A Corpus-based Study On The Use Of Prefabricated Chunks In The Writing For CET-4and CET-6

The traditional approach to teaching and learning English puts emphasis on the study of grammar and vocabulary, but somewhat neglects the importance of prefabricated chunk, which refers to special multi-word items, traditionally between grammar and vocabulary, and is usually fixed or semi-fixed. Without the accumulation of a certain amount of prefabricated chunks, students often find it difficult to express fluently, accurately and appropriately, especially in the writing for CET-4and CET-6, which is required to accomplish within limited time. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct a research on the relationship between the application of prefabricated chunks and the writing achievement in College English Test.In the present research, a corpus-based approach is adopted, and the written materials are randomly chosen from Sub-CLEC (Chinese Learners English Corpus), which contains the essays written by CET-4and CET-6participants. The research tries to answer three questions as follows:1. Is there any difference in the use of prefabricated chunks between the essays of CET-4and those of CET-6? What features does the use of prefabricated chunks have in the essays of CET-4and CET-6?2. Is there any difference between the use of prefabricated chunks by high-score group and that by low-score group in the essays of CET-4and CET-6?3. Is there any relationship between the use of prefabricated chunks and writing achievement in the essays of CET-4and CET-6?The research findings indicate that:firstly, the total numbers of prefabricated chunks used in the essays increase with the elevation of college students’English learning proficiency. But there is no significant difference in the application of prefabricated chunks between CET-4and CET-6essays. On the whole, college students show their inadequacy of actively understanding, acquiring and memorizing prefabricated chunks during the course of English learning. And the employment of prefabricated chunks in their writing has a colloquial tendency; secondly, there is a significant difference in the application of prefabricated chunks between the high-score group and low-score group. Much more prefabricated chunks are employed in high-score group than in low-score group, which turns out that the use of prefabricated chunks makes a great difference to CET-4and CET-6writing; thirdly, there is a significant correlation between the number of prefabricated chunks employed in essays and the writing scores of CET-4and CET-6. It suggests that in CET-4and CET-6essays, the more prefabricated chunks are applied, the higher scores the essays get. In other words, students who employ a greater number of prefabricated chunks get higher scores for their essays of CET-4and CET-6.Based on the research results, it is advisable for both the college English teachers and students to raise their awareness in the importance of chunk use in writing so as to work together to promote the writing proficiency of the non-English majors.