An Empirical Study On The Application Of The Lexical Approach To Oral English Teaching In Senior High School

Lexical chunks have relatively fixed structure,integrating grammar,semantics and context,which can be memorized and extracted as a whole in learners' oral production,and thus they are frequently used in language.With the lexical view of language,Michael Lewis(1993)proposes the lexical approach as a new language teaching method.According to the lexical approach,various types of lexical chunks are considered to play a great role in language teaching and learning.The lexical approach has theoretically proved that emphasis on lexical chunks in language teaching and learning is effective for learners' language development,especially for learners' oral competence.However,most current researches on the lexical approach in China are mostly centered on its application to writing.Besides,as to the application of lexical approach to oral English,the subjects of most empirical researches are the students of college or university majoring in English.Researches on students of senior high schools are relatively insufficient.Based on the advantages of lexical approach,the author conducts a three-month experiment of applying lexical approach to oral English teaching in senior high school,attempting to solve the following questions:(1)What are the changes in students' oral production after the lexical approach is applied to the oral English teaching ?(2)What effects does the lexical approach have on the improvement of high school students' oral competence?(3)What are the problems and shortcomings of the application of lexical approach to the oral English teaching in senior high school?The subjects in this study are 40 students who are from Class 9,Grade 1 in Xinyi No.1 Middle School.During the three months' experiment,the author gives two oraltests to the students and conducts an interview with some of the students.During the process of students' two oral tests,the author records each student' oral production and then transcribes each student' recording into a complete text.Through the comparison of analysis of the transcription of students' oral production in pre-test and post-test,the author tries to find out the changes in students' oral production after the lexical approach is applied to the oral English teaching.The comparison of students' oral scores in pre-test and post-test reveals the effect of lexical approach on the improvement of students' oral competence.Through the analysis of the two oral tests as well as the results of interview,the author expects to find out some problems and shortcomings of the application of lexical approach.The major findings of the research are as the follows:(1)After the application of lexical approach to oral English teaching,compared with the previous,students can use the lexical chunks more frequently in oral expression and they can output longer oral production with a lower error rate.(2)According to the scores of pre-test and post-test,lexical approach proves to have a positive effect on improving students' oral competence in terms of accuracy and fluency,especially those whose previous oral competence is at a very low level.(3)There are still some problems and shortcomings in the application of lexical approach to oral English teaching,such as the students' lack of flexibility of using more various lexical chunks in oral production and the monotony in the design of oral activities.The significance of this research is that the experiment on the application of lexical approach to oral English teaching provides some pedagogical implications for senior high school English teachers to improve oral English teaching.Most important of all,the research cultivates students' awareness of lexical chunks and improve their oral competence by guiding them to apply proper lexical chunks to oral production.