well as two tests before and after the experiment. For the whole process the author divided it into three stages:the first stage is "Pre-writing (Inputting Chunks Through Reading)", mainly for chunks accumulation and memory; the second is "Writing (Outputting Chunks By Writing)", in which the author instructs the students how to apply the chunks to writing; the third is "Post-Writing (Expanding Chunks)". The author asks the students to review and expand the chunks by the way of reciting possible versions and beautiful sentences.The thesis falls into five chapters. Chapter One serves as an introduction to the study, which describes the backgroud, purpose, and significance of the study. Chapter Two is the summary of references and the classification of lexical chunks given by different linguisticians. It also introduces the advantages of application the lexicial chunks in writing from several aspects that are important to the study. What’s more, it introduces some linguistic theories related to this study. Chapter Three conducts experiment design, including research goals and hypotheses, subjects, instruments and procedures of the experiment, especially, the experimental procedures of application of lexcial chunks in writing. The author takes New Standard English Book3Module4Reading Sandstorms in Asia for example to expound the process of the experiment. Chapter Four focuses on data analysis and experiment results which indicate the applicable feasibility and operability of the lexical chunks in teaching writing. Chapter Five is a conclusion which tests the hypotheses and put forward some implications. It is shown from the study that the Lexical-Chunk Approach can enhance senior high school students’interest, and change their attitudes to writing and the students who have a better command of lexical chunks tend to show a higher proficiency level in writing than those have a poor command. Due to the limitations of the study, there still exist many practical problems, which deserve teachers’and researchers’ attention and endeavor for further research so that more effective methods will be brought in for teaching of English writing in the future.