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Chapter One Introduction

1.1 Research Background
The concept of lexical chunk was firstly proposed by Becker (1975) and Bolinger (1976)in 1970s. It refers to a special kind of multi-word which, fixed or semi-fixed, lies betweentraditional grammar and vocabulary. So far there have been many terms used by scholars suchas prefabricated routines and patterns (Hakuta, 1974; Krashen & Scarcella, 1978), lexicalizedsentence stems (Pawley & Syder, 1983), lexical phrases (Nattinger & DeCarrico, 1992),lexical chunks (Lewis, 1993) and formulaic language (Weinert, 1995; Wray, 1999).A great number of linguists have conducted researches on lexical chunks. At present, inforeign countries, researches on lexical chunks in second language mainly employ threemethods which are linguistic method, corpus linguistics method and psycholinguistic method.Studies about lexical chunks in foreign countries have made some progress, which mainlyfocus on three aspects, that is, the development of lexical chunks, the difference of lexicalchunks between learners and lexical chunk teaching. Petera (2001) studied how four Japanesechildren used lexical chunks. Tode (2003) investigated how many grammatical rules of “be”learners would learn only through lexical chunks. Bradley (2003) and Wiktorsson (2003)studied the difference between learners in terms of lexical chunk use.In China, papers on lexical chunks came into being at the beginning of the 21stcenturyand most of them focused on the introduction to lexical chunks and the importance of lexicalchunks for language learning. Since 2005, an increasing number of studies on lexical chunkhave sprung up with various research methods and angles. Despite China’s late start in aspectof lexical chunks, studies about lexical chunks develop quickly in China. Many scholars haveexplored the importance of lexical chunks in English teaching such as Yang Yuchen (1999),Wu Jing and Wang Ruidong (2002), Liu Xiaoling and Yang Zhiqing (2003), Pu Jianzhong(2003) and Yan Weihua (2003). And some stress that lexical chunks are positively correlatedwith learners’ English output competence such as Li Hongye (2004), Liu Jiaying (2006) andLi Taizhi (2006).
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1.2 Significances of the Study
It is well acknowledged that the objective of second language teaching is to developlearners’ ability of using the target language to communicate with others accurately andfluently. With the advancement of second language teaching research, scholars have triedvarious teaching methods, two of which are of much influence.In 1950s, Structural Approach, based on Behaviorism and Structuralism, played aleading role in second language teaching. In classroom teaching, grammar was attached tomuch more importance and sentence patterns were the main teaching content, which madestudents good at grammar and sentence exercise, whereas students lacked appropriatecommunication competence. In 1970s, influenced by Chomsky, some linguists began to directattention to the development of learners’ communicative competence. CommunicativeApproach was different from Structural Approach. Just as its name suggested, CommunicativeApproach emphasized learners’ communicative competence. Only through learning naturallanguage and using them in appropriate social situations can learners enhance theircommunication competence. Instead of grammar and sentence本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。