On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Chunks in English Writing Teaching

Analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of lexical chunks in English writing teaching

[Paper Keywords] Advantages and disadvantages of lexical chunks in English writing teaching

[Abstract] This paper introduces the definition, characteristics and classification of lexical chunks, points out the advantages and disadvantages of lexical chunks in English writing teaching, and puts forward some solutions.

[Fund Project]: This article is the research result of the 28 scientific research project "Emotional Deficiency and Coping Strategies in Multimedia English Teaching" by the School of Engineering and Technology, Hubei University of Technology. (ProjectNo.: J28Y2)

Corpus linguistics rose in the middle and late 2th century. Corpus linguists Pawley and Syder(1983) found that native English speakers can master thousands of chunks and use them freely in communication. Sinclair(1991) found that fluent language users can use a large number of chunks. Domestic scholars also have similar research. According to the above conclusions, foreign language teaching researchers suggest that lexical chunks are the most basic components of language teaching and play an important role in foreign language writing teaching.

the basic concept of I-chunks

Chunks are a multi-word lexical phenomenon, which are stored in the brain as a whole and directly extracted from memory when used, without grammar generation and analysis, and are fixed or semi-fixed, patterned block language structures (Becker, 1975). Lexical chunks have four basic characteristics: (1) They are composed of two or more words; (2) The word * * * appears frequently together; (3) Syntactic; (4) Semantic integrity. According to the size of lexical chunks, lexical chunks can be divided into five categories: (1) complex words, such as: womanhood, transport；; (2) polywords, such as by the way, upside down, are completely fixed in form; (3) High-frequency collocations, such as: community service, absolutely convinced, where the word * * * appears frequently; (4) Institutionalized idioms, such as: I'll get it; We’ll see； That’ll do； If I were you…； Would you like …？ It belongs to the commonly used functional expression; (5) Sentence frame, sentence frames and heads, and text frames. The former is, for example, That is not as…as you think；; For example, in this paper we explore ... first ...; Secondly …； Finally ... forms the frame structure of the text.

Advantages of using lexical chunks II in English writing teaching

In the empirical study, many scholars at home and abroad affirmed the advantages of using lexical chunks in English writing (Biber et al., 28; Guo Xiaoying et al., 21; Qi Yan, 25); In teaching practice, English teachers will also help students summarize some lexical chunks, such as aggregated words, high-frequency collocations, idioms, sentence frames and quotations. Generally speaking, there are three advantages:

2.1 helps to improve the fluency of written expression. Chunks are stored in memory as a whole, which is a block structure with grammatical rules and complete semantics. Learners can extract them from the memory as a whole when they express themselves in writing, without further processing and analysis, making the language produced more fluent.

2.2 helps to improve the authenticity of written expression. Aggregative words, high-frequency collocations and idioms in lexical chunks are high-frequency language units. Using them in writing makes the language produced more authentic and accurate. It can avoid temporarily piecing together or combining words according to grammatical rules and avoiding a large number of Chinglish.

2.3 helps to improve the language building power. Using sentence frames and quotations in writing can make language expression more flexible and rich; The use of text structure can make the text clear and coherent, connecting the preceding with the following.

The application of lexical chunks III in English writing teaching

Although the use of lexical chunks has advantages, there are some problems in practice:

3.1 There are five types of lexical chunks (classified as above), and there are thousands of commonly used lexical chunks. For example, NTC's Dictionary of Everyday American Expressions lists more than 7, fixed expressions, and The BBI Dictionary of English Word Combinations lists more than 9, basic word collocations. Chunk units are from words to sentences to texts. Theoretically, their practical value is different for learners of different ages and language levels. However, many writing teachers and learners are not clear about which type or types of lexical chunks are their own teaching difficulties, showing great randomness and randomness.

3.2 There are many high-frequency collocations in the same word. What are the real high-frequency collocations and what are the key high-frequency collocations of this word? Every textbook and reference book, every teacher has his own point of view. Many of them are based on personal intuition, teaching experience or published teaching materials. However, the consequence of doing so is the lack of scientific basis and data proof, which is bound to weaken the scientific nature of teaching content.

3.3 In order to examine students' writing ability, many English proficiency tests have designed composition questions, such as the first part of CET-4 and CET-6. However, many students do not attach importance to their usual writing practice, and place their hopes on reciting some composition templates before the exam, and mechanically use and apply them during the exam. Doing so leads to frequent collocation of words and grammatical errors in sentences outside the composition template, a large number of Chinglish, lack of ideas, and the application of sentence frames that do not conform to the context.

In view of the above problems, this paper puts forward three suggestions for teachers and students to refer to in English writing teaching in the future.

IV four-point teaching suggestions

4.1 For beginners, it is suggested that complex words, aggregate words, idioms, sentence frames and quotations should be the key and difficult points in writing teaching; For middle and senior scholars, it is suggested that high-frequency collocation and text structure should be regarded as important and difficult points. Because beginners and advanced learners have their own advantages and disadvantages in chunk decomposition, reorganization and memory. Some studies have also pointed out that lexical collocations, fixed expressions/semi-fixed expressions and idioms should be taught in the order of idioms, fixed collocations/semi-fixed collocations and lexical collocations (Hsu Jeng-yih, 26: 37), which is in line with learners. Complex words, aggregate words, high-frequency collocations, idioms, sentence frame quotations and text structures are also a continuum from completely fixed expressions to semi-fixed expressions, so it is also suggested to teach completely fixed expressions first, and then semi-fixed expressions, that is, from idioms and sentence frames and quotations to high-frequency collocations, aggregate words and complex words.

4.2 The same word is involved. There are many common collocations, so it is required to choose the real high-frequency collocation. There are two main methods. First, the most commonly used and practical chunks are retrieved based on corpus. Writing teachers and learners can use large corpora, such as the British National Corpus (BNC), the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the Internet Online Corpus (Webcorp) to retrieve high-frequency collocations and idioms of a word. It should be noted that the frequency and range in the corpus are important selection criteria. Corpus retrieval is very scientific and has statistical basis. Second, teachers and learners read a lot of real languages. As Krashen said, reading is the only effective way to learn a language. Through reading, the practical value of words is tested in reading practice, but this method is limited by everyone's English level.

4.3 When using lexical chunks in writing practice, both teachers and students should not exaggerate the role of lexical chunks, especially sentence frame quotations and text structure. Because overemphasizing them will cultivate learners' lazy attitude, learners think that as long as the "raw materials" are filled into the "mold", articles can be automatically generated, and there is no need to bother to express their ideas and thoughts. In writing teaching, it is suggested that in addition to teaching some text structures, more high-frequency collocations should be taught to make learners' written expression more authentic, which has been mentioned before, because the language generation ability of intermediate and advanced learners is already high.

In a word, scholars at home and abroad have verified the advantages of using lexical chunks in writing practice, but there are still some problems. In view of these problems, its teaching design, including syllabus, teaching content, teaching activities, teacher-student roles, teaching materials, etc., needs to be further explored to make it more perfect and scientific. In addition, how to develop learners' comprehensive communicative competence through vocabulary teaching may continue to be studied.

references

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　[3]Hsu, Jeng-yih. An analysis of the Multiword Lexical Units in Contemporary ELT Textbooks[C] . The Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on English Teaching and Learning in the Republic of China. 26: 363-381.

　[4]Pawley, A. & F. Syder. Two puzzles for linguistic theory: nativelike selection and nativelike fluency[A]. In J. Richards & R. Schmidt. (Eds.) Language and Communication[C]. London: Longman, 1983.

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[6] Guo Xiaoying, Mao Hongmei. An experimental study on the influence of chunk teaching on English writing ability [J]. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching, 21, 31(3): 52-9.

[7] Qi Yan. Prefabricated chunks and college English writing [J]. Shandong Foreign Language Teaching, 25, 18(5): 64-6.