A thesis refers to a topic or an article. An article with research knowledge points is not only a tool to describe scientific research achievements for academic exchange, but also a means to discuss problems for scientific research. The following is a research project that uses lexical chunks to optimize the teaching of English practical writing, edited by Fan Wendaquan. I hope it helps you. If you like, please continue to pay attention to Fan Wendaquan.
Paper Keywords: project teaching method, lexical chunks, English practical writing
English practical writing teaching aims at cultivating students' practical written communication ability, and emphasizes the practicality and pertinence of teaching. Project teaching method aims at cultivating students' practical ability and is an effective way to improve the teaching of English practical writing. Lexical chunk theory holds that the mastery of lexical chunks is helpful to learners' fluency, accuracy and textual coherence in language output. This paper discusses how to combine project teaching method and chunk theory in English practical writing course to promote writing teaching.
First, the problems in the teaching of English practical writing
English practical writing teaching emphasizes practicality, which not only enables students to master the basic knowledge of practical writing systematically, but also cultivates students' ability to use the knowledge and skills they have learned through repeated practice. However, there are still many problems in English practical writing teaching at present, and the teaching effect is not ideal. First of all, the teaching objectives are unclear. Basically, it emphasizes the teaching of writing knowledge and skills, but ignores the cultivation of skills, which runs counter to the practical characteristics of practical writing. Secondly, the teaching content is scattered, which is not closely related to students' life and career, and students' learning lacks systematicness and purpose. Teaching methods are outdated, teachers play a leading role, students learn passively, there is no teaching activity for students to think and practice independently, and students' learning enthusiasm is not high. Teaching methods are backward, and modern technical means such as multimedia and Internet cannot be applied, which affects the updating of teaching content, the improvement of students' interest and the enthusiasm of teachers. Finally, the assessment method is single. Basically, it is based on summative evaluation, which makes students care about scores far more than learning knowledge and skills. This kind of teaching often leads to the following problems in students' writing: 1) Lack of vocabulary, inability to organize language and express ideas correctly. 2) I can't master the vocabulary and sentence patterns commonly used in practical writing, and I can't properly use the internal expression of practical writing style. It is easy to use Chinese logical thinking to choose words and make sentences, and at the same time, it is also lacking in grasping the integrity, coherence and correctness of sentences. 3) There are many grammatical errors and punctuation errors. 4) Poor typesetting ability. In order to change this situation, according to the characteristics and advantages of project teaching method and chunk theory, the author proposes to combine them to optimize the teaching of English practical writing.
Second, the project teaching method
Project-based teaching method refers to the teaching process that takes the cultivation of students' practical ability as the starting point and teamwork as the basis, transforms the knowledge content in the traditional subject system into several teaching projects, guides students to actively participate in specific learning projects, obtains new knowledge and skills in practical training, and promotes the development and improvement of practical ability.
The teaching objectives of the project emphasize practicality. Integrating theoretical knowledge and practical operation into the project implementation process, teachers are no longer limited to imparting book knowledge, but let students personally participate in the project implementation process to help students use existing knowledge and skills in practice and integrate with new knowledge. The content of project-based teaching is systematic and practical. Select the contents closely related to students' life and career, and integrate the teaching contents in a modular form according to their internal relations. Project-based teaching mode embodies initiative and interactive cooperation. Students are the main body of learning and solve problems through multi-angle and multi-directional thinking. In the process of solving problems, it can stimulate students' creative thinking ability and cultivate students' initiative in learning. Teachers and students cooperate with each other to form a "learning body", * * * enjoy resources and wisdom, * * * discuss and solve problems and cooperate to complete projects. Project-based teaching method is advanced. Teachers and students should use modern information technologies such as multimedia and network to obtain learning information, and use PPT, web pages, animations, pictures, audio and video to make multimedia courseware to show their achievements. There are various assessment methods for project teaching. The evaluation system combining formative evaluation and summative evaluation is adopted.
Thirdly, the theory of lexical chunks.
Chunks are a special multi-word lexical phenomenon in English, and they are linguistic units with both lexical and grammatical features. Corpus and language acquisition research show that lexical chunks are the smallest unit and subject of language communication and use, that is, lexical chunks are the foundation of language. Nattinger and Decorico (1 992) divide chunks into1) multi-lexical chunks. Refers to a fixed multi-word combination. Such as the first; After that, addition (for listing and adding); AtpresentAssoonas (representing time); On the contrary; Otherwise (indicating a turning point) and so on. 2) Regular expression. Lexical phrases at the sentence level include proverbs, epigrams and social formulas. Like Nicemeetingyou. 3) phrase structure chunks. Refers to a phrase frame composed of some fixed words, in which empty slots can be filled with similar words to express various pragmatic functions. Such as inshort/sum/brief (summary); Aago (time); DuetoX (reason) and so on. 4) Sentence structure chunks. That is, sentence pattern It can be filled with other elements and has the function of chapter organization. Such as I' m writing to… (thank you …/apply for …/complain about …/congratulate you …/Informyouthat …) (used at the beginning of a letter to express the intention of writing); Weareverygratefulfor… ..... (thanks) and so on. The advantages of lexical chunks in language acquisition are as follows: 1) Lexical chunks have relatively fixed grammatical structure restrictions, stable collocation meaning and specific pragmatic environment. As a whole, they can be directly extracted and used without grammar generation and analysis, which greatly reduces the writer's language processing burden and promotes the fluency and accuracy of his language output. 2) Lexical chunks have certain pragmatic functions, and writers can automatically choose the most appropriate lexical chunks according to the needs of the context, so as to make language use conform to pragmatic principles, avoid the negative influence brought by mother tongue thinking, and improve the appropriateness of language use. 3) Chunks also have textual functions and meanings. All styles have stylized idiomatic collocations and sentence sets, and lexical cohesive devices and logical relations have corresponding lexical chunks to choose from, which can make the article coherent, clear and rigorous. The advantages of lexical chunks coincide with the requirements of accuracy, conciseness, clarity, completeness and appropriateness in practical writing, which can effectively improve the quality of English practical writing.
Fourthly, the teaching practice of English practical writing based on the combination of project teaching method and chunk theory.
English practical writing project teaching can be divided into three stages.
(A), the preparatory stage
According to the knowledge system of English practical writing course and the needs of students' life and professional posts, the whole course content is divided into three modules: personal affairs writing, secretarial affairs writing and business affairs writing. Each module is regarded as a project, and each project is divided into several sub-projects to form teaching content.
Personal affairs writing includes job hunting, application, resume, personal introduction, thanks, invitations, apologies, leave notes, etc. The writing of secretarial affairs includes notices, agendas, records, memos, reports, summaries, various letters and telegrams, etc. Business writing includes advertisements, establishing business relations, promotional letters, letters of complaints and claims, inquiry (newspaper) plates, etc. Teachers put forward the project task idea, discuss with students and determine the goals and tasks. Taking the sub-project of "Business Writing" as an example, it is determined that the task of this project is to master the contents, characteristics, formats and common chunks of complaint letters and replies. Determine the classroom training links. Teachers guide students to collect, sort out and discuss information related to this project, and activate students' existing knowledge of lexical chunks. Students collate the information they get and write the first draft.
(ii) Implementation phase
Classroom training is divided into three parts: case discussion, case revision and simulation training. First of all, students show the prepared cases, and the discussion between teachers and students leads to the first knowledge point: the content and characteristics of the complaint letter and reply. Then analyze the cases in groups, leading to the second knowledge point: the writing format and common chunks of complaint letters and replies. Teachers will choose key chunks that mark the beginning, theme and end of the article, and show and explain them to students. For example, at the beginning of a letter of complaint, the common chunks that point out the reasons for the complaint are: iamwritingmakecamitlaintabout …/iwoulldlitodrawuratentinotintoploblem/fault …/iwishtoexpressmystatisifaction/designation about …, and so on. Chunks used to propose solutions to problems include weshouldbbeobligedifuyouwoulreplace …/wearrepresiddoaccept … if you … and so on. The last part is I hope that ... Will get your kind consideration/iam looking forward to reply, and so on. The commonly used phrase in reply is that we are sorry to learn …/Thank you …/We are really sorry … and so on. Next, the teacher shows the wrong cases of complaint letters and replies, and asks questions, such as whether the format is reasonable, whether the chunks used are correct, and how to modify them. Train students to identify lexical chunks and learn to use lexical chunks. Then teachers and students discuss with each other, revise the wrong questions, and summarize the writing points and common chunks of complaint letters and replies. Design oral sentence-making or written fill-in-the-blank and translation exercises to train students to remember and use lexical chunks. Then, conduct simulated writing training. Students independently revise the first draft according to their existing knowledge, and then exchange writing and revision with each other to master the form and function of lexical chunks and the effective methods of using lexical chunks to form texts. Finally, students show it through PPT files, paper assignments, role-playing and telling.
(3) Evaluation stage
The evaluation stage is the inspection, evaluation and summary of the whole project activities, and the evaluation system combining formative evaluation and summative evaluation is adopted. Formative evaluation can be student self-evaluation, group mutual evaluation and teacher evaluation, which mainly evaluates students' performance (data collection and preparation, learning attitude, participation in practice, etc.). ) During the whole project completion process. The quality of writing is evaluated from three aspects: format, content and chunk use. Comment and praise the language expression (use of lexical chunks) and discourse structure of excellent exercises. Finally, the students revised it again according to the feedback information to form the final work, and the teacher gave the final evaluation.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) conclusion
The combination of project teaching method and chunk theory can effectively improve students' practical writing ability. Project teaching method is beneficial to cultivate students' abilities of collecting and processing information, acquiring new knowledge, analyzing and solving problems, communicating and cooperating, and autonomous learning. It can stimulate students' writing enthusiasm and effectively promote the development and improvement of students' practical ability. Paying attention to the study and use of lexical chunks at all stages of project implementation is helpful to improve the fluency, accuracy, appropriateness and coherence of writing. At the same time, the use of lexical chunks can minimize the occurrence of language errors, reduce students' anxiety about using English for fear of making mistakes, and enhance students' self-confidence and sense of accomplishment.
refer to
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3 Li Taizhi. The advantages of lexical chunks in the teaching of foreign trade English writing and productive training methods [J]. Foreign Languages, 2006( 1):34-39.
4 sue. Research on the Teaching of Project Courses in Higher Vocational Colleges Based on Constructivism [J]. Journal of Gansu Union University (Natural Science Edition), 20 10 (3),11-14.
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