Empirical Study On The Effect Of Word Memory Through Contextualizing Instruction Of The Chunking Words

Considering that the complexity of English spelling, the poor performance of junior high school students’spelling and the problems existing in teachers’teaching practice, the author tried to find a solution to the word memory.Based on the phonics and whole language approaches as well as the theory of contextualization, chunking theory and morphological motivation, the author developed a new word teaching approach, that is, Contextualizing Instruction of the Chunking Words. This thesis is to testify the effect of the approach on word memory. In this paper, two research questions have been raised. They are "Do L2learners improve the ability to memorize words as they receive Contextualizing Instruction of the Chunking Words?" and "Do L2learners improve the ability to convert between pronunciation, form and meaning in word chunks or in whole word as they receive Contextualizing Instruction of the Chunking Words?".To measure the active effectiveness of the word memory based on this approach, the author designed and carried out an experiment in two classes of Grade Seven in a Junior High School, which lasted for one term. In this research paper, the author integrated the approaches of the quantitative and qualitative methods.The results show that the approach did work in the experiment. There were significant differences between the experimental class and the control class in word memory. The students make great progress in conversion between form and meaning and in conversion from form to sound. In the conversion from sound to form the experimental class outperformed the control class but in the conversion from sound to meaning, the students from both classes performed almost the same.This thesis aims to provide references for the implementation of chunking theory and contextualizing theory and practice hereafter.