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作者简介：何微微（1980-）,女,汉族,四川自贡人,助教,硕士,主要从事应用语言学、英语教学法研究.
Abstract：Thisarticleprovidesanoverviewoftheresearchonprefabricatedchunksbothathomeandabroad.Itdescribesthedefinitionofprefabricatedchunks,itsclassifications,andtherelatedresearchinthiield.ThispaperemphasizesthattheapplicationofprefabricatedchunkshasimportantimplicationstoEnglishteachingandlearninginChina.
Keywords：prefabricatedchunks；definition；classifications；SLAresearch
1.Introduction
Inrecentyears,theroleofprefabricatedchunksinlanguageteachingandlearninghasbeeninthefocusofattentionofmanylanguageteachersandresearchers.Theeverawarenessofprefabricatedchunksinnative-speakerperformanceleadstorethinkingtheapproachestolanguageteachingandlearning.
Prefabricatedchunksarelanguageunitswhichexitwithhighfrequencyinlanguage.Theyarepositesofgrammar,semanticsandpragmatics.Theyplayitalroleineverydaymunication,contributingtotheease,fluencyandappropriatenessinlistening,speaking,readingandwriting.Therefore,teachingprefabricatedchunksisanewlanguagepedagogicaltheory,anditisbasedontherationalethatlanguageconsistsnotoftraditionalgrammarandvocabularybutoftenofmulti-wordprefabricatedchunks.
2.Thedefinitionofprefabricatedchunks
Attemptshebeenmadetoexplorethephenomenonofprefabricatedchunksinbothfirstandsecondlanguageacquisition.Theparticularlanguageischaracterizedwith“ready-made”or“unanalyzedwhole”.Differentmentatorsuseoverlappingtermstodescribethisphenomenon,suchasprefabricatedchunks（Becker,1975&Bolinger,1976）,formulaicutterances（FillmoreWong,1976）,formulaicspeech（Ellis,1985）,routineformulas（Yorio,1980）,lexicalchunks（MichaelLewis,1993）,formulaicexpression（FillmoreWong,1976）,speechformulas（Peters,1977）.However,nocoherenttermanddefinitionheyetemerged.
Manyappliedlinguistshetriedtodefineprefabricatedchunks.Thefollowingaresomeimportantones：
Concerningtheprefabricatedchunks,Lyons（1968）paidattentiontothephenomenonofformulaicityanddescribeditas“expressionswhicharelearnedasunanalyablewholesandemployedonparticularoccasions等”However,hedidnotprovideaspecificnamefortheseexpressions.
Inthe1970s,Becker（1975）&Bolinger（1976）initiallyproposedtheterm“prefabricatedchunks”,whichreferstothemulti-word,fixedorsemi-fixedformulaic'chunks'oflanguage,betweenthetraditionalgrammarandlexis.PawleyandSyder（1983）describedthisphenomenonoflanguageas“aunitofclauselengthorlongerwhosegrammaticalformandlexicalcontentiswhollyorlargelyfixed”.Accordingtothem,theyregarditasthekeytofluentandidiomaticcontrolofalanguage.Inconsiderationofthenatureofprefabricatedchunks,Wray（2002）geaspecificdefinition,thatis,“asequence,continuousordiscontinuousofwordsorothermeaningelements,whichis,orappearstobe,prefabricated：thatis,storedorretrievedwholefrommemoryatthetimeofuse,ratherthanbeingsubjecttogenerationoranalysisbythelanguagegrammar.”Thekeynotionintheabovedefinitionisthefollowingwords'storedorretrievedwholefrommemoryatthetimeofuse,ratherthanbeingsubjecttogenerationoranalysisbythelanguagegrammar.'Apparently,Wray'sdefinitionioreorientedtowardsexplanationoftheformationofthecertainlanguagesequencesanditresortstopsycholinguisticstoprovethatprefabricatedchunksofferprocessingbenefitstospeakersandhearersbyprovidingashortcuttoproductionandprehension.
3.Theclassificationsofprefabricatedchunks
Becauseofdifferentdefinitionsgivenbydifferentscholarromvariouocuses,thegenerally-acceptedclassificationsofprefabricatedchunksarestillfarfromperfection.
Becker（1975）classifiedprefabricatedchunksintothefollowingsixcategories：（1）polywordswhichareshortphrases,likeoldestprofession,forgood,（2）phrasalconstraints,forinstanceBysheercoincidence,（3）meta-messageswhicharephrasesemployedtoreplacethewholepassage,likeForthatmatter等,等.thatisall；（4）sentencebuilders,likeIthinkthat等（5）situationalutteranceswhichrefertopragmaticphrasesusedincertainintermunicatedcircumstances,suchasHowcanIeverpayyou（6）verbatimtextswhichareselectedandstoredwholefromverbatimrecord,likeBetterlaterthannever.
AlthoughtheclassificationgivenbyBecker（1975）isnotspecificanddonotclearlydistinguishthetwodifferencesbetweenfunctionandstructure,itisnodenyingthattheclassificationbyBecker（1975）providesaluableframeworkforfurtheracademicresearchinthiield.
Howarth（1998）givesamuchmorespecificclassificationfromfunctionalperspective.Heclassifiedprefabricatedchunksintothefollowingfourcategories：（1）functionalexpressions,（2）positeunits,（3）lexicalcollocations,（4）grammaticalcollocations.
Howarth（1998）fullytakesthevariabilityofformulaiclanguageintoconsiderationandregardsprefabricatedchunksasacontinuumfromfixitytoinnovation,whichmakesimportantbreakthroughromthepreviousresearches.Buthedoesnotfullydistinguishthedifferencesbetweenstructureandfunction.Amongalloftheclassifications,thiskindofclassificationsgivenbyJamesR.Nattinger&JeateS.Decarrico（1992）seemstobemoreaccepted.
PrefabricatedchunksarecategorizedintofourformaltypesbyNattinger&Decarrico（1992）frompragmaticperspective：（1）.polywordswhichareshortphraseunctioninglikeindividuallexicalitemsandallownovariability,forexample,bytheway,（2）.institutionalizedexpressionswhichareproverbs,aphoris,formulaorsocialinteractions,allofwhichaspeakerhaoundefficienttostoreasunits,likeHowdoyoudo（3）.phrasalconstraintswhichareshort-to-mediumlengthphrasesandallowvariationoflexicalandphrasalcategories,likeaswellas等,（4）sentencebuilderswhichareformulaicexpressionsthatprovidetheframeworkforawholesentence,forinstance,inmyopinion等,itseemsthat等.
4.Therelatedresearchonprefabricatedchunks
4.1Therelatedresearchabroad
Therealizationofthedualioflanguagegeprominencetotheimportanceofprefabricatedchunksinsecondlanguageacquisition.Inthelate1980s,Widdowson（1989）advocatesthelearningofprefabricatedchunksioreimportantthanlearninggrammar.Togreatextent,languagelearningisbasicallyprefabricatedchunkslearning,whilegrammarisnotgenerativebutplaysthefunctionofcorresponding.
Inthefollowingdecades,manyscholars（Howarth,1998,Lewis,1993,Pawley&Syder,1993,Weinert,1995,Wray,2000）hedonetheoreticalresearchandpinpointedthelackofprefabricatedchunksinL2learnersandcallforattachingimportancetoprefabricatedchunkslearning.
4.2Therelatedresearchinchina
ThehistoryofresearchonprefabricatedchunksinChinaisnotlong,andtheresearchinthiieldmainlyfocusesontheillustrationoftheimportanceandfunctionofprefabricatedchunksandencouragessecondlanguageteacherstoadoptthemethodofteachingintermsofprefabricatedchunks.
4.2.1TheoreticalResearch
Pu-Jianzhong&Wei-Naixing（2000）emphasized“learningEnglishwithwordsasthestartingpointandtheuseofwordsasthefocusofattention”andLianJie（2001）acknowledged“EnglishlexicalphrasesplayanimportantroleinthelearningofEnglishasasecondlanguage.”Theabovetwostudiesstresstheimportanceofprefabricatedchunksinthelearningofsecondlanguageacquisition.
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Pu-Jianzhong（2003）advocated“theemphasisofvocabularyinstructionshouldbeputonprefabricatedchunks”andotherresearchers（Ding-Yanren&QiYan,2001,HuangQiang,2002）alsodidtheresearchontheacquisitionofprefabricatedchunksintheprocessofsecondlanguageacquisition.4.2.2EmpiricalResearch
EmpiricalresearchinChinaisrelativelylimited,andinthefollowingparts,atypicalempiricalexampleisselectedtoshowtherelationbetweenprefabricatedchunksandthequalityofEFLlearners'oraloutput.
ExampleOralEnglishempiricalstudybyWen-Qiufang（2006）
Thegeneraldescriptionofthisresearch
Wen-Qiufang（2006）didthestudyonspeakinocabularydevelopment.Thestudyanalyzed56Englishmajors'spokenEnglishdatafromalongitudinalperspectiveinanattempttorevealpatternsofchangeinspeakingEnglishvocabularybreath,wordvariationandfluency.TheirspokenEnglishdatawascollectedfourtimeintheyearof2001,2002,2003and2004,andthentheirchangeswerecalculatedontermsofthreeperiodsYear1-Year2,Year2-Year3,Year3-Year4.The56subjectsineachperiodcoulddisplayeightdifferentpatterns,eachofwhichincludethreeindexeswhicheitherprogressorregress.Accordingtothetotalnumberofprogressindexinthreeconsecutiveperiods,thesubjectswereclassifiedintodifferentgroups.
Theresultsanddiscussion
ThisresearchyieldedthattheEnglishmajorsinvesteddoshowsomepatternedbehiorsintheirspeakinocabularydevelopment：（1）thestudentswhohepoormasterofEnglishwhentheyenteruniversitymaderapidprogresswhiletheprogressofthosewhodowellinEnglishbeforeiuchslower.（2）ThebettertheirEnglishis,thelessbenefittheygaininthecourseofteachingprocedures.
TheresultreflectsaprevalentproblemexistingincollegeinstructionforEnglishMajors,thatis,thestudentswhohegoodmasterofEnglishwhentheyenteruniversityareignoredbycollegeteachersinthecourseofteachers'instruction,butitshouldnotblamethesecollegeteachers,becausethenumberofstudentsinoneclassarelargeandteacherscannotpayattentiontoallthestudentswhichareatdifferentlevelsintheirEnglishproficiency,andinaddition,thoseatlowerlevelsareinbadneedofteachers'help.
5.Commentsonpreviousstudiesonprefabricatedchunks
Aftertakingacloselookatthepreviousstudiesonprefabricatedchunkspresentedabove,itrequireslittleefforttonoticesomelimitations,whichjustifyfurtherresearchonsuchanissue.
Firstly,allthestudieshadnotgivenacleardefinitiontotheconceptofprefabricatedchunks.Theabsenceofacleardefinitionwouldmakeitdifficulttoidentifywhatnegativefactorscanbecountedasprefabricatedchunkswhileotherscannot.Anextremeinstancemaybethatdifferentresearcherighthequitedifferentideasinmindwhentalkingaboutprefabricatedchunksandthisdisadvantagemaymaketheresearchfindingsdifficulttogeneralize.AorWray'stentativedefinition（2002）hiselaborationmightneedmodificationstomaketheconceptofprefabricatedchunkoreacmodativeandconclusive.Secondly,becauseofdifferentdefinitionsgivenbydifferentscholars,theclassificationsofprefabricatedchunksaredifferent,sotheresultsofthesescholarsaredifficulttopopularize.
Thirdly,theresearchinthiieldbyChinesescholarsislimitedandmostoftheirstudiesaretheoreticalnotempirical.Therefore,morestudies,especiallyempiricalstudiesareneededsothattheresearchfindingscanbeeasytogeneralizeinChina.
Lastbutnotleast,ChinesescholarsadvocatetotheapplicationofprefabricatedchunkstoEnglishwritingcourse.Toanextent,theresearchofspeakingabilityisignored,maybethekeyreasonisthatoralEnglishresearchishardtocarryoutandtheresearchperiodneededisabitlong,butitisbelievedthatthefindingsofprefabricatedchunksusedinoralEnglishcoursewillbemorevaluablebothtotheteachersandthestudents.
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