Research On The Impact Of Lexical Chunk Use On English Oral Fluency Of Senior High School Students Based On Lexical Chunk Teaching

Lexical chunks play a vital role in language acquisition as they serve a wide range of functions in language communication,and can be easily retrieved and used with less demand on cognitive capacity of the brain.Oral fluency,one of the most salient markers of language competence in a second or foreign language,is one of the dominant research areas in second language acquisition(SLA).Fluency refers to a performance phenomenon related to continuity,automaticity,or smoothness of speech.The latest version English Curriculum Standard of Senior High School also highlights the learning and teaching of lexical chunks,as well as the important role of fluency in evaluating language competence.But little attention has been focused on how to facilitate the effective development of L2 learners’ speech fluency in current communicative language teaching(CLT)in both the curriculum and teaching context.Increasing attention has been payed to exploring the effect of lexical chunk on the production of fluent speech,and this study aims to contribute to this area by investigating both quantitatively and qualitatively,the link between fluency and use of lexical chunks.In addition,the effects of focused instruction of lexical chunks would be further explored.The present research employed the methods of speech test and interviews and analyzed the use of lexical chunks and speech fluency by a total of 85 Chinese senior high learners of English as second language(ESL)in their unprepared monologues at the beginning and the end of a 12-week instructional period.The developmental changes in chunk use were measured along three dimensions:frequency,proportion and accuracy,considering the essential characteristics of lexical chunks as a form-function complex.Meanwhile the author referred to Biber et al’s functional taxonomy of lexical chunk types to analyze the characteristics of middle school English learners’ use of lexical chunks.Additionally,speech samples produced by the learners were analyzed for several observable temporal variable,including speech rate,mean length of run,average time of pause,as well as repairs in per 100 syllables.Specifically,the following three research questions guided the study:(1)What impact does lexical chunk teaching have on the frequency,proportion and accuracy of lexical chunk use in senior high EFL learners?(2)What impact does lexical chunk teaching have on oral fluency in senior high school EFL learners?(3)What is the relationship between lexical chunk use and oral fluency in senior high school EFL learners?Chinese EFL learners have made progress in chunk use over the three-month of chunk instruction.There were significant differences between pre-and post-test performance in chunk frequency and proportion in their oral production,but there was no significant improvement in chunk accuracy.Generally speaking,explicit instruction promoted L2 learners’ use of chunks in speech.Additionally,different categories of lexical chunks displayed slightly different patterns of change.Results showed increase in oral fluency indicative by speech rate,mean length of run,frequency of pause,after nearly 12-weeks of focused instruction of lexical chunks,and a relationship between the instruction and the fluency and use of lexical chunks in the learner speech samples.The comparison of pre-test and post-test performance provides insight into the fact that learning and teaching of lexical chunks has had a sufficiently significant effect and uncovers the nature of the cognitive interplay between lexical chunk use and oral fluency.Such results has implications for teachers and curriculum designers in terms of teaching lexical chunks and developing the L2 learners’ fluency.