An Exploration Of ESP Vocabulary Acquisition Based On Lexical Chunks

With China’s continuous rising of international status in recent years, the requirements of our English learners’ professional standards have become much harsher than before. As a professional subject, ESP is getting more and more attention. However, we are still falling behind the other countries on the study of ESP learning strategies. ESP teaching has appeared to be much more difficult due to the special stylistic and the opaque grammar. Although since the1990s, we have made enormous progress in the research of ESP teaching. We still couldn’t find a proper way for ESP learners to have a thorough grasp of the lexical meaning because of the particular style and intricate grammar of ESP.The investigation points out that those native speakers have difficulties in ESP lexical learning because they couldn’t find a proper way to resolve the problem of incomplete reading caused by lacking word-base, especially in the difficult vocabulary of English for Science and Technology (EST) discourse reading. Yet the application of lexical chunks theory and the collocation approach in SLA are really helpful for the vocabulary acquisition of ESP. The acquisition of lexical chunks could combine the language rules and practical application organically and avoid the overemphasis of them in ESP learning process.This paper makes use of interviews to collect data, so as to sum up the current ESP learners’ understanding of ESP vocabulary features. And from this aspect, the methods for acquiring ESP vocabulary are discussed. Firstly according to the results of interviews, the author summarizes the problems that the ESP learners have encountered. Then through the contrast experiments, the applicability of lexical chunk in ESP vocabulary acquisition is verified. Finally the author designs and testifies the strategies of lexical chunk acquisition. This study has found that lexical chunks have strong impetus for ESP vocabulary acquisition. Memorizing lexical chunks can effectively promote vocabulary acquisition and improve ESP learners to express accurately and fluently. As for vocabulary acquisition strategies, the author has verified that methods, such as analyzing the grammar within complex lexical chunks, enhancing the productive practice, encouraging repetitive exercises and interactive benefits, and establishing consciousness to lexical chunks are feasible.