A Study On The Application Of The Lexical Approach To The Teaching Of English Writing In Junior Middle School

As is known to all, writing ability is one of the most complex language skills. Thus in China, junior middle school students’ writing has a lot of problems, such as, unnatural diction, ambiguous grammar, and unreasonable layout, etc. In reaction to this situation, researchers have put forward some approaches to writing teaching, such as product approach, process approach, length approach and genre approach. However, these approaches do not directly tackle lexical problem in English writing.Linguistic research has found lexical chunks, such as idioms, collocations, and institutionalized expressions, etc., are of great importance in language and language use for a long time. Michael Lewis (1993) points out that language is not a system of lexicalized grammar, but a system of grammatical ized lexis. Language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word prefabricated chunks. Following the lexical view of language, linguists like Lewis propose a new teaching approach-the Lexical Approach. The lexical approach has theoretically proved that focusing on lexical chunks in language teaching and learning is effective for learners’ language development, but it needs empirical studies to prove its true value in the teaching practice.Considering the features of lexical chunks, the advantages of lexical approach, as well as the existing problems of EFL writing in junior middle schools, the author attempts to apply lexical approach to EFL teaching, aiming to improve the students’ writing performance. On the basis of the consideration given above, the author researches and discusses the following two problems:(1) Can Lexical Approach contribute to the improvement of English writing proficiency for junior middle students?(2) Can Lexical Approach stimulate junior middle students’ interest in English Writing?This study sets in an experimental background and the participants in the study are 80 students in Grade Eight from two natural classes, Wei Yuan’s Wu zhu junior middle school in Gansu province. They are randomly designated as the Experimental Group (EG) and the Control Group (CG). Before the experiment, there are nearly no differences between EG and CG in age, gender, as well as English-learning experience and proficiency. In the experiment, the EG is taught by lexical approach whereas the CG is still taught in a traditional way. The data collected in this study are:the two groups’ English grade in the final exam last term, the two groups’ pretest and post-test on English writing test scores, the data of two questionnaires that employed in the pre-test and post-test, as well as the interview data of the EG.Employing SPSS and interview for correlation analysis, the results indicate that:the writing score of the EG is significantly higher than that of CG and the English writing interest of students in EG have been stimulated.According to the data analysis, the author concludes that applying lexical approach into English writing teaching in junior middle school can improve students’ writing proficiency and stimulate students’ English writing interest. Finally, the author points out the limitation of this study and propose the suggestion for further research.