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This article is a practical research on lexical approach， and it tries to present how to use chunks to improve junior writing skills by showing some authentic teaching experience. At the very beginning， it generalizes the background of this article. Then， it gives a well-known definition and classification of chunks. Next， it presents an example to show how to use chunks facilitate students’ writing on the basis of the texts from students’ textbooks. From the example and some practice on chunks， a survey is made to prove that chunks really play an important role in improving students’ writing skill. At last， a conclusion is made to show the limits of this research.
I. Introduction
The new curriculum of English Course in compulsory period clearly states that the whole purpose of English teaching is to improve students’ integrated abilities， including writing.
Writing is an important part of Junior English Language Teaching， which is also a big headache to most middle school students. Therefore， this article mainly focuses on how lexical chunks influence English writing， and how to make chunks serve for writing. Hopefully it can give the students some help.
II. Definition and Classification of Chunks
There are a variety of definitions of chunks， and there is no unique definition， either. According to Xi Linlin（2004）， chunks are the combinations composed of two or more than two continuous or the non-continuous words， which have a higher frequency than random frequency， and they can express certain meanings， and have relatively complete structures.
There are also a few ways to classify the chunks. According to Nattinger & Decarrico （1992）， chunks can be classified into four groups. They are poly-word（聚合词）， e.g. by the way， as long as and so on. institutionalized expression（习惯用语）， e.g. Long time no see！ Here you are！phrasal constraint（短语限制语）， e.g. as far as_____ （I know， I can tell） and sentence builder（句子构造语），e.g. It is time to ...， neither ... nor and so on.
III. How to Use Chunks to Develop Students’ Writing Skill
It’s not easy to find the direct access to improve students’ writing skill with chunks immediately； instead， a range of ways has been tried. However， leading students to write a passage according to the textbook in a 40-minute class may be the simpler and more direct way to improve students’ writing skill in such a quite limited time. Therefore， the following exploration is carried on and takes students’ textbooks as the basis. （1） Get the main idea by identifying the topic sentences of the whole passage—have an opinion
Take lesson 23 from Junior 2B （Hebei Province Edition） （The Internet—Good or Bad？） as an example， the main task of the first reading is to guide students catch the main idea of the whole passage. It is easy to find out that the main idea of this text is， the Internet has advantages and disadvantages. Besides， there is also one important sentence， that is， every coin has two sides. When the students have found the main idea of this text， they can have a view as well.
Therefore， when the students are going to write a passage， they can search the key sentences or phrases to show the view of the passage.
（2） Figure out the frame structure of the passage with the help of the key chunks from the text—form the frame
After finding the main idea of the passage， it’s necessary to figure out the structure of the text， and the students are supposed to use the key chunks from each paragraph. However， there is no need to write every word down， and they should use as few words as they can. In this way， it’s easy for them to remember the main points of the text. Besides， they can practice making sentences.
Let’s focus on lesson 23 again！The structure can be shown from the following diagram.
The context in Rectangle 1 is the title of the text， the contexts from rectangle 2 to rectangle 5 are the main idea of each paragraph， and the contexts from rectangle 6 to rectangle 9 are the key chunks taken from each paragraph. According to the diagram， it’s easy to form the structure of the passage. The following is an example from the student：
The Internet has changed the world. Every coin has two sides. The Internet has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of the Internet are： It can make life easier and simpler. It can help get things done easily. And it can help you stay in touch with a friend who lives far away. The disadvantages of the Internet are： spending too much time online is harmful to people’s health. You may become less social with your family or friends. Some people may attack the web and steal others’ information. So don’t let the Internet take up all of your time！
Although the passage is not so good， it seldom has some grammatical mistakes， and the view is clear， so is the clue.
（3） Use some conjunctions and fixed expressions to compose a new passage and improve it—compose a passage
It is necessary to improve the passage after the rough draft has been finished， since the students may tend to use some Chinese expressions. Besides， to make the passage more native， some conjunctions should be used， such as： but， however， as well， aside from， in a word and so on. The following is the example after improving. The Internet has changed the world. However， every coin has two sides， so is the Internet. The Internet has advantages and disadvantages as well. The advantages of the Internet are really wonderful. It can make life easier and simpler. It can help get things done easily. And it can help you stay in touch with a friend who lives far away. However， the disadvantages of the Internet can be seen easily. Spending too much time online is harmful to people’s health. You may become less social with your family or friends. Aside from that， some people may attack the web and steal others’ information. So don’t let the Internet take up all of your time！
During these three steps， the first two steps are easy to finish in a 40-minute class， however， the last step needs the students to practice more. Once the students have practiced a lot， they may find it easy to finish the last step freely.
IV. Effects chunks have on Writing
After using the above way for more than two months， some of the students get to know the importance of chunks， especially their influence on writing. Therefore， a survey is made to find the influence of chunks on students’ writing skill. The survey has investigated more than 150 students in a middle school in Xian Yang， Shaan Xi. The survey includes the following questions：
First， do you think that chunks （lexis） have something to do with your writing？
Second， how can chunks benefit your writing？
According to the result， more than 90% students believed that there was a close relationship between chunks and writing， and chunks can benefit
Writing in different ways.
（1） Arouse Students’ Interest in Writing
Lewis （Michael Lewis， 1993） states that， language consists of grammatical lexis， not lexicalized grammar， which focuses on lexis instead of grammar. In everyday English teaching， students are more willing to memorize the words， phrases and some regular expressions， while very few are interested in learning grammar. Once they have mastered some chunks， they will find it is easier to write something freely.
（2） Build Students’ Confidence in Writing
As for this point， it can be seen from daily learning. Those students who are good at English can memorize the chunks easily. Once they have memorized the chunks， they will have confidence in English. What’s more， while they are writing， they are more likely to use the chunks they have memorized， which also shows their great success in the process of learning English.
V. Conclusion
Since this research is just an experiment， which may be regarded as a practical experience. Therefore， more efforts and evidence should be given， to make the opinion more perusable. In a word， more researches are needed to find the easy access to improve students’ writing skills with chunks.
References
[1] Puth Gairns & Stuart Redman. Working with Words A Guide to teaching and learning vocabulary [M]. 外语教学与研究出版社，剑桥大学出版社，2009.
[2] 田贵森， Jim Parsons. 《英语》（八年级下册）[M]. 石家庄：河北教育出版社，2014.
[3] 周正钟. 语块教学法新探——理论、实证与教学延伸[M]. 苏州：苏州大学出版社，2014.
（作者单位：陕西省咸阳市渭城区第一初级中学）
I. Introduction
The new curriculum of English Course in compulsory period clearly states that the whole purpose of English teaching is to improve students’ integrated abilities， including writing.
Writing is an important part of Junior English Language Teaching， which is also a big headache to most middle school students. Therefore， this article mainly focuses on how lexical chunks influence English writing， and how to make chunks serve for writing. Hopefully it can give the students some help.
II. Definition and Classification of Chunks
There are a variety of definitions of chunks， and there is no unique definition， either. According to Xi Linlin（2004）， chunks are the combinations composed of two or more than two continuous or the non-continuous words， which have a higher frequency than random frequency， and they can express certain meanings， and have relatively complete structures.
There are also a few ways to classify the chunks. According to Nattinger & Decarrico （1992）， chunks can be classified into four groups. They are poly-word（聚合词）， e.g. by the way， as long as and so on. institutionalized expression（习惯用语）， e.g. Long time no see！ Here you are！phrasal constraint（短语限制语）， e.g. as far as_____ （I know， I can tell） and sentence builder（句子构造语），e.g. It is time to ...， neither ... nor and so on.
III. How to Use Chunks to Develop Students’ Writing Skill
It’s not easy to find the direct access to improve students’ writing skill with chunks immediately； instead， a range of ways has been tried. However， leading students to write a passage according to the textbook in a 40-minute class may be the simpler and more direct way to improve students’ writing skill in such a quite limited time. Therefore， the following exploration is carried on and takes students’ textbooks as the basis. （1） Get the main idea by identifying the topic sentences of the whole passage—have an opinion
Take lesson 23 from Junior 2B （Hebei Province Edition） （The Internet—Good or Bad？） as an example， the main task of the first reading is to guide students catch the main idea of the whole passage. It is easy to find out that the main idea of this text is， the Internet has advantages and disadvantages. Besides， there is also one important sentence， that is， every coin has two sides. When the students have found the main idea of this text， they can have a view as well.
Therefore， when the students are going to write a passage， they can search the key sentences or phrases to show the view of the passage.
（2） Figure out the frame structure of the passage with the help of the key chunks from the text—form the frame
After finding the main idea of the passage， it’s necessary to figure out the structure of the text， and the students are supposed to use the key chunks from each paragraph. However， there is no need to write every word down， and they should use as few words as they can. In this way， it’s easy for them to remember the main points of the text. Besides， they can practice making sentences.
Let’s focus on lesson 23 again！The structure can be shown from the following diagram.
The context in Rectangle 1 is the title of the text， the contexts from rectangle 2 to rectangle 5 are the main idea of each paragraph， and the contexts from rectangle 6 to rectangle 9 are the key chunks taken from each paragraph. According to the diagram， it’s easy to form the structure of the passage. The following is an example from the student：
The Internet has changed the world. Every coin has two sides. The Internet has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages of the Internet are： It can make life easier and simpler. It can help get things done easily. And it can help you stay in touch with a friend who lives far away. The disadvantages of the Internet are： spending too much time online is harmful to people’s health. You may become less social with your family or friends. Some people may attack the web and steal others’ information. So don’t let the Internet take up all of your time！
Although the passage is not so good， it seldom has some grammatical mistakes， and the view is clear， so is the clue.
（3） Use some conjunctions and fixed expressions to compose a new passage and improve it—compose a passage
It is necessary to improve the passage after the rough draft has been finished， since the students may tend to use some Chinese expressions. Besides， to make the passage more native， some conjunctions should be used， such as： but， however， as well， aside from， in a word and so on. The following is the example after improving. The Internet has changed the world. However， every coin has two sides， so is the Internet. The Internet has advantages and disadvantages as well. The advantages of the Internet are really wonderful. It can make life easier and simpler. It can help get things done easily. And it can help you stay in touch with a friend who lives far away. However， the disadvantages of the Internet can be seen easily. Spending too much time online is harmful to people’s health. You may become less social with your family or friends. Aside from that， some people may attack the web and steal others’ information. So don’t let the Internet take up all of your time！
During these three steps， the first two steps are easy to finish in a 40-minute class， however， the last step needs the students to practice more. Once the students have practiced a lot， they may find it easy to finish the last step freely.
IV. Effects chunks have on Writing
After using the above way for more than two months， some of the students get to know the importance of chunks， especially their influence on writing. Therefore， a survey is made to find the influence of chunks on students’ writing skill. The survey has investigated more than 150 students in a middle school in Xian Yang， Shaan Xi. The survey includes the following questions：
First， do you think that chunks （lexis） have something to do with your writing？
Second， how can chunks benefit your writing？
According to the result， more than 90% students believed that there was a close relationship between chunks and writing， and chunks can benefit
Writing in different ways.
（1） Arouse Students’ Interest in Writing
Lewis （Michael Lewis， 1993） states that， language consists of grammatical lexis， not lexicalized grammar， which focuses on lexis instead of grammar. In everyday English teaching， students are more willing to memorize the words， phrases and some regular expressions， while very few are interested in learning grammar. Once they have mastered some chunks， they will find it is easier to write something freely.
（2） Build Students’ Confidence in Writing
As for this point， it can be seen from daily learning. Those students who are good at English can memorize the chunks easily. Once they have memorized the chunks， they will have confidence in English. What’s more， while they are writing， they are more likely to use the chunks they have memorized， which also shows their great success in the process of learning English.
V. Conclusion
Since this research is just an experiment， which may be regarded as a practical experience. Therefore， more efforts and evidence should be given， to make the opinion more perusable. In a word， more researches are needed to find the easy access to improve students’ writing skills with chunks.
References
[1] Puth Gairns & Stuart Redman. Working with Words A Guide to teaching and learning vocabulary [M]. 外语教学与研究出版社，剑桥大学出版社，2009.
[2] 田贵森， Jim Parsons. 《英语》（八年级下册）[M]. 石家庄：河北教育出版社，2014.
[3] 周正钟. 语块教学法新探——理论、实证与教学延伸[M]. 苏州：苏州大学出版社，2014.
（作者单位：陕西省咸阳市渭城区第一初级中学）