The Effectiveness Of The Chunk-based Training Model In Senior High School English Teaching

Since Becker(1975)brought forward the notion of lexical chunks,this linguistic phenomenon has become a research focus in the study of second language acquisition.In 1993,Lewis proposed the Lexical Approach which regards lexical chunks as basic units of language teaching.Their significant role in language learning and the application of related research findings in foreign language teaching have raised increasing attention of linguists and educators.In China,ESL learners‘ second language input,particularly in secondary education,mainly relies on classroom teaching.Therefore,it is noteworthy for researchers to explore how to implement the lexical approach into specific classroom teaching practice,on which,however,scarce empirical researches have been done.Further empirical evidence is desirable to support the feasibility of chunk-based training in classroom instruction,especially in senior high school.Premised on relevant chunk theories and researches,this study intends to flesh out a chunk-based training model,and to investigate the correlation between learners‘sensitivity to chunks and their English academic performance as well as the correlation between lexical chunk awareness and autonomy in English vocabulary learning through a combined design of quantitative and qualitative research with a view to enhancing high school students‘ effective learning and teachers‘ effective teaching of vocabulary.The research design falls into three parts: teaching experiment,questionnaire survey,and follow-up interviews.One semester of experiment was carried out,spanning from September,2017 to February,2018.The subjects in the research were86 year 11 students from two natural classes in a B-level senior high school in Fujian Province.One class was designated as the experimental group with 42 students and the other as the control group with 44 students.The teaching experiment adopted controlled experiment between these two parallel classes,in which the independent variable was the new teaching method,that is,chunk-based training model was implemented in the experimental class while traditional grammar-centered teaching method in the control class.In the part of data collection and analysis,pretest and posttest on sensitivity to chunks,pre-English level test and post-English level test,as well as pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire were carried out respectively before and after the experiment.Quantitative data were collected and analyzed by SPSS(Statistical Package for Social Science)22.0 while qualitative analysis was based on follow-up interviews.The major findings of this study are:1.The chunk-based training is conducive to enhancing learners‘ sensitivity to chunks.By reinforcing input and output of lexical chunks,it helps learners effectively recognize and memorize lexical chunks.2.Teaching of lexical chunks can help learners improve their listening and reading comprehension,as well as their fluency and accuracy in English production,and thus contributes to the progress of second language proficiency.3.The development of lexical chunk awareness improves learning and memory strategies for vocabulary,and to some extent increases learner autonomy in English vocabulary learning.The above findings have at least three pedagogical implications: First,increasing learners‘ awareness of and sensitivity to lexical chunks is beneficial to second language acquisition;Second,encouraging students to cultivate effective strategies to learn and memorize lexical chunks can develop their autonomy in vocabulary learning;Third,contextualizing lexical chunks will lead to better understanding and application of them.