An Experimental Study On The Application Of Prefabricated Chunks To English Writing Teaching In Senior High School

As a basic linguistic unit, prefabricated chunks have the function of fixed code, which is easy for learners to memorize and store in brain. When learners output the language which they are learning, they need not to recombine, re-encode and deal with the information again depending on grammar rules, and thus, application prefabricated chunks will help learners to save time and relieve the pressure when learners output the target language. In addition, the generative function is another advantage of prefabricated chunks; that is to say, a basic chunk can generate some new prefabricated chunks and this phenomenon is in favor of language expression more accurately and fluently, as well as some chunks can make the contents of a passage become more coherent and logical. Therefore, the theory of prefabricated chunks has attracted the attention of many scholars at home and abroad. Based on an experiment on the application of prefabricated chunks to English writing, the purpose of the present study explores whether the theory can improve the writing ability of students in senior high school.In allusion to this purpose, the two research questions are analyzed and discussed: whether the senior high school students have positive attitudes to accept the theory of application of prefabricated chunks in writing and whether the English writing ability of students can be improved by using prefabricated chunks compared with the traditional approach.In order to answer the research questions mentioned above, the thesis chooses two classes from Affiliated Senior High School of Xuanhua Vocational College of Science and Technology as the experimental subjects. There are 30 students of each class who come from the science class, grade 3 participating in the experiment. The average age of them is 18, and the experiment arranges randomly Class One as the experimental group(EG), Class Two as the control group(CG). The participants have learned English more than five years at school: three years in junior high school and two years in senior high school and the ability of their English writing is no significant difference. For the purpose of acquiring reliable and valid data, the experiment conducts pre-test and post-test to the participants in EG and CG and collects the quantity of prefabricated chunks used by the participants in EG and CG. Meanwhile, a questionnaire is also employed in the experiment to explore the attitudes of students to the theory of prefabricated chunks. The method of quantitative research and contrastive analysis are adopted to deal with the collected data. Besides, through analyzing the experimental data by the software SPSS, the study testifies the attitudes of participants in EG are positive towards the theory of prefabricated chunks; meanwhile, that applying the theory of prefabricated chunks can improve the English writing ability effectively is also proved.