TheApplicationofCorpus—basedLexicalChunksApproachinEnglishTeaching

梅王星

【Abstract】With the guidance of lexical chunks teaching approach， this article is to discuss the application of corpus-based lexical chunks approach in English teaching by making use of corpus concordance analysis.After comparing the language differences between native language corpus and target language corpus， it advocates that the emphasis of English lexical study should be put on corpus-based study of chunks， aiming to promote the fluency and authenticity of language output in English teaching.

【Key words】chunks； corpus； English teaching

Introduction

Lexical study lies not only in the expansion of vocabulary but also in the extension of its range and depth.As for the frequently-used words， mastering the spelling、pronunciation、and meaning is only the tip of iceberg for lexical acquisition.Mainly the traditional lexical teaching is meaning-driven in our country， therefore， in order to enlarge their vocabulary， students just memorize words and expressions with the Chinese meaning accordingly instead of the interior characteristics when they occur.They neglect the depth development of vocabulary， which results in the failure of using vocabulary even after several years of English learning.

In these days， more and more researchers have noticed the importance of vocabulary depth.According to Becker in 1975， to input and output language is not based on using one single word，but making use of chunks that prefabricate in the brain of human.The chunks are the smallest unit when communication takes place.

The research of chunks plays a critical role in guiding foreign language teaching.So how to promote learners language output with the help of corpus-based study of chunks？ In this article， by comparing and analyzing the language output differences between native language users and target language learners， corpus concordance analysis will be used for empirical research in the language teaching， so as to promote fluent and authentic language when conducting teaching activities.

1.Chunks Approach Theory

Chunks namely are combination of words.The definition of chunks given by Pu Jianzhong is that： Chunk is a poly-words unit which is specifically structured， conveys a certain meaning， prefabricates in humans brain and can be frequently used.They include idioms、expressions and collocations as well.According to Lewis， chunks usually refer to two or more words combination that are seen as wholes or chunks without further analysis.They are raw materials for language learning， which can be observed and noticed by learners to acquire the language pattern.

Traditional lexical teaching places great emphasis on the pronunciation、spelling and its main usage of a new word by explaining and illustrating it.This is totally teacher-centered.Thus when reading an English article， learners often fall into a puzzle： Its easy to understand every single word in a sentence， including its part of speech、spelling、pronunciation and meaning； when it comes to the understanding of the whole sentence combined by these words， it becomes rather difficult.Many factors are responsible for this understanding difficulty， such as several meanings of a word， the parts of speech， and one important factor lies in chunks.To some extent， being unable to recognize the chunk combined by several words， and trying to separate the chunk when making comprehension definitely hinder the understanding for the text.This comprehension difficulty and slow reading speed is directly or indirectly relevant to learners ability of mastering chunks.This is also the case in English writing.Thats why Chinese learners make the phrases like “learn knowledge”、“enter society”、“reach all aims”.

In the work Lexical Approach Lewis concluded that： “Language consists of grammaticalized lexis not lexicalized grammar.” This conclusion overturned the traditional concept that language consists in both grammar and lexis， thus established lexis as the foundation of language.Lexis are not separated from grammar， but are integrated into a bigger phrase---chunk under the guidance of specific grammar and semantics.Therefore， the emphasis of foreign language teaching and learning should be put on the chunks that occur frequently in language communication.By means of chunks approach， we can put the active words into the context and give a thorough consideration to the situation， then these chunks can be noticed and learned appropriately.

2.Corpus and The Lexical Chunks Approach

A corpus is a collection of naturally-occurring language text， chosen to characterize a state or variety of a language.（Sinclair 1991：171） and a collection of machine-readable authentic text which is sampled to be representative of a particular language or language variety.（McEnery and Wilson 2006：5）.In short， a corpus is a large collection of written or spoken texts that is used for language research.With the superiority of its large capacity、authentic language materials、quick and accurate concordance， etc.corpus plays a significant role in language teaching and learning.

Firstly， its beneficial to develop learners intelligence when using corpus to observe and analyze language materials.Because of the large amounts of authentic examples and contexts presenting in front of learners， corpus makes learners attention span last longer， which is helpful to enhance memory、acquire the understanding and summarize regular patterns.Secondly， the application of corpus in English teaching and learning is helpful to students autonomous learning model， and it will activate students language consciousness and sensitivity.The model of data-driven learning offers a presupposition for induction learning strategy， for effective language learning is a process of exploring the language.

Corpus can promote the lexical chunks study mainly through concordance.Corpus concordance analysis is the most basic analysis means for corpus.The most common form is KWIC（Key Words in Context）.After setting up the node word， the computer will make use of concordance tool to search for the sentences that include the node word， and present them in the form of placing the node word in the middle.This may range from several words beside the node word to the whole sentence or paragraph which contains the node word.As we can see it in this way， corpus concordance not only can assist learners with noticing the node words chunk model， but also provide different contexts for corresponding chunks.Hence， learners can obtain good understanding and the authentic usage of vocabulary in real situation.

Learners can achieve data-driven learning by making use of corpus concordance analysis as well， which embodies students-centered learning.To select the frequently-used vocabulary from large-scale raw corpus and to acquire the most basic usage and most common collocation of them can make students truly understand and master the authentic way of using vocabulary.Therefore， after making use of the characteristics comparison analysis between native language and target language using， we can gain the analysis result and then take advantage of it to guide language learning and improve classroom teaching.In a certain degree， corpus-based study of lexical chunks can compare favorably with natural-surroundings language learning in terms of learning effectiveness.

3.The Application of Corpus—based Lexical Chunks Approach in English Teaching

3.1 Corpus-based lexical chunks approach and teachers language teaching.According to the traditional foreign language teaching in our country， the lexical teaching is just to teach students the single word， which usually results in the separation of “wood” and “forest”.Meanwhile， there is a connection between a word and others from the aspects of pronunciation， form and meaning.This connection will be neglected if we simply learn a single word separately.Nowadays， we can get a quick access to all authentic examples of a word or a phrase by means of modern computer technology， and add up the occurring frequency of a certain word or phrase.In this case， teachers themselves can establish an accurate and overall relationship among words， and acquire the meaning and usage of every language in practical communication.

Lets take the noun “survey” for example here.Commonly-used dictionaries all list out the collocation of “make a （general） survey of”.But after we search for “survey” and “surveys” as the key word in the corpus， the collocation between “make” and “survey” never occurs.The search result shows that the most frequent collocation is conduct/carry out a survey， and more passive forms are used than active forms.

Traditional English textbook is grammar-structured， but the contemporary communication techniques aims for practical use when conducting language teaching.So the lexis， grammar and topics are categorized in terms of their frequency in the process of real language using.Before the use of corpus， its rather tough and complicated to put the frequency in order； but this job becomes easy and accurate with the assistance of corpus.

For instance， in traditional teaching to modals， its usually thought that the order of them should be put like “can–may–must–shall–will– should–would”.While after searching for them in national English corpus， we get a nearly opposite order from the above.The result indicates that， the most common modal in English is “would” rather than “can”.So if we give some consideration to the real distribution of these words when composing textbook and designing teaching plan， we can teach the most common words firstly and help students to learn and use them frequently in a native way.Its better to arouse students motivation for study and connect language learning with language communication firmly.

In brief， teachers can use language from native speakers corpus as the natural materials， and conduct language teaching activities under the guidance of lexical chunks approach.The effects of this approach are embodies as the following： Firstly， lexical chunks approach can reduce the differences between the language that is taught in classroom and the language which is used by native speakers.Whats more， the using of authentic and vivid language is persuasive to arouse learners learning interest.In the second place， with the help of corpus concordance tool， we can easily search for the chunks examples in great detail， which paves a shortcut for key words study and research.The search result will present the contexts， which are displayed for students to observe and distinguish the target chunks and understand their typical usages as well.

From the above， we can see it clearly that corpus-based lexical chunks approach enables teachers to get a quick access to the high frequency chunks， and offer students the authentic and comprehensible materials， then develop their ability to communicate in real and native English.This is a model of “observation-selection-drill”， which is different from the traditional one “illustration-practice”.This approach gives a complete consideration for the key context and abstracts the most common use and pattern of a certain word in the form of chunk.As a result， it definitely will optimize the lexical teaching.

3.2 Corpus-based lexical chunks approach and students autonomous language learning.Corpus is helpful for students to cultivate their ability of autonomous language learning， for it can be used to achieve the transfer from “learn” to “know how to learn”.During the English teaching in the past， the common phenomenon was that teachers summarized the regular patterns of the language， and students wrote them down onto their notebooks， then memorized them mechanically to “utilize” them in examination.If corpus can be fully used， students themselves can search for the examples of a certain word or a structure by making use of the corpus concordance skills， and study these examples to discover and induce the language laws by themselves.

We can establish a brand-new model of autonomous language learning with the help of corpus， especially for the learning of lexical chunks.We can analyze the demands of learners according to their individual characteristics analysis.After doing this analysis， we can choose the language learning materials that fits the individual from the corpus， and build up a language learning pattern specifically for himself.

Then the learning effectiveness will be assessed after students have the language learning finished.The autonomous learning and its result will be reflected among the table of their characteristics and learners corpus， which is meant to make students autonomous learning becoming closer to their demands.In this way， the learners-centered model is built and students ability of autonomous learning will be easy to acquire.

The core of implementing corpus teaching scheme is to give students opportunity of exploring and finding the language regular patterns， and to discuss them in a well-organized class.The implementation of corpus-based lexical chunks approach requires teachers to shift their roles in teaching.A good teacher is not only a lecturer who shares knowledge but also a guide and companion who helps students with their discovery for knowledge， and gradually guide students to adapt themselves to this new study model， then make students shift from memorizing knowledge passively and mechanically to discovering and absorbing authentic and active language from corpus by themselves.

4.Conclusion

Corpus is an expansion of existing English teaching resources.Corpus-based lexical chunks approach is beneficial both to the efficiency and effectiveness of vocabulary study， and it will do good to the promotion of vocabulary expansion and extension.Applying corpus into English lexis teaching not only offers students large amounts of authentic language materials， but also enables them to acquire knowledge with proper situations and get quick access to various collocations dynamically， which in return benefits the teacher to design data-driven learning tasks.

There are two systematic projects to be done if we want to enhance corpus-based lexical chunks approach.Firstly， a further research is needed to study the corpus-based lexical chunks involved in the course requirement， in order to establish a complete learning material data.In the second place， we should reinforce the study for lexical chunks strategies and approaches.If we want to transfer a lexical chunk from the external to the internal， make it become learners ability， the language learner should be a skillful person who can realize and apply the law of repetition， connection and assimilation.

Meanwhile， we must notice that there are different concordance offered by network corpus， so its necessary to use them integratedly.In addition， for the students who learn English at their beginning or just for a short time， the teacher should arrange some periods for them to get familiar with the use of corpus.By this means， students can master how to use corpus concordance， which will facilitate the review and search for the lexical chunks occurred in the textbook.

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【基金項目】湖北省教育科學規劃研究項目——基于詞塊理論的大學英語口語教學有效性研究，項目編號：2014A136。