An Experimental Study Of The Effect Of The Lexical Chunk Approach In Junior High School English Vocabulary Teaching

Vocabulary is one of the three elements(Phonetics,Vocabulary,and Grammar)of language.To language learners,vocabulary is of great importance.The current vocabulary teaching in junior high schools,however,is not very effective.A number of English teachers in junior high school are inclined to pay attention to the meaning and usage of words when they teach vocabulary to their students.Without the correct guidance of vocabulary learning strategy,students can only learn vocabulary passively and mechanically,which results in the situation that students fail to learn vocabulary effectively and show little interest in English learning.The lexical chunk approach provides a new way for vocabulary learning.Based on the lexical chunk approach,the author conducted a one-semester-long experiment in Xijiang Middle School in Yunfu City trying to verify this approach by adopting the method of questionnaire,vocabulary test and interview.Two research questions are put forward in this experiment:1)What are the effects of the lexical chunk approach on the lexical competence of junior high school students?2)What are the effects of the lexical chunk approach on students' interest and strategies towards lexical learning in junior high school?Before the experiment,a vocabulary test was carried out by the author in the two parallel classes in Grade Eight and the result showed that there was no difference in the lexical competence of the students in the two classes.And a questionnaire was carried out in the experimental class.In the experiment,the traditional teaching approach was still adopted in the control class and the experimental class,however,was taught under the instruction of the lexical approach.When the experiment was finished,both classes took part in the English vocabulary test.The questionnaire survey was only conducted in the experimental class and six students were asked to attend the interview.SPSS was used to analyze the data after the experiment and at the same time,the author combined the results of questionnaires and interview to summarize the experiment.The data collected from the experiment showed that that students' interest in learning vocabulary had been more or less improved and that they had mastered a better vocabulary learning strategy.Based on data,the following conclusions can be drawn: 1)By using the lexical chunk approach,students' lexical competence can be improved.2)The lexical chunk approach has a positive effect on students' interest and strategies towards lexical learning in junior high school.