Lexical Chunks between Investigation and Application: A Case Study of a BBC Radio 4 Interview

Abstract

This study represents an approach to easily extract lexical chunks which are considered to be the essence of gaining a communicative skill similar to that of any native language speaker. Lexical approaches are very important in this respect; far from grammar rules, they concentrate on learning language in use. Therefore, it aims to investigate this field and its effect on the process of learning a language. It is hypothesized that lexical approaches have their direct effect on raising the students’ performance regarding L2 language fluency and production by means of lexical chunks. It is also hypothesized that it is difficult for the students to easily identify and extract lexical chunks in their natural contexts. Therefore, this study adopts Boers and Lindstromberg’s (2009) model as a way to facilitate the identification of lexical chunks and to open a way to easily identify them. A transcript of a BBC radio 4 interview (see the appendix) is chosen as the source of the data analysis in this study. The working procedures are thought to be beneficial for L2 learners future identification and extraction of lexical chunks.