A Corpus-based Analysis of Lexical Chunks in High School Students’ English Writing

This study examines the use of lexical chunks in the English writing of 179 senior high school students from seven Sichuan high schools. Using BFSU PowerConc 1.0 software, the research aims to identify the characteristics and shortcomings of lexical chunk usage. Findings reveal that while students frequently use lexical chunks—about one for every five words—the variety of chunks is limited. Polywords are the most commonly used, followed by phrasal constraints and sentence builders, with institutional expressions being the least utilized. Additionally, students often make spelling errors and misuse collocations, and they rarely use institutional expressions effectively. The paper concludes with recommendations for teachers to enhance students’ awareness of lexical chunks during second language acquisition, diversify teaching materials, and improve the quality of writing exercises.