An Exiperimental Research On The Effect Of Lexical Chunk Approach On Senior High Students’ English Writing Competence

In recent years, the importance of lexical chunks in language acquisition has attracted more concern and attention. The studies on lexical chunk’s effect on English writing, at home and abroad, show that lexical chunk makes it possible for the learners to process information more quickly and efficiently, ease the pressure of writing, and achieve the ability to write accurately, fluently and authentically. However, few researches were conducted on senior high school students. Therefore, the author carried out an experiment in attempt to probe the effect of lexical chunk approach on senior high school students’writing competence, and to explore a new English writing model for senior high school students.On the theoretical framework of lexical chunk, the present thesis studies the effect of lexical chunk approach on senior high school students’English writing competence. The effect of the lexical chunk approach on the subjects’awareness of applying lexical chunks in the compositions, and the correlation between chunks and language accuracy and fluency of their writing are also investigated.A group of93Senior Two students, from Fucheng Senior High School in Lianping county, Heyuan city, participated in the study. They were randomly divided into two groups:an experimental group (N=47) and a control group (N=46). Based on a pre-training questionnaire which surveyed the students’awareness of lexical chunks, English writing problems, and strategies they often used for writing, the lexical approach was implemented by the researcher as the instruction. The instruction consisted of two types of teaching activities:awareness-raising activities and reinforcing activities. The experiment lasted for about four months. A post-test and an interview were carried out at the final stage of the experiment. The results of the experimental group were compared with those of the control group. These results were analyzed from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. The findings of the study indicate that the lexical chunk approach improved the subjects’ English writing scores. The subjects in the experimental group significantly outperformed those in the control group in the post-test. The main factor which caused the improved performance was the given instruction on lexical chunk approach which had an effect on the students’application of chunks to writing, making accurate and fluent utterances. Secondly, it was discovered that lexical chunk approach promoted the subjects’ awareness of lexical chunks and ability of applying chunks. The subjects in the experimental group exhibited higher frequency of lexical chunk use and were more conscious of the chunks they should or could utilize in the writing, thus taking on greater responsibility for their own learning. Thirdly, it was also found that there was a positive correlation between the number of lexical chunks used in the writing and the composition quality. Furthermore, from the interview, lexical chunk approach could be found to be effective in enhancing the subjects’ confidence in English writing. The majority of the subjects held a favorable attitude toward the instruction approach.Based on the findings that the lexical chunk teaching approach has positive effects on senior high school students’writing competence, the present study has an implication for the lexical chunk approach to be employed in senior high English composition teaching.