1,093 research outputs found

    APPLICATION OF CORPUS TO TRANSLATION TEACHING: PRACTICE AND PERCEPTIONS

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    Translation courses are a vital part of undergraduate English Language Teaching (ELT) programs and the importance of finding new ways to enhance student learning in this context cannot be stressed enough. It is reported that second language (L2) learners of English tend to produce incorrect or deviant collocations in their L2 written outputs, be it their academic or casual writing or translation products due to failure to recognize them as expressions to be learnt. In this regard, this study sought to implement the Data-driven Learning (DDL) approach in the ELT translation course to raise L2 learners’ consciousness of verb-noun collocations and assess the effectiveness of the approach using a pre-experimental pre-test/post-test design and a survey to evaluate the effectiveness of the instruction. In the study, 16 participants (13 females and 3 males) completed a six-week program. The results obtained from the Wilcoxon signed-rank test applied to compare the mean ranks of the learners’ pre-test and post-test scores indicated a significant improvement in the collocational knowledge of the targeted expressions from Pre-test to Post-test 1 (Z = -3.519, p = .005). Survey results indicated that the majority of the students found the corpus application in the translation course beneficial as a pedagogical resource with the exception of a few students, who stated that they experienced difficulties due to unfamiliar vocabulary and limited number of examples in the collocate output.Keywords: collocation, data-driven learning, concordance, consciousness-raising, translatio

    A corpus-based study of Malaysia ESL students' use of discourse connectors in upper and post-secondry argumentative writing

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    Discourse connectors (DCs) are one of the elements of cohesive devices that bring about cohesion to a piece of writing or speech. They are potentially useful means for writers,particularly in ESL and EFL writing pedagogic settings. DCs usefulness is two-pronged. First, they help and guide readers through the text, and then they are tools for writers to engage with their readers. It has been well-documented that appropriate and efficient use of DCs will create a coherent flow of the text. However, second/foreign language learners have some difficulties to use them efficiently and systematically in their writing. Literature review shows that the Malaysian ESL students are also suffering from improper and efficient use of DCs which leads them in failing to produce a cohesive text. Surprisingly, no single study was found in the context of Malaysia to investigate Malaysian ESL students’ understanding and use of DCs. Hence, this study attempted to investigate and understand the nature and the use of the DCs in the Malaysian student writing compared with Native speakers writing. The study also was set to examine the correlation between the frequency use of the DCs and the quality of writing. The final goal of this research study was to find out to what extent Malaysian ESL students are committing errors while using DCs. A corpus-based approach was adopted to meet the objectives of the study. To this end,an argumentative topic was assigned to the Form 4, Form 5 (upper-secondary) and the first year college students (post-secondary) and they were asked to write about the given topic in the classroom and submit their works to the instructors. They were required to write 250 words within 45 minutes. Upon compilation of the essays, the Malaysian Corpus of Students' Argumentative Writing (MCSAW) was built with ≃ 600,000 tokens. To compare and find out a vivid picture of Malaysian ESL students use of DCs with Native English Speakers, the Louvain Corpus of Native Essay Writing [LOCNESS] corpus was used. Oxford Wordsmith Tools (5) was employed to extract data from corpus for analysis, by using frequency count and concordance functions. Aiming to identify what type of DCs is used by Malaysian ESL students, Discourse Connector List developed by Rezvani Kalajahi and Neufeld (2014) was used. To be able to examine the relationship between the quality of writing and the frequency of the use of the DCs, ESL composition profile offered by Jacobs et al. (1981) was utilized. Finally, a framework of identification of DCs error type was developed by the researcher to explore the errors that students commit while using DCs. Findings of this study entail three phases. First, it was observed that Malaysian students tend to use DCs more frequently than native students. The overall frequency of the use of the DCs between Malaysian and native students was statistically significant at p < .05. However, the native students used more variety of DCs types than Malaysian students (398vs.328). It was also found that Malaysian students use DCs in some categories frequently and infrequently. Based on the findings in the native students writing (LOCNESS Corpus), the most frequent DCs in written English were offered. Second,there was a very weak negative but insignificant correlation between writing quality and the frequency of the use of the DCs in the writing of Malaysian ESL students. Finally,the qualitative analysis revealed that the erroneous use of DCs made by Malaysian ESL student writers mainly manifested in eight different categories. They had problems with the use of these devices which involved semantic, syntactic, stylistic, positional and mechanical errors. They also appeared to have tendency for unnecessary addition, omission, and redundant repetition of the DCs. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that Malaysian ESL students’ use of DCs was still at an evolving level. It is vitally important that the accurate use of DCs in writing among Malaysian students be further highlighted in the classrooms through using concordance lines and adopting explicit instruction technique. Besides, material developers may take the outcome of the research into consideration and could find out possible ways to distribute and introduce DCs systematically across the educational levels

    Interaction, authenticity and spoken corpora : building teaching materials for adult English language learners

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    This study investigated the needs and challenges of adult ELLs in the community college setting in the United States. The study was conducted in Western North Carolina (WNC), where administrators, teachers, and students of three different community colleges were interviewed. Interviews determined the needs and challenges of this group of learners, the language skills they are most interested in acquiring, and how effective current teaching materials are in helping meet their needs. Interviews were transcribed to detect patterns in participant responses. The learners were primarily interested in increasing speaking and listening skills so that that they could communicate in their communities in situations they encounter on a regular basis. Results from the interviews, as well as extensive research conducted regarding effective ELT for adult ELLs helped establish criteria for teaching materials that would be beneficial for this group of learners, specifically with speaking and listening. Textbook evaluations were created and applied to three textbooks that were commonly used within all of the community colleges that participated in the study. The evaluations were also applied to a corpus-based textbook that was created using the Cambridge Corpus of Spoken North American English, which focuses on spoken English, to compare with the other textbooks. The findings of this study suggest that there needs to be teaching materials, both textbook and computer programs, created for this group of learners that focus on the qualities of native spoken English within situations that adult ELLs in the U.S. will encounter in their day to day lives

    Exploring logical connectors in journals with different indexing levels: A comparison between international and national indexed journals

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    Research to date has witnessed the mounting significance of logical connectors in writing including scientific journal articles; however, little is known as to whether the usage of such connectors may correspond to a varying degree of journal quality. This qualitative study fills in the void by exploring the use of logical connectors in journals with different indexing levels, national and international. Sixty articles were collected from two journals, thirty articles from each. Implicit behind this study is an assumption that differing journal indexing entails differing journal quality. Nineteen connectors that belong to the most frequently used conjunctive adverbials in academic prose were searched using Laurence Anthony’s concordance program (AntConc). The findings reveal that the top-two most frequently CAs used in both corpora are adversative however and causal therefore. Based on these results, the analysis is centered on these two CAs by investigating the coherence relations in order to see the underlying logical relationships between two sentences. The findings show that the illogical uses of CA however and therefore were equally found in both corpora although the percentages for the illogical use in the international journal articles are less than those in the national ones. In conclusion, not only do articles in the two journals share the same tendencies in the logical use, they also evince the same patterns of problem, namely failure in recognizing logical relationships and overuse of connectors. Of importance is that the purported relationship between journal indexation and logical use of connectors may be at best weak, and at worst absent, for both journals in question dominantly exhibit a logical usage of connectors. Pedagogical implications are also discussed

    Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

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    Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

    We All Make Mistakes! . Analysing an Error-coded Corpus of Spanish University Students Written English

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    [EN] The present study analyses the errors identified and coded in the written argumentative texts of 304 Spanish university students of English extracted from two corpora one from a technical university context corpus (totalling 950 written compositions) and the other from learners enrolled in the Humanities (totalling 750 written compositions). Considered an important design criterion for computer learner corpora studies, the students levels were measured using the Oxford Quick Placement Test and the scores obtained (0 to 60) were then related to the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) levels ranging from A1 to C2. Learners writing in a foreign language not only make errors related to grammar and vocabulary, but also with regard to their competence in the use of syntax, discourse relations and pragmatics among others, and the error coding system has been designed to attempt to address all the possible levels of error with as many sub-categories as required. Within the field of applied linguistics and language teaching/learning, many studies have been carried out over the years designed to address the phenomenon of interlanguage errors made by learners of English (Dusková, 1969; Green & Hecht, 1985; Lennon, 1991; Olsen, 1999 among many others). Previously, these studies involved analyzing a small number of texts with a limited number of tags, based on either linguistic taxonomies or surface structure categories of errors (Dulay, Burt, & Krashen 1982). However, in the last three decades, technological advances have been made which have facilitated the analysis of much larger amounts of data using computers for both the development of learner corpora and programs for a more detailed analysis of the learner data. The aim of the present research is two-fold. Firstly, we explore the nature of the errors coded in the corpus i.e. which errors are most frequent, including not only the main categories but also the most delicate levels of errors. Secondly, we address the question of the relationship, if any, of the learners competence levels and the type and frequency of the errors they make. The results show that grammar errors are the most frequent, and that the linguistic competence of the learners has a lower than expected influence on the most frequent types of errors coded in the corpus.We would like to acknowledge the support given for the TREACLE Project from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (FFI2009-14436/FILO). The author would also like to express her gratitude to Mick O'Donnell and Susana Murcia for their very useful comments on the first draft of this article.Mac Donald, P. (2016). We All Make Mistakes! . Analysing an Error-coded Corpus of Spanish University Students Written English. Complutense Journal of English Studies. 24:103-129. https://doi.org/10.5209/CJES.53273S1031292

    Learner construction of corpora for general English in Taiwan

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    Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching

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    Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching presents a collection of articles about principled review of recent research conducted in the field of ELT and English language teacher education. This resource will be of interest to novice and experienced researchers who would like to see an overview of recent research trends in the field. The collection of research would hopefully shed light on themes and line of research along with implications and suggestions for further research. Each chapter examines studies published in prominent journals in the recent years and attempts to classify them in terms of focused topics, methodology and findings. The edited collection of research is a product of an international research group in the field of English language teacher education formed by Gazi University (Ankara, Turkey), the University of Évora (Évora, Portugal), Pomeranian University (Słupsk, Poland), and Boğaziçi University (Istanbul, Turkey). Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching is produced as part of the Erasmus+ project titled ILTERG, "International Language Teacher Education Research Group" (no. KA203-035295), funded by the Turkish National Agency and co- founded by Erasmus+. We would like to thank several other authors from different universities who have contributed to this work of international collaboration and we hope Research Trends in English Language Teacher Education and English Language Teaching could help teacher educators and novice researchers to benefit from the insightful findings of recent research trends collected in the book

    Collocational competence as a measure of ESL / EFL competency: a scoping review

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    The purpose of this review is to identify the appropriate strategies or methodologies that can help address those problems related to collocational competence amongst English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners. The topic of collocational competence needs to be explored given that having collocational competence would advantage language learners to attain second or foreign language fluency. Collocational competence is in fact a reliable indicator of high language proficiency level. Numerous studies that explored collocational competence found that most learners are still facing difficulties in mastering different types of collocations. This problem seems unending despite major advancements in teaching technologies. Therefore, new and exciting ways of learning and teaching collocations that cater to students’ individual needs and that are useful for teachers should be devised. A scoping review protocol was established for this study. A total of 21 articles from 2010 to 2020 were qualitatively synthesised. Of the 21, nine articles on corpus-based methodology, eight articles on traditional methods of teaching collocations and three articles discussing other relevant learning and teaching strategies that focus on solving the problem of lack of collocational competence were isolated and analysed. The findings suggested that implementing an indirect corpus approach in language classrooms may be the most suitable and practical approach that can cater to almost all levels of proficiency whilst consuming a limited amount of resources. The use of corpora in language classrooms is beneficial as it also offers reliable references for learners to explore and for teachers to adopt and teach
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