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【Abstract】 Consider the vital role of prefabricated chunks in SLA concluded by many researches, the researcher intends to put the theories of prefabricated chunks into language teaching field by designing a research on the application of chunks in English teaching at college.
【Key words】Prefabricated chunks , application, second language teaching
1. Theoretical background
1.1 Description of prefabricated chunks
Although the term of chunk is first advanced by Becker and Bolinger as early as in the 1970s’’, there has not been a specific, widely accepted definition for chunk up till now. In fact, an enormous variety of terms are used to describe much the same text phenomenon, which runs the gamut from fixed terms like idioms and proverbs to loose connections like collocations. These terms, only naming a few, include ready-made language, formulas, fixed or semi-fixed expressions, lexicalized sentence stems, lexical phrase, prefabricated chunks and so on.
In effect, each researcher chooses an appropriate term for lexical sequences to fit in his or her specific research perspective. (eg. Lyouns, 1968; Ellis, 1991; Wray, 2000) Whatever terms they favor, however, it can be safely said that the differences between them are more a matter of degree than of kind. This paper tends to choose the term of prefabricated chunk, or simply chunk, to tackle this situation.
Generally speaking, chunk refers to special multi-word items, traditionally between grammar and vocabulary, and is usually fixed or semi-fixed. It consists of a sequence of two or more words, semantically and/or syntactically forming a meaningful and inseparable unit. Specifically, chunk is the result of lexical processes of fossilization and word-formation, rather than the results of the operation of grammar rules.
1.2 The Application of chunks in second language teaching
The findings of chunks in second language acquisition exert a great influence on researchers and pedagogues, such as Lewis, Nattinger and DeCarrico, who attach much emphasis on teaching chunks in class.
One of the most provocative ideas proposed is the lexical approach to teaching, which takes a position on the role of lexicon largely coming from corpus linguistics. Lewis (1993), chief proponent of this approach, advocates highly focused learning of the meaning-filled, multiword chunks. He suggests that language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word lexical chunks; teachers using the Lexical Approach will not analyze the target language in the classroom, but will be more inclined to concentrate learners’’ attention upon these chunks; in the practice of language teaching, the importance of noticing as well as listening and the value of repeating tasks are emphasized; translation and the use of first language by teachers and students are not avoided; the Observe-Hypothesis-Experiment cycle replaces the Present-Practice-Produce paradigm; the primary purpose of the teaching activities adopted by teachers is receptive, awareness-raising of lexical chunks, rather than formal teaching in a high-anxiety learning circumstance. Besides the necessary learning aid which every learner has is a vocabulary notebook, in which words and phrases are listed day-by-day as learners meet them, to more thoughtful, alphabetically indexed books, with complete expressions, usage notes and other helpful information. Nattinger and DeCarrico(1992) advocate that the principal aim of language teaching is to have students understand the communicative value of linguistic items in discourse, and that an effective way to do this is to have them learn the form/function composites, chunks. They even call for the compilation of a lexical phrase dictionary for learners. They consider lexical chunks to be important for language teaching because lexical chunks exist at the interface of syntax and lexicon, usage and use, competence and performance, and such chunks have been shown to be key units in both first and second language acquisition. They claim that teaching lexical chunks can improve fluency, since they allow for expressions that learners are yet unable to construct creatively. Their teaching application is comprised of three parts: (1) teaching spoken discourse: conversation; (2) teaching spoken discourse: listening comprehension; (3) teaching written discourse: reading and writing. Conspicuously, compared with Michael Lewis’’ Lexical Approach, Nattinger and DeCarrico’’s teaching approach is only tentative and demands refinement. However, it still gives some clues in applying lexical chunks to language teaching. An English teaching approach proposed by Wang Yin (2001) is one of them, which is called a "WPS" mode(word-prefabricated chunks-sentence). Take consist as an example. When teaching consist, consist of and consist in could be introduced at first, and then sentences containing these two chunks are provided afterwards: Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen. The casting process consists in pouring molten metals into moulds (p.253)
In short, chunks contribute substantially to the fluency and accuracy of the target language learning. The previous researches are mainly on using and memorizing chunks of formulaic language. Few of them focus on how and to what extend chunks affect learners’’ English proficiency. On the other hand, most tesearches concern learners’’ oral output while studies on writing are few and meager. What’’s more, the subjects of the studies are mainly on children and first-class university, while study on the subjests of 3-year community college english major in northwest area context are sadly lackin(Bibliography
［1］ Altenberg, B. ＆ Granger,S. (2001). The grammatical and lexical patterning of "Make" in native and non-native student writing. Applied Linguistics, 22(2)
［2］Bolinger. (1976). The optional distance model of second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 14, 365-372
［3］Wray, A. (2000) Formulaic Sequences in Second Language Teaching: Principle and Practice. Applied Lingustics. 21(4): 463-489
［4］Zimmerman, C. B. (2001). Historical trends in second language vocabulary instruction. In J. Coady ＆ T. Huckin (Eds.). Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press
［5］姚寶梁，2004，预制语块与外语口语流利性，《课程 教材 教法》，(4), 33-38
［6］王寅, 2001, 《语义理论与语言教学》 上海: 上海外语教育出版社
【Key words】Prefabricated chunks , application, second language teaching
1. Theoretical background
1.1 Description of prefabricated chunks
Although the term of chunk is first advanced by Becker and Bolinger as early as in the 1970s’’, there has not been a specific, widely accepted definition for chunk up till now. In fact, an enormous variety of terms are used to describe much the same text phenomenon, which runs the gamut from fixed terms like idioms and proverbs to loose connections like collocations. These terms, only naming a few, include ready-made language, formulas, fixed or semi-fixed expressions, lexicalized sentence stems, lexical phrase, prefabricated chunks and so on.
In effect, each researcher chooses an appropriate term for lexical sequences to fit in his or her specific research perspective. (eg. Lyouns, 1968; Ellis, 1991; Wray, 2000) Whatever terms they favor, however, it can be safely said that the differences between them are more a matter of degree than of kind. This paper tends to choose the term of prefabricated chunk, or simply chunk, to tackle this situation.
Generally speaking, chunk refers to special multi-word items, traditionally between grammar and vocabulary, and is usually fixed or semi-fixed. It consists of a sequence of two or more words, semantically and/or syntactically forming a meaningful and inseparable unit. Specifically, chunk is the result of lexical processes of fossilization and word-formation, rather than the results of the operation of grammar rules.
1.2 The Application of chunks in second language teaching
The findings of chunks in second language acquisition exert a great influence on researchers and pedagogues, such as Lewis, Nattinger and DeCarrico, who attach much emphasis on teaching chunks in class.
One of the most provocative ideas proposed is the lexical approach to teaching, which takes a position on the role of lexicon largely coming from corpus linguistics. Lewis (1993), chief proponent of this approach, advocates highly focused learning of the meaning-filled, multiword chunks. He suggests that language consists not of traditional grammar and vocabulary but often of multi-word lexical chunks; teachers using the Lexical Approach will not analyze the target language in the classroom, but will be more inclined to concentrate learners’’ attention upon these chunks; in the practice of language teaching, the importance of noticing as well as listening and the value of repeating tasks are emphasized; translation and the use of first language by teachers and students are not avoided; the Observe-Hypothesis-Experiment cycle replaces the Present-Practice-Produce paradigm; the primary purpose of the teaching activities adopted by teachers is receptive, awareness-raising of lexical chunks, rather than formal teaching in a high-anxiety learning circumstance. Besides the necessary learning aid which every learner has is a vocabulary notebook, in which words and phrases are listed day-by-day as learners meet them, to more thoughtful, alphabetically indexed books, with complete expressions, usage notes and other helpful information. Nattinger and DeCarrico(1992) advocate that the principal aim of language teaching is to have students understand the communicative value of linguistic items in discourse, and that an effective way to do this is to have them learn the form/function composites, chunks. They even call for the compilation of a lexical phrase dictionary for learners. They consider lexical chunks to be important for language teaching because lexical chunks exist at the interface of syntax and lexicon, usage and use, competence and performance, and such chunks have been shown to be key units in both first and second language acquisition. They claim that teaching lexical chunks can improve fluency, since they allow for expressions that learners are yet unable to construct creatively. Their teaching application is comprised of three parts: (1) teaching spoken discourse: conversation; (2) teaching spoken discourse: listening comprehension; (3) teaching written discourse: reading and writing. Conspicuously, compared with Michael Lewis’’ Lexical Approach, Nattinger and DeCarrico’’s teaching approach is only tentative and demands refinement. However, it still gives some clues in applying lexical chunks to language teaching. An English teaching approach proposed by Wang Yin (2001) is one of them, which is called a "WPS" mode(word-prefabricated chunks-sentence). Take consist as an example. When teaching consist, consist of and consist in could be introduced at first, and then sentences containing these two chunks are provided afterwards: Water consists of hydrogen and oxygen. The casting process consists in pouring molten metals into moulds (p.253)
In short, chunks contribute substantially to the fluency and accuracy of the target language learning. The previous researches are mainly on using and memorizing chunks of formulaic language. Few of them focus on how and to what extend chunks affect learners’’ English proficiency. On the other hand, most tesearches concern learners’’ oral output while studies on writing are few and meager. What’’s more, the subjects of the studies are mainly on children and first-class university, while study on the subjests of 3-year community college english major in northwest area context are sadly lackin(Bibliography
［1］ Altenberg, B. ＆ Granger,S. (2001). The grammatical and lexical patterning of "Make" in native and non-native student writing. Applied Linguistics, 22(2)
［2］Bolinger. (1976). The optional distance model of second language acquisition. TESOL Quarterly, 14, 365-372
［3］Wray, A. (2000) Formulaic Sequences in Second Language Teaching: Principle and Practice. Applied Lingustics. 21(4): 463-489
［4］Zimmerman, C. B. (2001). Historical trends in second language vocabulary instruction. In J. Coady ＆ T. Huckin (Eds.). Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press
［5］姚寶梁，2004，预制语块与外语口语流利性，《课程 教材 教法》，(4), 33-38
［6］王寅, 2001, 《语义理论与语言教学》 上海: 上海外语教育出版社