Effects of Lexical Chunks on College English Vocabulary Learning

Abstract： Vocabulary is one of the three basic elements that constitute languages， and it is the basic component to utilize all the languages to communicate. So mastering a certain amount of vocabulary is the basis for learning English. This paper makes an analysis on the importance about lexical chunks played in college teaching， and the effect resulting from the lexical chunks on vocabulary learning.

Key words： vocabulary learning； lexical chunks； effects

1. The importance of Lexical Chunks Theory in college English study

According to the second Language Acquisition， we can find that the Lexical Chunks Theory plays an important role in the students' study of language， and the college student's English study is no exception.

In the Second Language Acquisition， learning of formulaic chunks was more important than the learning of grammatical rules in language development. He proposed that learners might acquire "a repertoire of phrases with chunks that have not been analyzed grammatically". Formulaic speech is very common in the process of second language acquisition， especially in the early stage. It exists not only in the speech of child learners but also in that of adult learners in naturalistic SLA， and it also exists in that of classroom learners. These formulaic chunks are related to a certain communicative goal. Several classroom learners quickly developed many formulas to meet the basic communicative needs in an ESL classroom. English functioned as the communicative medium. Formulas were developed by learners as a response to communicative pressure. It means that learners memorize a lot of ready-made expressions to make creative speeches. From what mentioned above， we can combine it with the communication English teaching in Chinese college English Teaching classroom， the teachers often let the students remember the Lexical Chunks， and practice these Lexical Chunks with others in classroom to help them remember these Lexical Chunks well. And after this kind of practice， the students will use this Lexical Chunks in our daily life without consciousness. In current days， more and more colleges come to use this method， thus we can find this method is more effective in the college teaching.

2. The relationship between lexical chunks and vocabulary learning

English is one of the main subjects in Chinese colleges and universities. Both teachers and students have been working hard on English acquisition， however， the outcome is far from satisfactory. The failure is mainly due to the inappropriate vocabulary teaching. To most English teachers in China， vocabulary teaching is equal to "single word" teaching. In this case， vocabulary learning has low efficiency in the lower lever.endprint

What we have mentioned above shows a fact that the vocabulary is taught individually in the English class， which is not helpful for student to learn the vocabularies well. And it can also make learners difficult to understand English. The most important reason is the ignorance of Lexical chunks in the process of teaching. Recent studies of language acquisition discover that learners use chunks not only as memorized formula， they also use chunks as raw materials for later analysis. Chunks conduct 90% of natural discourse communication. Emphasis on the chunk acquisition inspires learners to contact with authentic language materials and it also helps learners to get close to native speakers in the aspect of word selection. That is， learners use words more idiomatically and appropriately. The status of vocabulary is enhanced in the lexical approach by Becker. He declares that "language is grammatical zed lexis， not lexicalized grammar". Joseph D. Becker （1975） also points out that the prefabricated phrase has the advantage of allowing language users to retrieve more efficiently and of permitting them to concentrate on the larger structure of the discourse rather than keep focused on individual words. Obviously， language proficiency and accuracy can be promoted by chunks.

3. The roles of lexical chunks in promoting the English Vocabulary

According to the function of lexical chunks and the previous studies in West countries and China， we can make a conclusion about the relationship between lexical chunks and vocabulary learning. The functions of lexical chunks are shown not only in written and spoken language， but also in orientation of language teaching applying lexical chunks approach.

Firstly， an important function of lexical chunks is easing the burden of language processing. But very few people could encode anything longer than a single clause of eight to ten words either while speaking or in advance. Nevertheless， people all regularly made much longer， fluent multiple clause utterances in the spontaneous speech. An examination on the way human memory system worked needed to be made in order to solve the paradox. The short-term memory is a gateway to the long-term memory since the information can be transferred from the former to the latter by rehearsing. One of the examples is to rehearse a telephone number in order that it can be gradually transferred to the long-term memory. Similarly， Melton claimed that while learning digit sequences or letters， the more stimuli we repeated in short-term memory （STM）， the greater for these items in the long-term memory， and in return， the easier they were to repeat in short-term memory. This process works for phonological sequences not only on words， but also on larger language units such as lexical chunks. In this regard， the use of lexical chunks can help students to make the vocabulary in the memory much easy， and it is to say which can improve the students' vocabulary learning.endprint

Secondly， another function of lexical chunks is promoting language fluency and accuracy. Using memorized and prefabricated lexical chunks can help to achieve accuracy and fluency. Chomsky observed that we had inherent capacities to understand and generate sentences that we had never met before. It is believed that his observation is entirely valid， but the significance of this capability is relatively overstated， while it is in fact not the case in our actual use of language. The native speakers did not exercise their creative potential of syntactic rules of a generative grammar to full extent. In fact， they would not be regarded as native speakers if they did so. According to average speakers， they know thousands of grammatical sentences， however， only a small proportion of them can be readily accepted by as natural and ordinary forms of expression by the native informants. Here are some unidiomatic， odd expressions： "My becoming your spouse is what I want." "Your marrying me is desired by me." "I wish to be wedded to you." All of them demonstrate impeccable grammatical skill， they are foreignism while compared with the more familiar and ordinary one-"I want to marry you." Therefore， native-like selection is not merely a matter of syntactic rules. Native speakers can speak idiomatically with the frequency of these collocations in the language， and also they can break conversational speech into "fluent units" of complete four-to-ten-word grammatical clauses. A great number of these clauses are entirely familiar memorized clauses and clause sequences. Fluent spoken discourse is built up by them and meanwhile they give models to memorable sequences and therefore enter the stock of familiar usages. So due to this function of lexical chunks， student can easy to use the vocabulary much fluency and accuracy， which is the basis for the purpose of learning vocabulary.

4. The basic principles of the lexical chunks applied in the English Vocabulary Learning

In the lexical approach， chunk learning is regarded as more important than single words learning and the grammatical parts because the chunks contribute more to meaningful communication. Therefore， to help students learn to use the chunks is the goal of second language teaching. Communication power and enhancing competence were achieved by extending the students' collocation power， repertoire of lexical phrases， and increasing mastery of the most fundamental structures and words of the language.endprint

The lexical approach develops many of the basic principles which were advanced by proponents of the Communicative Approach. The most different variation is the increased understanding of the lexis nature in naturally occurring language. The main principles of the lexical approach are listed in the following：

1） Language is not made up of lexicalized grammar but grammatical lexis.

2） Much language consists of multiple word 'chunk'.

3） Metaphorical and lexical patterns are accorded appropriate status although structural patterns are known as useful.

4） A central element of language teaching is to develop the students' ability to 'chunk' language successfully.

5） The central metaphor of language is not an atomistic machine but a holistic organism.

6） Collocation is integrated to be an organizing principle within syllabuses.

7） Grammar is prioritized as a receptive skill which involves the perception of difference and similarity.

8） The co-textual is more important for language teaching than the situational element of context.

Reference：

[1] Becker， J. The Phrasal Lexicon [M]. Cambridge Mass： Bolt and Newman， 1975

[2] Nattinger， J. R. & J.S. DeCarrico. Lexical Phrases and Language Teaching [M]. Oxford： Oxford University Press， 1992

[3] 洪顯利， 冉瑞兵. 英語詞匯學習中組塊構建記憶策略的理論基礎及其教學[J].寧波大學學報教育科學版， 2003（2）

[4] 黃小萍. 英語詞匯學習方法實驗研究[J]. 國外外語教學， 2003 （1）

[5] 李紅葉. 詞匯練習要注重詞塊的產出性訓練[J]. 國外外語教學， 2004（01）

基金項目：

武昌工學院2015年度教學研究項目--基于背景知識和詞塊的英語閱讀課程教學改革的有效性研究，課題編號：2015JYZ07

作者簡介：

聶勇偉（1981-），男，漢族，湖北武漢人，碩士研究生，武昌工學院外國語學院副教授，主要從事英語教育、應用語言學研究。endprint