1 / 31

FUN

FUN. WITH. CHUNKS. FIGMENT. I didn’t see anything in the shadows, it was just a figment of my imagination. WHAT IS A LEXICAL CHUNK?. “Basically a chunk is a group of words between 2 and 7 words long that co-occur in natural text with greater than random frequency…” (Michael Lewis 1997:8).

sauda
Download Presentation

FUN

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. FUN WITH CHUNKS

  2. FIGMENT

  3. I didn’t see anything in the shadows, it was just a figment of my imagination.

  4. WHAT IS A LEXICAL CHUNK? “Basically a chunk is a group of words between 2 and 7 words long that co-occur in natural text with greater than random frequency…” (Michael Lewis 1997:8)

  5. EXAMPLES OF CHUNKS • Words - car, coffee • Polywords – by the way, inside out • Fixed Expressions – How do you do?, That’s not the point. • Semi-fixed expressions-Would you like something to drink/eat/read…? • Sentence heads – The fact is…, In my opinion… • Collocations – Black Market, Stock Market, Street Market.

  6. _______ coffee _________ cars

  7. “In Britain people drive cars and drink coffee, but in English they do not” (Lewis)

  8. How did you get here this morning? • I drove / I came by car/ I brought the car in. • I drove the car .

  9. Would you like a coffee? • No thanks, I’ve just had one. • No thanks, I’ve just drunk one.

  10. BETWEEN 2 AND 7 WORDS • Car park • Fish and chips • Open and closed case • I’ll have a pint • Do you feel like going out? • If I were you, I would definitely…

  11. L1 ACQUISITION AND CHUNKS • Children start to acquire chunks at a very early age. • These chunks are stored as unanalysed single units (“this is mine”) • This data is held in reserve for subsequent analysis • Using chunks saves processing time • Adult native speakers have hundreds of thousands of chunks to hand

  12. LEXICAL APPROACH PROS “The ability to deploy a wide range of lexical chunks both accurately and appropriately is probably what most distinguishes advanced learners from intermediate ones” Scott Thornbury

  13. MORE PROS… • Increased fluency • More natural sounding language usage • Exact ideas expressed more easily • Intonation and pronunciation improve • Improvement of receptive skills • Cambridge ESOL exams test chunks

  14. SOME POSSIBLE CONS… • Opposition of Lewis’ peers • Difficult to structure a whole course • Opposition from learners • Chunks may easily fossilize

  15. INTEGRATION As with many other methodologies, rather than embracing them totally and ignoring the rest, it is probably best to take some ideas and integrate them into our classes…

  16. RAISING AWARENESS Can you say…? Well, you could, but you wouldn’t. Why not? Because you can’t.

  17. RAISING AWARENESS ________ olimpicamente

  18. USEFUL RESOURCES • Concordance lines • Lexical notebooks • Monolingual dictionaries • Collocation dictionaries

  19. CONCORDANCE LINES

  20. Verbs Borrow Change Earn Make Invest Lose Adjectives Easy Dirty Blood LEXICAL NOTEBOOK MONEY

  21. READING IN CHUNKS • Chunks naturally appear in written texts • Chunks help reading aloud • Easier to identify chunks visually • Helps raise awareness

  22. READING INCHUNKS “The world’s most popular drink is water. You probably knew that already. After all, it’s a basic requirement of life on Earth. But did you know that the world’s second most popular drink is Coke? And that the human race drinks six hundred million cokes a day?” (M.Lewis 1997)

  23. READING INCHUNKS “The world’s most popular drink// is water. You probably knew that already.// After all,// it’s a basic requirement// of life on Earth.// But did you know// that the world’s second most popular drink// is Coke?// And that the human race// drinks six hundred million cokes// a day?” (M.Lewis 1997)

  24. LISTENING TOCHUNKS • Songs are an excellent source of chunks • Provide pronunciation model for chunks- “If I were you I’d…” • Again,helps raise awareness

  25. JASON MRAZ - I’M YOURS Divine Intervention Nothing’s going to stop me Listen to the music Bending over backwards Nibble your ear I won’t hesitate This is our fate Open up your mind

  26. SPEAKING WITHCHUNKS • More natural sounding speech • Recycle chunks already seen • Repetition increases competence in using collocations • Makes learner feel more comfortable about using chunks

  27. SPEAKING WITHCHUNKS 7 TO 1 What are you going to do tonight? I’m going to see a film. Which film and what time? Harry Potter, at 7. Can I come? Of course. Great!

  28. WRITING INCHUNKS • Using chunks helps the flow of a text • Chunks also make texts sound more natural • Provide useful models for writing • FCE and CAE writing tasks

  29. WRITING INCHUNKS You have been doing a project on travel and tourism. Your teacher has asked you to write an essay giving your opinions on the following statement. Travel broadens the mind and widens our horizons. Write your essay. You should write between 120 and 180 words. (Ready for FCE p102 Norris)

  30. WRITING INCHUNKS • It’s better to travel than to arrive • Package holidays • Year out • Go abroad • Narrow minded • Life experience • Comfort zone

  31. AND FINALLY… • Make sure chunks are natural • Raise awareness • Integrate in class-little by little • Suitable for all levels • Exploit reading and listening texts for chunks • Recycle in productive skills • Happy Chunking!!

More Related