An Empirical Study On The Application Of Lexical Chunk Approach In English Vocabulary Teaching In Senior High Schools

Higher requirements on students’ English vocabulary level and vocabulary competence are put forward under the new curriculum standard of high schools. Also, as corpus develops, the empirical research on the lexical chunks in China has been increasing recently, which provides some references for vocabulary teaching in high schools. However, these researches are conducted only from a macro point of view, while there is a paucity of research which applies the lexical chunk in the vocabulary teaching from a microcosmic perspective, such as lexical chunk teaching mode and its learning strategy research, let alone apply chunk theory in the practical environment of high school teaching. Directed by the new curriculum of high school and lexical chunk approach, this research employs the lexical chunk approach in vocabulary teaching in high schools, so as to summarize effective teaching mode, enlarge students’ vocabulary and enhance vocabulary competence correctly. More importantly, the research also tries to improve high school students’ expressing ability and realize diverse functions. Meanwhile, it focuses on high school students’ changes in vocabulary learning concept, attitude, interest, motivation and strategy under this teaching mode. However, these aspects are rarely seen in the previous empirical lexical chunk researches.The application of lexical chunk approach in English vocabulary teaching in high school is empirically researched in this thesis. It aims to explore the impact of lexical chunk approach on students’ vocabulary learning. On the basis of connectionism theory and co-selection theory, the following questions are studied in the thesis:(1) What’s the impact of lexical chunk approach on high schoolstudents’ vocabulary level?(2) What’s the impact of lexical chunk approach on high schoolstudents’ vocabulary learning concept?(3) What’s the impact of lexical chunk approach on high schoolstudents’ vocabulary learning strategy?The teaching experiment is made on a class of Grade 1(34 students), in which a teaching method that is directed by the lexical chunk approach is used. To collect information, this experiment mainly applies questionnaires, classroom observations and tests. After experiment, the collected information is analyzed by paired sample T-test, regression analysis and other methods.The empirical research reveals: 1) applying the lexical chunk approach in vocabulary teaching can notably enlarge learners’ vocabulary level and can enhance vocabulary application competence dramatically. 2) Lexical chunk teaching plays a positive role in maintaining learners’ self- efficiency, interest and emotional regulation ability. 3) Lexical chunk inspires learners’ to employ the vocabulary learning strategy with “chunking” frequently. Therefore, applying lexical chunk approach in English vocabulary teaching in high schools exerts a positive effect.