VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST- GRADUATE

BÙI THỊ THANH USING LEXICAL CHUNKS TO SUPPORT GRADE 12
TH

STUDENTS IN LEARNING TO SPEAK ENGLISH
– A STUDY AT VU TIEN HIGH SCHOOL OF THAI BINH

(Sử dụng cụm từ vựng để hỗ trợ học sinh lớp 12 học nói tiếng Anh -
Nghiên cứu tại trường THPT Vũ Tiên, Thái Bình)

M.A MINOR THESIS

Field: English Teaching Methodology
Code: 601410

Hanoi - 2012
VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY- HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES


i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
ii
ABSTRACT
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
iv
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
v
PART A- INTRODUCTION…………………………………………
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1. Rationale
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2. Aims of the study
2

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4. Method of the study
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5. Scope of the study.
3
6. Design of the study.
3
PART B. DEVELOPMENT……………………………………………
4
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND…………………
4
1.1 SPEAKING SKILL
4

2.3 Research instruments
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2.4 Research procedure
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2.5   
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2.6 Summary
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CHAPTER III: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION…………
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3.1 Results fr- treatment questionnaire 
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3.1.1         
speaking lessons

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3.1.2 Factors prevent students from speaking English in the
classroom.

28
-treatment questionnaire
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3.2.1 S   motivation to learn English when they
are taught lexical chunk

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3.2.2 S benefits of using lexical chunks
in speaking lessons.

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
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REFERENCES……………………………………………………
41
APPENDICES……………………………………………………………
I
APPENDIX A:PRE- TREATMENT QUESTIONNAIRE 
I
APPENDIX B: POST  TREATMENT QUESTIONAIRE
III
APPENDIX C: SAMPLE LESSON PLAN
VII vii

LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS
1. List of tables

Table 1.s classification of lexical chunks.
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Table 1. typology of lexical chunks
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Table 3.1

learning lexical chunks in speaking lessons

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2. List of charts

Figure 3.1:  to learn to speak English
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Figure 3. 2:  toward learning grammar
25
Figure 3.3: s toward learning to speak English.
26
Figure 3.4: s about the accuracy in speaking lesson
when taught lexical chunks

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viii

Figure 3.5:  s about the fluency in speaking lesson
when taught lexical chunks

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Figure 3. 6: s about their improvement in speaking
lesson when taught lexical chunks.

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1

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale

teaching. The role of vocabulary has long been underestimated in EFL
education.
Lewis (1993) proposes the Lexical Approach and brings the field to
systematically examine the nature of lexis in second language acquisition.
According to him bulary dichotomy is a false. Often when

present and record the word but to explore the gram
1993: 115). He strongly argues     aticalised
lexis, not lexica    vi). The pairing of grammar
and vocabulary is best seen in lexical chunks, which are retrieved and
processed as whole units. These units may not only enhance the accuracy and
fluency of the language, but also speed up language processing significantly.
These characteristics of lexical chunks motivate me to experiment using

2. Aims of the study
The thesis is primarily aimed to gain understanding of the extent to
which lexical chunks can motivate and benefit students in their speaking
activities and then give some suggestions for teachers to stimulate students to
speak and overcome the difficulties they face with in using lexical chunks to
teaching speaking skills and some suggestions for the next cycle of the
research on the topic.
3. Research questions
The study was designed to answer the following questions:
(1) To what extent does the use of lexical chunks influence the
   speak English as measured by their self-
3

reported changes in their confidence and participation in speaking
English?
(2) What do the students self-report on the benefits of using lexical

survey and a comprehensive analysis on the data collected are focused.
Chapter IV: - This chapter presents the findings and offers
recommendations for more effective application of lexical chunks
Part C: Conclusion: Some limitations of the study, suggestions for
future research and conclusions of the study are presented in this part.
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PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This chapter deals with the theoretical background t I employed for the study
1.1 SPEAKING SKILL
1.1.1 The importance of speaking
According to Byrne (1991), among the four language skills, listening
and reading are considered as the receptive skills, speaking and writing as the
productive skills. They are also divided according to the manners by which
they are formed. The skills in connection with manual script including reading
and writing are called literacy skills. The ones which are related to articulator
organs are called the oral skills consisting of listening and speaking. Of the
four skills, speaking plays a very important role since it is the step to identify
who knows or does not know a language. Anyone who knows a foreign
language can speak that language. Byrne (1991    
English in order to be able to speak easily, comfortably, confidently. This is
true for people who need to learn English for work or study, or even for those
who want to learn Spanish or Chinese for travel. Most people want to learn to
Pattison (1992) confirms that when a person speaks of knowing or
learning a language they mean being able to speak the language. Thus,
speaking is a type of linguistic output. By producing the output, learners are
expected to notice the gap in their knowledge and then find ways to bridge the
gap.
Therefore, the importance of speaking in learning a second or foreign


order to complete the task, learners not only use the language
that the teacher has just presented but also draw on any other
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vocabulary, grammar, and communication strategies that they
know. In communicative output activities, the criterion of
success is whether the learner gets the message across.
Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes
with the message.
In a balance activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities
from these different categories of input and output. Learners at all proficiency
levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety, it is more motivating,
and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning.
1.1.2 What is involved in speaking a foreign language?
Speaking was defined as     
meaning that involves producing and receiving 
(Florez ,1999 cited in Bailey, 2005: 2). It - ended
          
     l utterances to convey
 (Balley, 2005:2).
Brown (1994: 258) makes the following list of skills & knowledge that
a good speaker has to possess:
 The sounds, stress pattern, rhythmic structures and intonations
of the language
 Accurate grammar structures
 Vocabulary that is understandable and appropriate for the
audience, the topic being discussed, and the setting in which the
speech act occurs
 Strategies to enhance comprehensibility, such as emphasizing

which makes lexical chunks differ from other conventionalized or frozen

9

Viewing vocabulary as more than words, Lewis (1993) initiates the
term      He modifies the connotation of
lexicon from single words to the collocation of many ritualized bits of
language, and explains that lexis is different kinds of multi-word chunks,

produce continuous coherent tex      
         
basis for a lexical view of language and the lexical approach to second
language teaching.
According to  (1998:40) definition a lexical chunk is a multi-
word item, which can be referred to otherwise as a vocabulary item consisting
of a sequence of two or more words. This sequence of words semantically
and/or syntactically forms a meaningful    
definition focuses on the form of the lexical chunk, and points out that the
form contains its particular meaning as a unit.
Taking a psycholinguistic perspective, Wray (2000) defines lexical
chunks as:
      rds or other
meaning elements, which is, or appears to be, prefabricated; that is,
stored and retrieved whole from memory at the time of use, rather
than being subject to generation or analysis by the language
 (p. 465).
   t a lexical chunk is a ready-made
meaningful linguistic unit that is memorized and operated in use instantly.

help to reduce the cognitive load of the students while speaking English as a


For the most part (qualifier)
In a nutshell (summarizer)
By the way (topic shifter)
I’ll say ( agreement marker)
All in all (summarizer)
By and large (qualifier)
Institutional expression:
(1) Institutionalized expressions are lexical

How are you? (greeting)
11

phrases of sentence length, usually
functioning as separate utterances.
(2) They are invariable
(3) They are mostly continuous
Institutionalized expressions are proverbs,
aphorisms, for social interaction. They are
used for quotation, allusion or direct use.

Nice to meet you (closing)
There you go (approval)
Give me a break (objection)
Sentence builders:
(1) Sentence builders are lexical phrases
that provide the framework for whole

differ in grammatical level, in the kind of substitution they allow, and to
whether they are typically continuous or discontinuous.
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Lewis (1993:92-95) classifies the lexical chunks into four different
basic types. They are polywords, collocations, institutionalized utterances and
sentence frames and heads.
Table 1.2: Lewis’ typology of lexical chunks
Types of lexical chunks
Examples
Polywords: Extension of words, which is
composed of more than one word. And it is
often considered to be the essential vocabulary
for learners to acquire.
by the way, upside down, as
soon as, on the one hand, talk
about, after all, grow up and so
on

Collocation: refers to pairs of words that
frequently co-occur with each other. These
frequent associations merge into habitual
connection and sometimes they are in a fixed
order.

community service,
absolutely convinced
knife and fork,
bread and butter
play the basket ball

expressions. The former one is message-orientated, and the latter one is
pragmatic in character.
As can be seen from the classifications listed above, there is still no
fixed standard for classification of lexical chunks, and researchers set up their
own criteria for their own research aims. However, when we use these
criteria, we must be aware that all of these lexical chunks range between two
extremes from absolutely fixed to highly free. Therefore the categorization is
fuzzily edged, and sometimes it is quite difficult to make specific boundaries
between these types.
1.2.3 Advantages of using lexical chunks in teaching speaking
          
    -  y are helpful to L2
learning Scholars have summarized three major benefits of using lexical
        
accuracy, and motivation. These three benefits are discussed in detail in the
following sections.
1.2.3.1 Promoting language fluency
Fluency in spontaneous connected speech may take the adult learner of
a foreign language years to achieve. 
ability to produce language rapidly, coherently, appropriately, creatively as
well as automatically (1998:13). From this definition, fluency not only
involves the speed of the language production but also the logical
organization of the production.