Psychological Reality of Chunks for EFL Chinese Students -Evidence from Speaking Fluency

Abstract

The study explores the psychological reality of chunks for EFL Chinese students. Speech samples from three variousproficiency groups are examined with the help of the computer program Cool Edit 2.0, and speaking fluency is thusdetermined. It is found out that speaking fluency is not linear, and fluent subjects can use, store and retrieve chunksof sentence builders as one single unit while non-fluent ones cannot, which can be attested by the fact that fluentsubjects do not or seldom pause frequently within chunks of sentence builders and thus not break them up. Thesefindings suggest that chunks are psychologically real for Chinese EFL students, and chunks should be combined intoEFL learning and teaching in China.