Contents

Acknowledgments

Abstract

摘要

Chapter One Introduction-1

1.1 Background-1

1.2 Significance-1

1.3 Organization of The Thesis-1

Chapter Two Literature Review-3

2.1 Definitions and Standards of Chunks-3

2.2 Classifications of Chunks-4

2.3 Functions of Chunks-4

2.4 Features and Approaches of Chunks Learning-5

Chapter Three The Effects of Chunks Learning on Oral English-7

3.1 Features of Oral English-7

3.2 Significance of Chunks Learning to Oral English-8

3.3 Case Study-9

3.3.1 Chunks in Monologue-10

3.3.2 Chunks in Conversation-11

Chapter Four Conclusion-15

4.1 Major Findings-15

4.2 Suggestions-15

References-17

Abstract

In the era of globalization, English is universally used and recognized as a world language, while English learners struggle to speak fluent and idiomatic English. With the development and breakthrough in computational linguistics and corpus analysis, it is possible for researchers to study on huge quantity of natural texts, from which researchers reveal that chunks dominate in oral English. This thesis focuses on two key issues: chunks and oral English. And aimed to do a comprehensive study on chunks, this paper discusses various sides of chunks, namely, definition, criteria, classification, function and learning features. Besides, efforts are made to answer questions about oral English like what features does oral English have? what makes good oral English? what is the point of chunks learning to good oral English? 

One monologue and one conversation from a popular talk show “The Tonight Show Jimmy Fallen” are transcribed here as cases. And through comprehensive analysis on these two cases, from the perspective of both quantity and quality, this paper reaches some conclusions and suggestions based on the major findings.

Keywords: chunks; oral English; case study