An Experimental Study Of English Vocabulary Teaching Under The Lexical Chunk Theories In Senior High School

As time goes on, for high school learners, New Curriculum Standard (NCS,2003) has set new requirement for vocabulary size and vocabulary use. With the development of corpus study, empirical study on lexical chunks has been on the rise, offering valuable suggestions on vocabulary teaching. However, more often than not, those studies remain on the macro level of theoretical discussion, and seldom has any empirical study addressed the application of lexical chunks to lexical instruction from a more micro perspective, such as the chunk teaching model or strategies in chunk learning, let alone a high school teaching experiment in the NCS setting. This study applies theories of lexical chunks to English vocabulary teaching and learning in a regular high school under the guidance of NCS as well as those theories of lexical chunks, formulating effective models chunk teaching, enlarging learners’ vocabulary and developing their ability of using vocabulary properly. Moreover, this study also tries to help learners to add more varieties to their expressions of a certain topic or function, and at the same time to focus on the changes of beliefs, attitudes, interest, motivation, the use of strategies when it comes to vocabulary learning. All these are rarely found in previous studies.Research subjects are thirty-four learners from Class Three, Senior One, Wuhan No.19High School. Research instruments include pre-test, post-test, questionnaires, observations and reflection. Pre-test and pre-questionnaire were conducted from Sept.17,2012to Sept.28,2012. This was the period when the idea of chunks was introduced and learning requirements were also set for instruction. A chunk teaching experiment was carried out from Oct.8,2012to Jan.12,2013. During this time, observation and reflection were done on a regular basis. Tests for each unit they learn were also given out. From Jan.14,2013to Jan.19,2013, post-test and post-questionnaire were conducted. Based on the chunk teaching principle/method by former experts (Lewis,1993; Mounraia,2001), this present study offers three chunk teaching models for vocabulary teaching and learning in senior high schools.The post-experiment data shows1. The positive effects of chunk teaching lies in several marked improvements senior high school English learners have achieved including English vocabulary size, the ability of using English vocabulary in sentences, identifying and understanding typical use of vocabulary in English reading materials, using English vocabulary to express certain functions or certain topics in communication, the awareness of expressing with the aid of lexical chunks. What’s more, chunk teaching eases off, in some measure, the grammatical difficulty for senior high school English learners and encourages them to make an active use of English vocabulary in both oral and written expressions.2. Generally, learners accept the way the researcher teaches English vocabulary. But his chunk teaching needs further improvement in the following aspects:a) reinforce the design of exercises for chunks; b) reinforce the organization of classroom activities; c) optimize homework; d) make sure learners grasp the sound, form and meaning of words.