Research On Application Of Lexical Chunk Instruction To Timed Reading Training In Junior Middle School

English is used as a global language worldwide.For many people,the ability to read in English has become an essential skill to keep pace with the world.However,in China,many English teachers still emphasize language knowledge rather than train students’reading skills in English reading course,which leads to many students’ poor reading competence.Reading fluently is the most important symbol for a good reader.What we need to do is to find an effective way to enhance students’ reading fluency via English reading course.Timed reading is an approach to teaching reading with a view on improving students’reading speed and accuracy.Furthermore,as many linguists advocate,the lexical chunk is the basic unit in language learning,which means that the application of lexical chunks in reading may enhance students’ reading fluency.Based on the assets of these two methods,this study conducts an experiment with an aim of integrating the lexical chunk instruction and timed reading training in English reading course to find an effective way to promote students’ reading-fluency.The experiment lasts for three months with two junior middle school classes as the subjects,one as experimental class(EC)and the other as control class(CC).The experimental class is taught with an integration of lexical chunk instruction and timed reading training in English reading class while the control class is taught in a traditional way,but with timed reading training.Data is gathered through questionnaires,reading tests and interviews.The results show that students in EC show more positive views to timed reading.The reading tests show that students in EC have more obvious improvements in reading speed and reading accuracy.Therefore,it can be concluded that integration of lexical chunk instruction and timed reading training in English reading course can effectively enhance junior middle school students’ reading fluency,which provides significant implications to English reading teaching in junior middle school.