A Corpus-based Study Of Lexical Chunks In The Argumentations Of Chinese English Majors

In recent years, more importance has been attached to the studies on lexical chunks in the field of second language acquisition. The term lexical chunk which was put forward by Lewis (1993) refers to a string of words with meaning stored in long term memory. The lexical chunk as a basic unit of language plays a key role in language learning. Many previous researches about lexical chunks prove that lexical chunks account for70%of natural speeches and writings of native speakers. In this way, lexical chunks are a large constituent of language. The reason for that native speakers can speak and write fluently is that they store a large number of lexical chunks in their minds and they can be extracted instantly and automatically. To some extent, second language acquisition is considered as a process of lexical chunks acquisition. With teaching strategy transition from emphasizing grammar to emphasizing vocabulary, Chinese English teaching and learning have made a great achievement. However, compared with native speakers, problems still exist in Chinese English learning.Previous studies on lexical chunks were centered on theory-driven approaches. With the rapid development of computerized linguistics and occurrence of corpus, researches on lexical chunks have turned to corpus-driven approaches. This research method has two advantages over theory driven studies. Firstly, it takes language occurrence frequency as the criterion of selection of texts. Secondly, all texts extracted from corpus are originated from real situations.In the process of second language acquisition, writing is one of the basic abilities which second language learners should have. However, English writing has become a big block for Chinese English learners. They make few grammatical mistakes in their writings while it is difficult for them to write appropriately. They cannot achieve native-like selection of words and fluency. They usually cannot find the correspondent lexical chunks stored in their minds to express themselves. As a result, it makes native speakers or high level English learners confused about what they really want to say. It is especially obvious that Chinese English major students usually get lower scores in English writings. In TEM4and TEM8writing accounts for15%of scores. Writing has become a main barrier for Chinese English majors obtaining a higher score.This thesis, conducting a research on the use of lexical chunks in argumentative writings of Chinese English major students, aims to reveal the distribution characteristics, the structures and functions of lexical chunks in argumentative writings of Chinese English major students and the differences and tries to explain their differences between Chinese English majors and native speakers from the perspective of native language transfer.The study intends to answer four questions.1) What are the distribution characteristics of three to six words lexical chunks in WECCL and LOCNESS?2) What are the most frequently-used three words lexical chunks in both corpora?3) What are the structural and functional characteristics of the most frequently-used three words lexical chunks in both corpora and where lie the differences between Chinese English major students and native speakers?4) How does native language transfer influence the use of lexical chunks of Chinese English major students?Based on Chinese English major students’corpus SWECCL1.0and native speakers’corpus LOCNESS, with the help of the software Antconc, manual filtering as well, the thesis extracts3to6words lexical chunks to examine distribution characteristics of lexical chunks in each corpus. By contrastive analysis of the distribution characteristics of lexical chunks in both corpora, it reveals certain differences of lexical chunks between Chinese English major students and native speakers. The author selects60most frequently-used three words lexical chunks respectively from both corpora, and classifies these lexical chunks into several categories according to Biber’s classification criteria on structures and functions of lexical chunks, and then make a contrastive analysis about structural and functional distribution characteristics. From the perspective of native language transfer, the thesis explains the reason for structural and functional differences of lexical chunks between Chinese English major students and native speakers. The study finds that in the use of3to6words lexical chunks both Chinese English major students and native speakers tend to use more3words lexical chunks in their writings. The types and numbers of lexical chunks decrease with the length increase of lexical chunks. The types of lexical chunks mastered by Chinese English major students are less abundant than that of native speakers. In the structural and functional aspects of lexical chunks, both Chinese English major students and native speakers have their own preferences. Compared with native speakers, Chinese English major students are influenced by native language transfer to a large extent. Problems still exist in Chinese English majors.The thesis consists of six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction which contains background of the research, significance and aims of the study and its overall structure. The second chapter is literature review. It covers definition of lexical chunks and corpus linguistics and some previous studies on lexical chunks abroad and home. The third chapter is the theoretical framework which is concerned with the lexical chunk theory including its structural and functional classifications and theory of native language transfer. The forth chapter is research methodology which introduces the research questions, the research design and the research procedure, and data collection. The fifth chapter is the highlight of the whole thesis which attempts to analyze and discuss the four research questions in a clear order. The sixth chapter is the last one of this thesis which aims to conclude the major findings, point out some implications and limitations and put forward some suggestions for further studies.The writer expects that the study can be beneficial for second language writing and teaching and can be helpful for the use of lexical chunks in writings, can improve teaching and learning methods of lexical chunks, reduce mistakes, and enhance the language accuracy and fluency.