Дипломная работа: Studies lexical material of English

- collocations – such as widely travelled; rich and famous; make do with; set the table

- phrasal verbs – such as get up; log on; run out of; go on about

- idioms, catchphrases and sayings – such as hell for leather; get cold feet; as old as the hills; mind your own business; takes one to know one

- sentence frames – such as would you mind if... ?; the thing is ...; I'd... if I were you; what really gets me is ...

- social formulae – such as see you later; have a nice day; yours sincerely

- discourse markers – such as frankly speaking; on the other hand; I take your point; once upon a time; to cut a long story short...

Within these categories further distinctions can be made in terms of fixedness and idiomaticity. Fixed chunks are those that don't allow any variation: you can say over the moon (to mean ecstatic) but not under the moon (to mean not ecstatic). Nor over the full moon, over the sun, etc. Many chunks are semi-fixed, in that they allow some degree of variation. Nice to see you is semi-fixed in that it allows lovely, good, wonderful, etc. in the nice slot, and meet, talk to, hear from, etc. in the see slot.

Some chunks are transparent in that the meaning of the whole is clear from their parts, as in the case of as old as the hills and to knock down. Others are much more idiomatic: to spill the beans and to knock off (meaning to steal). Neither fixedness nor idiomaticity are absolute values, however. Rather there is a cline from very fixed to very free, and from very idiomatic to very transparent. Phrasal verbs are a case in point. Some phrasal verbs are syntactically flexible: I'll bring up the paper or I'll bring the paper up. Others are not: I can't tell the twins apart but not I can't tell apart the twins. Moreover, the combination bring up has a range of meanings, some literal (I'll bring up the paper), some semi-idiomatic (Don't bring that subject up again) and some very idiomatic (They brought their children up to speak Italian).

The ability to deploy a wide range of lexical chunks both accurately and appropriately is probably what most distinguishes advanced learners from intermediate ones. How is this capacity developed? Probably not by learning rules – as we saw with word formation, the rules (if there are any) are difficult to learn and apply. A lexical approach is based on the belief that lexical competence comes simply from:

- frequent exposure, and

- consciousness-raising

To which we could perhaps add a third factor:

- memorising

Classroom language provides plentiful opportunities for exposure to lexical chunks. Many learners are familiar with expressions like I don't understand and I don't know long before they have been presented with the 'rules' of present simple negation. By increasing the stock of classroom phrases, teachers can exploit the capacity of chunks to provide the raw material for the later acquisition of grammar. Many teachers cover their classroom walls with useful phrases and insist on their use whenever an appropriate opportunity arises. A sampling of phrases I have noticed on classroom walls includes:

What does X mean?

How do you say X?

What's the (past/plural/opposite, etc.) of X?

Can you say that again?

Can you write it up?

How do you spell it?

I'm not sure.

I've forgotten.

I left it at home.

I haven't finished yet.

It's (your/my/his) turn.

You go first.

Here you are.

Pass me the ...

Let's have a break.