A Study Of The Relations Between Chunk Learning And English Writing In The Domain Of Cognitive Psychology

The purpose of this study is to find and analyze the correlation between chunk learning and English writing within the theoretical framework of cognitive psychology through comparing the writing’quality of grade three high school students and the sophomores in order to find out an efficient way to improve students’ proficiency level of English writing.For the purpose of this study, the present study aimed at answering the following three questions:Firstly, are there any differences between students in their use of lexical chunks in English writing? If there are any differences, what are they? Secondly, what causes such differences? Thirdly, how can lexical chunks help improve their English writing proficiency? To answer these questions, the author employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. A writing task was firstly implemented to contrast and analyze the application of lexical chunks employed by grade three high school students (Group 1), non-English major sophomores (Group 2) and English major sophomores (Group 3) in order to examine the features of lexical chunks used in their English writing. A questionnaire was administered to investigate students’ attitudes towards writing, the effect of lexical chunks, the learning strategies related to lexical chunks and the factors that affected writing once the writing task has been finished. An interview survey was used to elicit students’ cognition of lexical chunks, students’ self-reported chunk learning strategies and individual difference based on the results of writing. The results of the study show as follows:Firstly, there is a significant difference between students in the use of lexical chunks in their English writing. Within-group comparison shows that phrasal constraints are the most frequently used, which followed by sentence builders and polywords, institutionalized expressions are used least in any of the three groups. Between-group comparison shows that more phrasal constraints and sentence builders are used in Group 3 than in Group 1 and Group 2; More polywords are used in Group 2 than in Group 1 and Group 3 and more institutionalized expressions are used in Group 1 than in Group 2 and Group 3. Secondly, the reasons may be attributed to the degree of variability and discontinuity of lexical chunks of each category and some factors about the students themselves, such as attitudes towards writing, chunk learning methods, cognition of lexical chunks and strategies applying lexical chunks. Thirdly, the lexical chunks are positively correlated with the writing proficiency. The higher the writing proficiency is, the more lexical chunks will be employed,According to the findings, lexical chunks play an indispensable role in English writing. So it is of great necessity for teachers to cultivate the ability of using lexical chunks in daily teaching and help students to build up the awareness of lexical chunks.