The influence of second-language vocabulary block level on second-language writing level of first-year high school students

Originated from a psychological concept chunking, chunk refers to a multi-word vocabulary phenomenon, usually a fixed or semi-fixed mode of the massive structure. Chunks, as a whole, are stored in the memory. They can be used directly without grammar generation and analysis (Wray,2002). Psychological studies have suggested chunks play an important role during the process of human speech recognition, learning and cognition.Due to the importance of chunks, chunks are gradually introduced into the language and vocabulary acquisition research (Pawley & Syder,1983; Widdowson,1989; the Nattinger & DeCarrico,1992; Lewis,1997; Wray,,1999; Ellis,2002). Since the 1970s, especially with the rise of corpus linguistics, the research in chunks in language acquisition has become increasingly detailed and deep-going. Studies suggest that 80% of natural discourse consists of various chunks (Altenberg,1998). It can be concluded that language consists of meaningful chunks, which are ideal unit of language learning and teaching. Chunks has thus become the focus of research in the field of second language acquisition.Linguists have found that chunks repeatedly appear in language and are closely related to the context, thus learning of chunks is able to help learners establish the links of language form and context knowledge in the brain, so that during the language production process their language can be extracted as a whole from their memory. This can not only reduce the burden of language processing, but also improve the accuracy of language production and fluency (Pawley & Syder,1983). Therefore, the introduction of chunks to second language teaching plays an important role in the improvement of students’ability of second language writing.Based on the chunk theory in second language acquisition, a group of Senior One high school students are selected as research objects. Through the analysis of the tests on second language chunks and their use of chunks in second language writing test, this paper studies how their chunk competence affects their writing. The questions to be answered are: for Senior One high school students, whether their chunk competence affects their second language writing; whether the total number of chunks used in their writing affects their second language writing. With the data collected and processed through SPSS 11.5, the present research has put forward the following results:1. Compared with scores of the receptive chunk test, scores of the productive chunk test and the writing test are lower. There are significant differences among individual students. This difference is more apparent in writing test scores.2. Positive linear correlation has been found between the scores of chunk tests, the number of chunks used in writing and the scores of writing test. And the correlation reaches a significant level. Among them, scores of the receptive chunk test have a strong correlation with writing test scores, while scores of the productive chunk test have a moderate correlation with writing test scores.3. Writing test scores can be predicted according to the scores of chunk tests and the number of the chunks used in writing. For Senior One high school students, their scores in chunk tests and the number of chunks used in their writing will significantly affect their writing test scores.The conclusion is:For Senior One high school students, their second language chunks competence has a positive correlation with their performance in second language writing. Their second language chunks competence can be taken as an important indicator of their second language writing performance. Therefore, in senior high school, in English teaching practice, especially in the teaching of English writing, chunks should be attached high importance to; chunks teaching should be promoted. Students’awareness of chunks should be developed, and students’ chunk using competence should be taken as a teaching focus.In addition, in the teaching of chunks, the chunks output training should be strengthened and the chunks competence should be cultivated.