An Empirical Study Of High School English Vocabulary Teaching Based On Lexical Chunk Theory

Vocabulary learning is considered one of the most important components of language acquisition. And as time goes by, for high school English learners, New Curriculum Standard (NCS, 2003) has not only improved the requirements for the amount of vocabulary, but also paid more attention to students' abilities of understanding and expressing with the words and expressions they have learned.Quite recently, computer analysis of the corpus has revealed to linguists that 90% of natural discourse is achieved by the fixed or semi-fixed chunks with both lexical and grammatical features. So the lexical approach,by which the chunks are considered as the minimal units of vocabulary teaching, is in accordance with the cognition law of a language, and therefore can improve students' accuracy and fluency in using English.Therefore, the lexical chunk theory has important theoretical and guiding significance in improving the effectiveness of high school English vocabulary teaching.Guided by the lexical chunk theory, this research applies it to high school English vocabulary teaching, exploring the effectiveness of lexical chunk teaching as well as forming a practical lexical chunk teaching model and strategies. Moreover, the research focuses on how well the students accept lexical chunk teaching and students'changes in vocabulary learning strategies, participation in the class and their interest and confidence in learning English, which has a certain enlightenment and reference value for high school vocabulary teaching.This paper first analyzes the current situation and the disadvantages of traditional English vocabulary teaching, like word explanation isolated from the context, the teacher-centered classroom, students' passive memorizing, time-consuming vocabulary learning with undesirable results,and students' poor ability of understanding and using words and expressions. All these factors prove the necessity of this study. Then, the paper introduces the definition and classification of lexical chunks, and provides theoretical guidance for this research by reviewing the research results of lexical chunks at home and abroad.Then, the author carried out a research in two parallel classes in a key high school with research instruments including questionnaire, pre-test, post-test, and interview. The lexical chunk teaching model is employed in the experimental class,while traditional vocabulary teaching methods are used in the control class. After a semester's experiment and the analysis of the statistics, the author draws the following conclusions:(1) The lexical chunk teaching model has positive effects on high school vocabulary teaching, which is mainly shown in the enlargement of students,vocabulary, the improvement of students' abilities of identifying and understanding chunks, and their ability of using chunks in writing. Moreover, the lexical chunk learning promotes students' understanding and accurate using of grammar,thus to a degree improving their interest in learning English.(2) The lexical chunk teaching model can also enhance students' comprehensive ability of using English, as can be seen from the improvement of students'comprehensive language level, especially in reading comprehension and writing, for the larger vocabulary and more chunks grasped can help them have a better understanding of the reading passages, and make their writing more readable with richer words and expression and less grammar mistakes.To sum up, the lexical chunk teaching model is well accepted, and students have grasped some lexical chunk learning strategies. They take part in class activities more actively and have more interest and confidence in vocabulary learning. And as English teachers, we should constantly renew our vocabulary teaching concepts, have more intensive study on the lexical chunk theory and organize proper lexical chunk learning activities to further improve students' lexical chunk learning strategies. We should also pay attention to the cultivation of students' autonomous learning abilities,helping them be the master of their study.