Abstract
According to the National English Curriculum Standards, the goal of primary English teaching is to develop students’ comprehensive English language ability, which includes language knowledge, language skills, cultural awareness, learning strategy and emotional attitudes.Vocabulary learning and accumulation, as an important prerequisite and foundation for improving students’ four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, plays a significant role in primary students’ English learning. However, there still exist some problems in primary English vocabulary teaching, such as students having great difficulty in memorizing vocabulary and failing to use vocabulary flexibly and accurately, and so on. Chunk Theory is a kind of language theory which mainly studies the definition, classification, characteristics, teaching advantages and teaching practice of chunk. It brings new ideas to vocabulary teaching and plays a vital role in solving the problems of students’ vocabulary understanding, memory and application. Therefore, this thesis intends to identify the problems in current primary English vocabulary teaching through the interview method, and then tries to provide some solution to the problems by applying Chunk Theory, in the primary English vocabulary teaching, so as provide some reference for the future primary English vocabulary teaching practice.
Key words: Chunk Theory; primary English vocabulary teaching; application strategies
1、Introduction
According to the National English Curriculum Standards, the goal of primary English teaching is to develop students’ comprehensive English language ability, which includes language knowledge, language skills, cultural awareness, learning strategy and emotional attitudes. As one of the three elements of language, vocabulary teaching plays an irreplaceable role in improving students’ comprehensive ability of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Linguist Wilkins (1972) once stressed: without grammar, people can’t transmit a lot of information; without vocabulary, people can’t transmit any information. Thus, the importance of vocabulary learning in language learning can be seen obviously. Vocabulary learning and accumulation, as an important prerequisite and foundation for improving students’ four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing, plays a significant role in primary students’ English learning.
However, there still exist some problems in primary English vocabulary teaching. Words are usually taught and explained in isolation, or in other words, out of context. When teaching or learning vocabulary, both teachers and students usually pay much attention to the sound, form and meaning of vocabulary, while ignoring how to use vocabulary in context. Consequently, many primary students learn and store vocabulary and grammar in isolation, and ignore the relationship between them, and to pay little attention to the use of vocabulary. Thus, students lack the accurate understanding of the meaning of words, have difficulty in memorizing vocabulary, and fail to apply vocabulary flexibly and accurately.
2、Literature Review
With the increasing attention to the role of chunks in SLA, the importance of chunks has been widely recognized in academic circles. Many language researchers at home and abroad have done a great amount of research and exploration on chunks from different angles. This chapter mainly reviews the research on chunks from two levels: research on chunks at abroad and research on chunks at home.
2.1 Research on chunks abroad
The research on chunks abroad can be traced back to 150 years ago (Wang Lifei, Chen Xianglan, 2009: 90). As a matter of fact, the concept of chunks originated from an American psychologist, George A. Miller, who first proposed the concept of chunks in memory in 1956. And then, the concept of chunks was quoted by linguists to the field of language (Jiang Yuhong, 2008: 87; Dong Liyun, 2010: 17). In the following decades, foreign language researchers have conducted plenty of research and experiments on chunks, and have achieved comparatively fruitful results. Based on the literature review of the studies of chunks abroad, the author finds that the studies of chunks abroad mainly focus on the following three aspects: a) the development of chunks; b) the acquisition differences of chunks; c) The application of Chunk Theory in English teaching.
a) The development of chunks
The development of chunks has always been one of the key topics in the field of SLA. Perera (2001) studied the use of chunks in English learning among four children. The results show that chunks exert a crucial part in the initial stage of second language acquisition and are the basis of creative use of language. Ellis (2002:190) pointed out that as far as foreign language learners are concerned, “idiomatic expressions are not prominent at the initial stage, nor disappear at the later acquisition stage.” Another important finding of chunk research is that foreign language learners will avoid using chunks when they find their own weaknesses in using chunks.
b) Differences in chunk acquisition
Whether there are differences in chunk learning among different foreign language learners is another focus of SLA research. Wiktorsson (2003) conducted a study on the use of chunks in Swedish second language learners’ limited time writing. The results showed that second language learners from Swedish tend to use more chunks in their writing than native speakers, but the chunks they use are more colloquial, less authentic and mostly informal. In addition, she also found that the higher the level of English learning, the more chunks are used, and vice versa; the errors in chunk use mainly lie in the errors in style use; chunk is more affected by the mother tongue. Bradley (2003) collected and analyzed the data of seven American students and seven German students in an authoritative oral German test. He found that American students use more non filler chunks such as vocabulary, grammatical structure and lexical complements, and they also use more kinds of chunks. Therefore, the study suggests that the use of chunks can help American students to respond in a difficult language environment and make them feel better at foreign languages.
c) The application of Chunk Theory in English teaching
As chunks can effectively improve language proficiency, the field of SLA and the field of English teaching have begun to pay attention to the teaching of chunks. Lewis, as the representative of the experts, was the first to advocate the direct application of Chunk Theory in teaching. Hsu (2002) took nine Taiwanese college students as the research object, and further studied the correlation between the use of chunks and the language fluency and collocation proficiency of learners. Through the research, he found that there is an obvious positive correlation between the use of chunks and learners’ foreign language proficiency, and the use of chunks is influenced by many factors, such as personal learning experience, learning motivation, differences between mother tongue and foreign language, etc.
2.2 Research on chunks at home
Compared with foreign countries, the research on chunks at home started at the end of 1990s. However, in the past decade, the research on chunks at home has developed rapidly and achieved fruitful results. In this paper, CNKI is used as the search engine to search. According to the search results: before 2000 (including 2000), there were only a few articles on the research of chunks; the research with a slightly larger scale should start from 2001, and from 2001 to 2010, the number of articles on the research of chunks has initially formed a scale, and the overall growth trend indicates that chunk research in China is in the development stage; from 2011 to now, the number of the research of chunks has increased rapidly, and peaked in 2013. Compared with the previous studies, the researches on chunks in this period have changed a lot in research contents, research methods and research perspectives, showing a dynamic picture of multi latitude and multi perspective of the researches on chunks.
Through comprehensively analyzing the research literature on chunks at home, it can be seen that the research contents of chunks at home are quite extensive, which mainly includes the following six categories:
a) A study of chunks based on the cognitive level. With the further study of chunks, researchers gradually turn their attention from the output of chunks to learners’ psychological cognition and processing of chunks. For a while, this kind of research has become a hot topic. Different scholars in China have studied the psychological cognition and processing process of chunks from different aspects: Chen Wanhui (2008) has discussed the psychological reality of chunk from a theoretical point of view. He believes that learners can store and use chunks as a whole; Xu Fang (2010) in his case study, based on the theory of sound thinking, used the retrospective interview method to study the characteristics of thinking of English Majors in writing. Guo Xianping (2011) analyzed the reasons why college students pay attention to chunks in reading and extract chunks in translation, and found that there is a significant correlation between learners’ English level and chunk use ability.
b) Research on the positive correlation between chunks and language levels. An empirical study conducted by Ding Yanren and Qi Yan (2005) on chunks to improve learners’ communicative fluency and idiomatic word selection. The results show that: compared with grammar, there is a strong correlation between students’ ability to use chunks and their oral and writing scores. Yuan Ping and Guo Fenrong (2010) analyzed the spoken language data of 12 sophomores majoring in English, and found that there was a strong correlation between the number of chunks and the accuracy of the language.
c) A survey of the characteristics of chunk use by second language learners. The purpose of this kind of research focuses on exploring whether the use of chunks can improve L2 learners’ writing, speaking, and interpreting abilities. Mao Chengyi (2008) investigated language learners’ use of chunks in the test environment. The results clear indicated that: the number of chunks used by learners is small and single; learners with low test scores use chunks more frequently than those with high test scores; the frequency of chunk use will affect the fluency of conversation to a certain extent. Wang Wenyu and Huang Yan (2013) pointed out that the students who used more chunks got higher scores in interpreting by examining the relationship between the use of chunk and the quality of interpreting output.
d) Corpus based chunk research. With the rapid development of corpus linguistics, scholars adopt a new theoretical perspective and research ideas to research chunks. Wang lifei and Qian Juan (2009) did the research on chunks used by English learners in their speeches through corpus. Shi Zhiliang (2012) also discussed the teaching mode of College English from the perspective of corpus, and finally came to the conclusion that the teaching mode of College English based on corpus contributes to cultivating students’ autonomous learning ability and critical thinking, effectively improve students’ language ability, and has strong feasibility and popularization. The above scholars apply corpus to foreign language teaching and explore a new teaching mode, which brings some enlightenment to the future foreign language teaching.
e) A study of chunk review. Researchers have reviewed chunk studies from different perspectives. For example, Wang Xiaomei and Yang Yajun (2012) summarized the latest achievements in the study of prefabricated chunk theory at home and abroad, and then analyzed the essential characteristics of prefabricated chunk theory from the perspectives of linguistics, psycholinguistics and corpus. Wang Lifei and Zhang Dafeng (2006) reviewed the studies of chunks abroad. Duan Shiping (2006) made a comment on the study of L2 chunk teaching in China.
2.3 Summary
In the past 30 years, the research on chunks has made remarkable achievements in the aspects of corpus chunk research and chunk teaching practice, and so on, but there are still some drawbacks.
Firstly, the problem of chunk’s definition: there are two aspects of chunk definition: a) The use of terms: based on different research background, research purposes and research methods, different language scholars have created and used more than 50 different terms to describe the structure “chunk”, such as “chunk”, “lexical chunk”, “prefabricated chunk”, “programming language”, and so on. b) The definition of chunk: different research perspectives will lead to different terms, different terms, and different descriptions of chunk definitions. Secondly, the problem of chunk’s classification: different researchers classify chunks in different ways, which leads to the lack of theoretical support. Next, the problem of the study of chunk usage features: the research of chunk usage features mainly focuses on oral and writing, and mainly focuses on general style, which is seriously inadequate in academic or professional texts. Finally, the problem of unevenly distributed research on English teaching based on Chunk Theory. Although a lot of language researchers have studied English teaching based on Chunk Theory, most of them focus on College English teaching and middle school English teaching based on Chunk Theory. However, there is less research on primary English teaching, especially in primary English vocabulary teaching based on Chunk Theory. What’s more, most of these studies mentioned the advantages, models and Strategies of Chunk Theory in primary English vocabulary teaching, and also analyzed the problems existing in primary English vocabulary teaching, but their analysis was not specific and in-depth, which means that there are still some gaps and deficiencies in the study of the primary English vocabulary teaching based on Chunk Theory. Therefore, this thesis, guided by Chunk Theory and using the interview method, will take primary English vocabulary teaching based on Chunk Theory as the research object, aiming to explore the application strategies of Chunk Theory in primary English vocabulary teaching, and provide the new reference for primary English vocabulary teaching. It is hoped that this study will take an active role in the study of Chunk Theory and call on scholars in related fields to do more research in order to solve the problems existing in the study of Chunk Theory.
3、The current situation and problems in primary English vocabulary teaching
In order to have a better understanding of the current situation and problems of primary English vocabulary teaching, the author interviewed 12 primary English teachers, including 5 teachers who have been in front-line teaching posts for more than 10 years, 6 teachers who have been in front-line teaching posts for more than 10 years, 1 teacher who has been in front-line teaching posts for less than 3 years, and 1 teacher who has a graduate, undergraduate and junior degree college, which is very representative. The interview was conducted in the spare time of the teacher, which was about 15 minutes and included three main questions:
a) What do you think of the importance of vocabulary teaching?
b) How do you explain words in vocabulary class?
c) What do you think are the main problems in primary English vocabulary teaching?
From the above interview results, it can be seen that all of the 12 primary English teachers interviewed are conscious of the importance of vocabulary teaching and they also think that vocabulary teaching is very important; 66% of primary English teachers still teach and explain vocabulary in isolation; for the third question, the vast majority of teachers think that there are three main problems in primary English vocabulary teaching at present: the problem of vocabulary comprehension, vocabulary memory and vocabulary application. In view of these three problems, the author makes the following in-depth analysis:
3.1 Students lacking in accurate understanding of word meaning
The problem of students’ vocabulary understanding is that they lack the accurate understanding of the meaning of words. In English learning, the meaning of a word is totally different in different contexts. The polysemy of a word is very obvious. For example, students only know the word, “have”, means “to own, hold or possess something”. But in book 5 of PEP, it has many meanings: what do you have on Mondays? What do you have for lunch today? Here, the word, “have”, means “to perform a particular action”. I have to do my homework. Here, the word “have” is used with “to” to form a phrase “have to”, which means “must”. From the perspective of using vocabulary, words can achieve communicative function only by forming sentences or connecting words. The polysemy of a word is quite prominent in English. To determine the meaning and use of a word, it is necessary to have a specific situation and context, so students can understand the meaning of a word and master its usage only in sentences. So it is very difficult for the pupils who have just learned English to fully understand these meanings. There are two main reasons for this problem: first, teachers teach words in isolation from the actual language situation.; second, junior middle school students’ thinking mode is single and their thinking ability has not reached a certain degree, which makes students often understand the one-sided meaning of words in the learning process, not the meaning of words in different situations according to the situations of the conversion, and leads to the students’ barriers in vocabulary understanding.
3.2 Students having great difficulty in memorizing vocabulary
The problem of students’ vocabulary memory is that although they spend much time and energy on memorizing words, the effect of vocabulary memory is not good and the speed of forgetting is fast. At present, the problems of pupils’ memory of English words are as follows: a) Rote memorization: Students use mechanical memory method in word memory. Although they can spell and write words accurately, they dare not speak words. In the long run, they will lose confidence in learning and appear dumb English. b) Difficulty in memorizing: When students memorize English words, they rely too much on short-term memory. The speed of forgetting is very fast. The words they just recite will be forgotten in a few minutes. Because English words themselves are presented to students in isolated and single forms, and teachers often habitually take words out of context and teach and explain them in isolation, which does make them learn and remember words in isolation as well. Although students focus too much attention on the memory of vocabulary, and memorize vocabulary repeatedly and mechanically every day, this way of memorizing vocabulary not only can increase the amount of words memorized by students, but also increase the psychological burden of students on vocabulary memory, which lead to poor effect of vocabulary memory and fast forgetting and other vocabulary memory problems.
3.3 Students failing to use vocabulary flexibly and accurately
The problem of students in the use of vocabulary is that students fail to use vocabulary flexibly and accurately. The reason is that in vocabulary teaching, teachers often focus much attention on the teaching of sound, form and meaning of words, but attach little importance to the cultivation of students’ ability to use vocabulary. In order to better let students memorize and spell words, many teachers are committed to the research of phonic natural spelling, and even the whole class is used to teach and read words; in order to consolidate words, each word also requires students to copy several times. Students recite many words with all their abilities, but they don’t know how to use them. The result is especially reflected in the use of vocabulary in the text, which leads to the poor ability of language learning and use.
In a word, the key to vocabulary learning is to acquire the ability of language use. The learning activities of vocabulary should be carried out in three levels: sound, form, meaning and use of vocabulary, and should aim at the comprehensive use of language. Chunk is the unity of grammar, semantic, pragmatics and context, which can effectively combine words and grammar, in order to better solve the problems of vocabulary acquisition, storage, memory and context. Therefore, it is indispensable to adopt chunk teaching method in primary English vocabulary teaching.
4、 Chunk theory
Chunk theory is a kind of linguistic theory that takes chunk as the research object, and studies its definition, classification, characteristics, theoretical basis, advantages of teaching and teaching practice, and so on.
4.1 The definition of chunk
With the rise and development of corpus language, language researchers have found that there is a great deal of fixed or semi fixed language structures between vocabulary and grammar. This kind of language structure has certain stability and conventionality, which is usually stored and used as a whole. Different scholars use different terms to describe this language structure. The main terms used abroad are prefabricated phrase, lexicalized sentence steps, formula and so on. The research on chunk in China also uses different terms, such as “language chunk”, “chunking”, “lexical chunk”, “program language”, “prefabricated chunk”, etc. It is not hard to see that these terms have conceptual differences: some focus on phrase level, some focus on sentence framework, some focus on the prefabrication of structure. This thesis will adopt the term of “chunk”, which is accepted by most scholars in the field of chunk research at home.
4.2 The classification of chunks
Since the rise of Chunk Theory, numerous researchers have classified chunks from different perspectives. And there are two representative categories:
4.2.1 Lewis’s classification of chunks
According to the semantic connection and syntactic function of vocabulary, Lewis divided chunks into four types: a) poly-words: poly-words refer to fixed phrases with idiomatic properties, such as on the one hand, for instance, in a word, etc.; b) collocates: collocates refer to words with high co-occurrence frequency, such as verbs + nouns (such as put forward a suggestion); c) institutionalized utterances: institutionalized utterances refer to fixed or semi fixed word combinations with pragmatic functions, which can be complete sentences or some fixed sentence structures, including epigrams, idioms, etc. For example, as far as I am concerned, what can I do for you? You are welcome. I’m behind…, etc. d) sentence framework and heads: sentence framework and heads are commonly used in written language, as a means of text organization, whose forms and functions are usually fixed or semi fixed, for example, first, finally, It is said that…,etc.
4.2.2 Pawley and Synder’s classification of chunks
Pawley & Synder (1983) divided chunks into four categories according to the cohesive function of words in the text: a) poly-words, such as by and large, nevertheless, etc. Traditionally, these words have been classified as phrases, but now they are regarded as the special form of multi-words. As the form of discourse cohesion, they are treated as the whole form like words not only in understanding but also in writing. b) Institutionalized expressions: mainly refer to the language building blocks that the speaker can use to store as a whole, including proverbs, epigrams, communication routines and other forms, for example, have a nice day (farewell), once upon a time. c) Phrasal constraints: usually short blocks that can be filled in. For example, a day ago, a long time ago; as I was…: as I was saying, as I was commenting; the simple the better; the busier, the happier. d) Sentence builders: sentence builders provide a sentence structure for expressing a concept and the content of the framework may change. For example, I think that it’s a good idea. I think that you’re right.
By analyzing the above detailed categories, it can be found that chunks are not only different from idiom, but also different from free collocation. The structure of idioms does not allow any change, which means there is no room for creation. Free collocation is a temporary combination, lacking predictability, which is not conducive to mastering, while chunk is just a semi fixed collocation between them. If a lexical sequence often appears in the form of co-occurrence, has a relatively stable form in structure and a relatively specific range in pragmatic function and meaning, it will be used as a conventional chunk eventually. In addition, from the listed chunk classification, we can also see a significant feature. From the lexical level to the sentence level, the structural fixity of chunks is gradually weakening and the modifiability is gradually increasing, that is, the space within chunk for pragmatic change becomes larger and larger, which can be used as a space for creative use of vocabulary, which is the space to be developed in vocabulary teaching.
4.3 The features of chunks
Chunks have three important characteristics. The first characteristic is the frequency of chunk co-occurrence: The frequency of chunk occurrence is the decisive factor to determine whether a language combination unit belongs to chunk. To determine whether a language combination unit belongs to chunk, it is necessary to see whether it often co-occurs together. If the frequency is very high, it can be identified. The second characteristic is the integrity of chunk storage and extraction.
Whether the combination of words can be stored and extracted as a whole (that is, psychological reality) is an important indicator to determine whether the combination of words is a chunk. Wray (2002) elaborated two functions of idiom sequence or lexical block: one is to reduce the reduction of processing effort; the other is to complete the function of social interaction. To achieve these two functions, chunks must be stored and extracted as a whole. The third characteristic is the memorizable rhythm chunks. The prosody of multi-word combination is also an important factor of determining whether chunks can be effectively remembered. Chunks are numerous and ubiquitous. According to the data of computer statistics, 90% of the natural language is made up of all kinds of lexical chunks with fixed semantic, that is to say, most of the discourse is realized through lexical chunks which are the basic language unit of English. It is unrealistic for learners to memorize a large number of chunks by rote. Teachers should guide learners to learn and memorize these chunks. Therefore, it is particularly important to determine the criteria of chunk learnability, that is, which chunks can be learned? What are the criteria for selection? Lewis’s lexical approach advocates that the frequency and integrity of lexical combinations is two important criteria to establish chunk learnability. In addition, rhythmicity is also in keeping with the characteristics of Chinese students’ language learning. Those chunks with strong rhythmic catchy speech can arouse the interest of learners, stimulate the exciting points of the brain, and be easy to remember. Therefore, the prosody of chunk should be an important criterion of chunk learnability.
4.4 The advantages of chunks
Due to the unique characteristics of chunk, chunks have many advantages in English vocabulary teaching. The specific advantages are as follows:
4.4.1 Promoting the acquisition, memory and use of vocabulary
First of all, it is good for vocabulary acquisition. Chunks can effectively reduce the difficulty of vocabulary acquisition. This is mainly due to the high frequency of chunk in language, which can ensure that chunk can be recycled continuously and naturally. Secondly, chunks are context dependent, and their meaning and context are relatively fixed, which makes students have relatively situational associations in similar situations. Secondly, it is good for vocabulary memory. Since chunks are large lexical structures that can be whole sentences, the number of words remembered at one time will increase greatly, but the difficulty of memory will not increase because of the absolute increase of the total capacity of memory. Because the meaning of a chunk is placed in a specific context, it is less difficult to memorize a chunk than to memorize a word without context. The effect is better, and it can be kept for a longer time. Thirdly, it is conducive to the use of vocabulary. Chunks make learners easy to form the relationship between context and function in their learning content, so that they can acquire the chunks as a whole and store them as independent chunks. Learners needn’t to understand its internal components or to carry out syntactic rule analysis to quickly retrieve and extract, which greatly improves the efficiency of vocabulary use.
4.4.2 Improving the fluency, correctness and idiomaticity of language
Firstly, it is helpful to improve the fluency of language. Chunk is a habitual chunk formed in language use. Without knowing its internal structure and relying on the language coding ability of the brain, users can extract and use chunk as a whole and quickly in communication, which greatly improves the fluency of language expression. As mentioned earlier, the fluency of language does not depend upon the number of grammar rules stored in the learner’s brain, but upon the number of equally generative chunks that enable people to express themselves fluently.
Secondly, it helps to improve the correctness of language. It is a difficult problem for English learners to use proper vocabulary in different contexts. For junior middle school students, this problem is particularly important. The formation of chunk itself contains a certain context of application and has a strong pragmatic function, so it is not necessary to pay attention to the grammatical structure consciously. Therefore, in the process of language output, students can quickly extract the corresponding chunks according to the context, so as to make the language output more efficient and accurate. Therefore, to strengthen chunk teaching can avoid pupils’ improper use of vocabulary and context and improve the correctness of language output.
Thirdly, it is helpful to improve the idiomaticity of language. Each chunk has a pragmatic function, and exists in the brain in the form of semantic fields. When extracting and using, the most suitable chunk is selected according to the specific situation of communication context, communication object and so on. Chunks can enable students to obtain pragmatic ability, improve the appropriateness of communication, and avoid pragmatic failures due to cultural differences.
4.4.3 Enhancing the self-confidence of learners
Because of the richness, polysemy and flexibility of vocabulary, most students are sometimes at a loss for complicated language phenomena. Poor effect in memorizing words, poor vocabulary in writing and poor oral communication skills often lead to their lack of confidence and enthusiasm for learning. At this time, if teachers conduct language teaching under the guidance of Chunk Theory, they can effectively help students to be confused or depressed. Because there are a mass of prefabricated and ready-made chunks in the language, for students, as long as they read, memorize and use them flexibly, they can come at will. The use of specific chunks in different communicative contexts can induce students’ motivation to learn the language, enhance their self-confidence, and make them have a sense of accomplishment in language learning.
5、 The application strategies of Chunk Theory in vocabulary teaching
Vocabulary teaching has always been a vital part of primary English teaching in China. How to adopt a scientific, reasonable and efficient teaching method has always been the concern and research topic of the majority of primary English teachers. It can be said that chunk theory provides a new way of thinking for English teaching, especially for the vocabulary teaching.
5.1 Infiltrating chunks to promote the comprehension of vocabulary
The current English teaching advocates that words do not leave sentences, and sentences do not leave the country. It can help students understand and express the language better by infiltrating chunk consciousness in vocabulary teaching and integrating chunk with vocabulary. For example, in unit 3 at the zoo of PEP Grade 3B, in the traditional primary English vocabulary teaching, when teaching the vocabulary in unit 3 Grade 3B of PEP such as long, fat, thin, tall, teachers often list these words on the blackboard and teach them separately, which make it hard for students to the comprehension of words. But, if teachers use the form of chunks, such as a long nose, a tall giraffe, a fat cat, a thin monkey to teach these words, which can not only help students better understand the new words in the chunks, but also deepen the impression of vocabulary and promote the comprehension of chunks.
5.2 Presenting chunks to improve the effect of vocabulary memory
Because chunk is a unity of grammar, semantic and context, the intentional memory with chunk as the whole memory unit is much better than the unintentional memory with independent words. Therefore, in primary English teaching, teachers should take full advantage of chunks to help primary students change their original ways and habits of memorizing individual words, and gradually transform them into the way of memorizing chunks to complete the learning, memorizing and actual use of English words, which is also conducive to increasing students’ word memory, expanding students’ vocabulary, and improving the effect of memory rate. The chunks are repetitive, full of rhythm and rhythm. The students can recite the chunks easily and remember them. It is necessary to give rein to the students’ subjective initiative, enhance their confidence, purpose, consciousness and strategy in memory, keep the sound, shape, meaning and structure of the chunk firmly in mind, so as to make it truly internalized and reach the level of truly mastering the chunk: i.e., accurate pronunciation, correct writing, proper use of grammar, etc. It can be used according to the correct collocation; it can be used according to its proper formality; it can be aware of the connotative meaning and associative meaning of chunk. The task of memorizing chunks can be arranged not only in class but also after class. Nevertheless, from the perspective of easing students’ burden and improving teaching efficiency, it is better to arrange it in class. In order to check the effect of memorization, teachers can take questions and answers, dictation, recitation, filling in the blank, correcting mistakes and other ways to check. When question and answer is used, it is better for teachers to adopt the way of English Chinese translation to realize the conversion of Chinese and English codes. When using dictation, teachers can speak both Chinese and English, but they all require students to be able to write English. In the form of filling in blanks, teachers usually leave out one or several words in chunks first, and then ask students to complete the blank parts according to the relevant meanings. When using the method of error correction, teachers can select some blocks in the textbook, replace them with students’ common mistakes, and then ask students to change back to the original correct words. In this way, students can enhance their mastery of block spelling, grammatical structure and semantic collocation.
5.3 Using chunks to improve the accuracy of vocabulary application
Since chunk itself is a lexicalized piece of language which integrates vocabulary, grammar and pragmatics, each chunk has pragmatic functions related to its context, and is often connected with the context when it is stored. Therefore, when it is extracted, appropriate chunk output can also be selected according to the context of communication, so as to improve the accuracy and fluency of vocabulary application, as well as the appropriateness of language communication. For example, in the traditional primary English vocabulary teaching, when teaching the vocabulary of the head in unit 3 Grade 3B of PEP such as head, face, ear, nose, teachers often list these words on the blackboard and teach them separately. Through the teacher’s teaching students know the specific meaning of these words, but can’t use these words to introduce their head and other facial organs. While, if teachers take “This is my…”as an independent chunk and then put the words into it, like “This is my head / face / ear…”, to teach these words as a whole, which can help students use these words to introduce their head and other facial organs and improve the accuracy of vocabulary application.
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