CHUNKS
Benefits
they facilitate fluent processing
they confer idiomaticity
they provide the raw material for subsequent language development.
criteria for selecting lexical chunks for inclusion in language teaching curricula
utility
frequency
fixedness
idiomaticity
teachability
chunks which are relatively fixed in their form (such as first and foremost, by leaps and bounds) are, once learned, easier to deploy as a single item, and therefore more facilitative of productive fluency.
The items we select to teach would not be chosen on the basis of grammar but on the basis of their usefulness and relevance to the learners' purpose in learning’.
‘learners would do well to learn the common words
of the language very thoroughly, because they carry the main patterns of the language’
idiomatic expressions can be made more memorable, and hence more teachable
How are chunks best learned and taught?
The phrasebook approach
The awareness-raising approach
The analytic approach
The communicative approach
Teach
Select
Reveal
Complement
implication
Teachers should train learners in strategies for identifying possible chunks in the input that they are exposed to, as well as strategies for recording and reviewing them, and for re-integrating them into their output.
Testing of both spoken and written language should
include criteria that address the candidates’ command of formulaic and/or idiomatic usage.
For teachers of younger learners, in particular, the design and use of activities such as songs and chants should be promoted, so as to maximise their chunk-learning potential.
At beginner/elementary levels, chunk learning should take the form of the formulaic ways that certain common speech acts are realised, such as making requests, apologising, etc.