Cultivation Of Lexical Constructionalization Ability For Chinese EFL Learners

Language is constituted of three basic elements which are phonology, grammar and vocabulary. D. A. Wilkins(1972, p. 111) once said that, “without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed”. Therefore, vocabulary has been crucial to language structure. The same applies to English as a foreign language(EFL). Hence, attention has been attached to the English vocabulary teaching for Chinese EFL learners. Nowadays, a lot of researchers have also studied it from Structural Linguistics, Transformational Generative Grammar, Systemic Functional Grammar and some other linguistic views. However, only a few scholars have dealt with English vocabulary teaching from the perspective of Construction Grammar. Meanwhile, vocabulary learning of Chinese EFL learners is mainly limited to memorizing, so that vocabulary using is not allowed to grasp. Learners’ pain and gain is not proportional, vocabulary using is close to the native speakers’ meaning, but the expression structure is far away beyond that. In order to solve the problem, the thesis tries to explore a new way of improving students’ vocabulary learning under the theoretical background of Construction Grammar.Langacker(1987, p. 46) has coined the term “Usage-based” in his Foundations of Cognitive Grammar: Theoretical Prerequisites. Due to the development of Cognitive Construction Grammar in recent years, Usage-based Model has also been combined into English language teaching. On the other side, Ellis(2002, 2003, 2005) & Bardovi-Harling(2002, pp. 189-198) put forward Constructional Acquisition theory. They shared several basic core concepts with Langacker. This thesis aims at analyzing their relatives to cultivate students’ constructionalization ability, then putting it into Chinese EFL learners’ vocabulary teaching. Finally, the paper tests effectiveness of the method by qualitative and quantitative researches. The research results contribute that:Firstly, cultivation of lexical constructionalization ability of students could improve students’ vocabulary learning proficiency. In experiments, the experimental group shows a better effect.Secondly, the cultivation of lexical constructionalization ability could narrow down the gap between learners’ receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge, so that learners’ vocabulary usage could coincide with the native speakers’ using principle. Former researches have shown that learners’ receptive vocabulary knowledge was always developing faster than productive vocabulary knowledge. However, through the cultivation of lexical constructionalization ability, the gap has been obviously narrowed down.Thirdly, the cultivation of lexical constructionalization ability is helpful to increase learners’ vocabulary learning interests, confidence and initiatives.