Teacher beliefs about chunks and their place in English vocabulary teaching

English: Lexical chunks have recently been given more attention by researchers and scholars in relation to language learning. This study investigates teacher beliefs about chunks and their place in English vocabulary teaching at upper secondary level in Norway. It examines the teachers’ understanding of the concept, as well as why, what and how they think that chunks should be taught. Five English teachers from upper secondary schools in Innlandet participated in the project, and the data was collected through semi-structured interviews. The research findings show that the teachers see a great significance to chunk knowledge among learners, both in relation to comprehension and perceived fluency, despite a lack of shared understanding of what chunks include among the teachers. The results reflect on the teachers’ thoughts about vocabulary teaching in general, and show that there is great variety in how much time the teachers spend explicitly on chunks in the classroom, as well as how they work with them. The participants express how they think that the English curricula have a greater emphasis on the culture aspect of the subject than on language learning when it comes to justifying this part of vocabulary teaching. Furthermore, the teachers express their opinions on how their choice of chunks to teach is dependent on the skill level of their students. The learners encounter chunks several times, both inside and outside the classroom, but the teachers seem to agree that if the students are to be aware of the phenomenon, it is necessary to include some explicit teaching