Empirical Study Of Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High School Under The Lexical Chunk

English teaching has gained more and more attention. For high school students in China, New Curriculum Standard has set new requirement for 3300 vocabulary and 400-500 idioms or fixed collocation. Besides, the current vocabulary teaching hasn’t received the deserved recognition. Vocabulary used to be thought as only the collection of single words, and students used to compile page upon page of vocabulary word-list that they rarely had any opportunity to practice. As a result, English teaching is faced with time-consuming and inefficient situation. Studies have found that 90% of spontaneous speech is to be achieved through the fixed or semi-fixed chunks which exist between words and phrases. Chunks approach speeds up the processing of learning language and accelerate learners to master grammar rules. I think that chunks are the focus of the language use, therefore, should become the focus of the language learning. It is the great significance to promote the language acquisition and language fluency.This paper introduces the present situation of senior high school English vocabulary teaching. On the basis of cognitive theory in memory processing, the paper elaborates the effective models and design role of Lexical Chunk Approach which is applied to senior high school English vocabulary teaching. In order to see the function of the Lexical Chunk Approach, the writer chooses two parallel classes to perform teaching experiment. SPSS 19.0, the Statistical Package for Social Science, is used to analyze the data from the teaching experiment between the Lexical Chunk Approach and the traditional vocabulary teaching methods. It proves that the lexical chunk teaching is valid in English teaching and learning for the students.This paper consists of six chapters. Chapter One illustrates experiment purpose, significance, objectives and problems which are to be solved. Chapter two puts forward the theories of the vocabulary teaching. The paper defines the definition and classification of the chunk, and reviews the previous studies in home and abroad. Chapter Three surveys our current vocabulary learning situation of senior high school, targeted on the chunk teaching. Chapter Four introduces the application of the lexical chunk approach in senior high school. The scholar shows the specific teaching methods and steps of chunk teaching models combining theory with practice, and puts forward some concrete suggestions in different models. Chapter Five presents a teaching experiment which is based on the lexical chunk approach. Chapter Six is conclusion. We can conclude from the study that Chunks approach speeds up the processing of learning language and accelerate learners to master grammar rules. It is the great significance to increase students’ self-confidence and promote the language acquisition.