Abstract
Oral English teaching in vocational colleges aims to cultivate students' ability to use the language, by improving their listening and speaking skills to improve students’ practical communication skills. Oral communication ability mainly depends on pronunciation, intonation, enunciation, fluency, proper words, right grammar, substantial content and clear logic. Oral fluency is one of the indicators for measuring students’ ability of speaking. For many Chinese students, especially for non-English-major students in vocational colleges, it is difficult to accomplish a real communication task easily and fluently, although they have learned English for almost ten years. As far as English teaching methods are concerned, traditional approach of English teaching is grammar-translation method which focus on grammar teaching and written exercises but ignors training students’ listening and speaking abilities in our country. The author analyzed the limitations of traditional English teaching method and the main problems which the non- English-major students in a vocational college have in their learning oral English and tried to study the effects of lexical approach in oral Englsih teaching on oral Englsih fluency.
In recent years, more and more linguists have realized that language output is not a process that is subject to the rules of syntax, but a process of extracting phrases from memory. Michael Lewis believed that language is not composed of traditional grammar and vocabulary, but is composed of prefabricated chunks. At present, although lexical approach has been gradually applied to language teaching, few scholars pay attention to the use of lexical approach in oral English among non-English majors in vocational colleges. So, this thesis focused on the use of lexical approach in oral English teaching of vocational college students and analyzed the effect of lexical approach on the oral English fluency of vocational college students. This study tried to answer the following questions by using teaching experiment:
(1) Using oral tests to understand that compared to traditional teaching strategies, whether lexical approach is more able to improve higher vocational students’ oral English fluency;
(2) Using questionnaire to understand the impact of lexical approach on students' oral English learning and students' evaluation on lexical approach, so as to explain why lexical approach has an impact on student's oral test results.
(3) Using interview method to understand whether lexical approach has an important value for solving the long-standing problems faced by Chinese higher vocational students in oral English learning, and what improvements the current lexical approach needs to make.
Sixty non-English-major students out of two classes in Shandong Yingcai University were chosen as participants in this empirical study. First class was an experimental class including thirty students, they were taught by using lexical approach. Thirty students in another class was a control class and were taught by adopting a grammar-translation teaching strategy. The experiment lasted a semester,18 weeks. In this study, it made use of oral test, questionnaire and interview to collect data to evaluate the oral English fluency of the two groups of students, and to collect the evaluation from students of the experimental group on lexical approach. At the first week, a oral test was conducted for the students to understood whether there was a statistical difference between the oral English performance of the two groups of students, by doing so to pide them into high, middle and low levels. Then a pre-questionnaire was carried out to understand the questions faced when they spoke English. During the following sixteen weeks, students in the experimrntal class were taught by using lexical approach while students in the control class were taught by using traditional English teaching method, grammar-teching method. After seventeen weeks of implementing the experiment, an oral English test was carried out to see if there were significant differences in the oral English fluency between the two groups. Then they were required to answer the post-questionnairer to understand their views and evaluations on lexical approach. And in the last week, six students were selected randomly from the experimental group and were interviewed by the author in order to to know their inner thoughts towards lexical approach. With the help of SPSS V22.0, the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data led to the following findings:
(1) Compared with traditional oral English teaching, lexical approach could promote the students' oral English. Lexical approach can improve the oral English fluency of the students of high and middle levels, but it has less impact on the students of a low level.
(2) The type and quantity of chunk output is positively related to the oral English fluency of non-English majors in vocational colleges.
(3) Processing and extraction of chunks in oral English fluency of non-Englsih majors in vovational colleges can alleviate the syntactic burden of recounstructing discourse expression.
During the process of writing the paper, the author also found some difficulties and limitations, for example, the time is too limited to study completely the effect of lexical approach on oral English fluency, as each participant has their own characteristic, and their knowledge, intelligence, ability and motivations of language learning. Oral fluency can also be influenced by speakers’ self-confidence, physical conditions, and familiarity to a topic.
Keywords: lexical approach; oral English fluency; chunk; vocational colleges; non-English majors
摘要
高职院校英语口语教学的目标是培养学生运用英语的能力，提高其听说技能，尤其是提高学生的口语交际能力。口语交际能力主要取决于语音、语调、清晰度、流利性、恰当的词汇、正确的语法、充实的内容和清晰的逻辑，而口语流利度是衡量口语能力的重要指标之一。在我国，很多学生，包括高职院校非英语专业的学生，尽管其已有十多年的英语学习经历，但仍然很难用英语进行流利交际。就英语教学法而言，传统英语教学注重语法教学和写作练习而忽略了学生听说能力的实际培养。笔者分析了传统英语教学法的局限性及高职院校非英语专业学生在英语口语学习过程中所面临的问题，试图通过在英语口语教学过程中运用Michael Lewis的语块教学法（Lexical Approach）来研究此教学法对高职非英语专业学生英语口语流利度的影响。
近年来，越来越多的语言学家意识到语言产出不是一个受制于句法规则的过程，而是从记忆中提取短语单位的过程。Michael Lewis认为语言并非由传统的语法和词汇组成，而是由多词的预制语块组成。目前虽然语块教学法已经开始被应用到英语教学中，但对语块教学法在高职院校非英语专业学生的口语教学中的实证研究很少见。因此，本文研究通过语块策略在高职院校非英语专业学生口语学习中的应用来分析语块教学法对高职非英语专业学生口语流利度的影响。本研究试图回答以下问题：
(1)运用口语测试的方法来了解语块教学策略相比传统教学策略是否能够更加提高高职学生的英语口语流利度。
(2)运用问卷调查的方法来了解语块教学方法对于学生口语学习方法的影响以及学生对于语块教学法的评价，以此来解释语块教学法为什么对于学生口语测试结果产生影响。
(3)运用访谈的方法了解语块教学策略对于解决中国高职学生在口语学习过程中的长期以来所面临的问题是否具有重要价值，以及当前的语块教学策略还有哪些改进的地方。
本实证研究选取山东英才学院两个班级60名非英语专业学生为研究对象。其中一个班级30名学生为实验班，采用语块教学策略；另一个班级30名学生为控制班，采用传统语法教学法。试验周期为一个学期，18周。在本研究中, 利用口语测试、问卷调查和访谈等方式收集数据，评估两个班学生的口语流利程度，并收集实验班学生对语块教学法的评价。第一周，进行口语测试，了解两个班学生的英语口语水平并将实验班学生分为高、中、低水平三组；进行问卷调查，了解其英语口语学习过程中存在的问题。在接下来的16周中，实验班的学生在口语教学过程中采用语块教学法，而控制班的学生则采用传统的英语教学方法——语法教学法进行英语口语教学。在进行了17周的实验之后，再针对两个班的学生的英语口语学习进行口语测试和问卷调查，以了解他们英语口语流利度的差异和对语块教学法的看法和评价。最后一周，从实验班随机选取6名学生，并由笔者进行访谈，以了解实验对象对语块教学法的态度和学习动机。借助SPSS V22.0数据进行定量和定性分析，目前得出以下结论:
(1) 与传统英语口语教学相比，语块教学法可以提高学生的英语口语水平，其中对高、中水平层次的学生影响较大，但对低水平的学生影响较小。
(2) 语块输出的种类和数量与高职院校非英语专业学生的口语流利程度呈正相关。
(3) 语块教学过程中语块的加工和提取减轻了重构话语表达的句法负担，缩短反应总时间，提高语速和音速。
本研究存在一定的困难和局限性：一学期的实验时间稍短，不足以充分研究语块教学对高职非英语专业学生口语流利度的影响；学生个体差异大:已有知识、智力、语言学习能力、学习态度和学习动机不尽相同。口语流利性还会受到言语者自信心、身体状况、对话题的熟悉度及准备是否充分等多种因素的影响。
关键词：语块教学法；英语口语流利性；语块；高职院校；非英语专业学生
Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
At the end of the 20th century, with the impetus and support of the Ministry of Education, China's higher vocational college education has gained rapid development, an important feature is the emphasis on the combination of theory and practice to cultivate students' ability to apply theory in practice (Yang, 2002). As far as English teaching in vocational college education is concerned, one of the important goals of English teaching is to cultivate students’ ability to use language and improve their ability of using oral English in communication. Students’ ability of using oral English in communication is mainly determined by their pronunciation, intonation, fluency; grammar, the use of words, and so on (Mao, 2008). Among them, oral English fluency is one of the indicators to measure students’ spoken language ability. Although in China, students began to learn English in primary schools, the vast majority of ordinary university graduates, including vocational college students are unable to use English fluently in communication. This is clearly contrary to the goal of vocational college English education (Yang, 2002). The root cause of this problem lies in that the current English learning environment, teaching methods used in Chinese vocational colleges is not conducive to cultivating and improving students' oral English fluency, and there is less research from the colleges, teachers and related researchers on improving oral English fluency (Yang, 2002). In the context of China's increasingly open economy, it is great theoretical and practical significance to pay attention to cultivating vocational college students with strong foreign language communication ability to meet the needs of foreign trade and communication.
Content
Abstract I
摘要 II
Chapter 1 Introduction 1
1.1 Background of the Research 1
1.2 Objective and Significance of the Research 1
1.3 Organization of the Thesis 3
1.4 Summary 4
Chapter 2 Literature Review 5
2.1 Lexical Approach 5
2.1.1 Definition of Chunk 5
2.1.2 Types of Chunk 6
2.1.3 Definition of Lexical Approach 8
2.1.4 Theoretical Basis of Lexical Approach 9
2.1.5 Related Researches on Lexical Approach at Home and Abroad 12
2.2 Oral English Fluency 13
2.2.1 Definition of Oral English Fluency 13
2.2.2 Factors of Oral English Fluency 14
2.2.3 Measurement of Oral English Fluency 15
2.2.4 Related Researches on Chunk and Oral English Fluency 16
2.3 Empirical Researches on Lexical Approach and Oral English Fluency at Home 18
2.4 Summary 20
Chapter 3 Research Methodology 22
3.1 Research Questions 22
3.2 Research Subjects 23
3.3 Research Instruments 23
3.3.1 Oral Testing 23
3.3.2 Indicators for Oral Testing 25
3.3.3 Questionnaire 29
3.3.4 Interview 30
3.4 Reseach Procedures 31
3.4.1 Pre-test 31
3.4.2 Teaching Material 32
3.4.3 Implementation of Lexical Chunk strategy in Experimental Class 32
3.4.4 Implementation of Traditional Teaching Method in Control Class 33
3.4.5 Post-test, Post-questionnaire and Interview 34
3.4.6 Data Analysis 34
3.5 Major Findings of the Study 34
Chapter 4 Results Analysis 36
4.1 Analysis of Pre-test 36
4.2 Analysis of Post-test 37
4.2.1 Time Indicator 37
4.2.2 Content Indicator 46
4.2.3 Expressive Indicator 51
4.2.4 Accuracy Indicator 56
4.3 Analysis of Questionnaires and Interviews 61
4.3.1 Pre-questionnaire 61
4.3.2 Post-questionnaire 63
4.3.3 Interview 64
4.3.4 Analysis of Questionnaires and Interviews 66
Chapter 5 Conclusion 70
5.1 Major Findings of the Study 70
5.2 Pedagogical Implications 72
5.2.1 Core Chunks 72
5.2.2 Practice in Context 73
5.2.3 Accumulation of Chunks 73
5.2.4 Communication and Imitation 73
5.3 Limitations of the Study 74
5.4 Suggestions for Further Reseach.....................................................................................74
Bibliography 76
Appendix 1 Pre-test 79
Appendix 2 Post-test 80
Appendix 3 Pre-questionnaire 81
Appendix 4 Post-questionnaire 82
Appendix 5 Interview 83
Appendix 6 Raw data 88
Acknowledgement......................................................................................................................77
Published Papers.........................................................................................................................78
5.4 Suggestions for Further Research
In future, relevant researches can be improved from the following three aspects. First of all, it should increase the number of research samples as many as possible, through selecting students from different vocational colleges as research objects to study whether lexical approach has a positive effect on the oral English fluency of students with different backgrounds. Then, the time for carrying out lexical approach can be extended to two semesters, which can better assess whether lexical approach also has the same positive effect on students with poor academic performance. Finally, a variety of forms can be used to evaluate the oral English fluency of students, including: dialogue, picture talk, real environment simulation and so on, so as to make a more objective evaluation on the real effect of lexical approach.
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Appendix 1 Pre-test
Part I Greetings and Introductions
Teachers greeted the students. Teachers asked the students to introduce:
-Where their hometowns are?
-Which subject do you like most, why?
- Which subject is the most difficult? why?
Part II Background setting
Today is Saturday, an audience wants to go to the cinema to see a film, but he does not know how to go to the cinema, and what firms are broadcasted in the cinema, as well as names of the firms and film prices. At the same time, this Saturday in Wanda Theater, No. 93 Jianguo Road, Beijing Chaoyang District, a film named Farewell to My Concubine will be broadcasted at six o'clock in the evening. The leading actor was Zhang Guorong and the film has won several awards, the film price for adults is 100 yuan, 50 yuan for minors and students.
A student was asked to ask another student questions according to the above content, and the student answered the questions according to the above-mentioned information.
After the communication between the students, the teacher will ask the two students the following questions:
-How often do you go to see a film?
-With whom?
- Which film do you like most?
-Who are your favorite actors? why?