The aim of this study is investigating Turkish EFL learners’ reflections on corpus-based language teaching; what kind of benefits or drawbacks they have experienced during a corpus-based implementation, and what possible suggestions they can make about this particular experience of theirs. The data was collected through minute papers and semi-structured interviews; and content analysis was conducted for data analysis. The results indicated that the participants found the corpus-based instruction very effective especially thanks to the fact that they could interact with real life data directly. They emphasized that interacting with genuine native speaker language made them more motivated and interested in the classroom. In terms of drawbacks, they stated that sometimes the concordances were difficult to understand. Nevertheless, the learners had a positive perception of corpus-based language teaching instruction. Keywords: Corpus-Based Language Teaching; EFL Learners; Reflection
This qualitative study presents a corpus literacy course designed and implemented at an undergraduate language teacher education program in Turkey, and its evaluation by pre-service ELT teachers. The course introduces the main concepts of corpus linguistics, raises future teachers’ linguistic and pedagogical awareness through corpus applications, and introduces them to corpus-informed practices to improve their pedagogical skills. In the first phase of the study, students’ corpus literacy levels were determined through a pre-course survey revealing that most of the participants did not know about corpora and their uses. The second and third phases were devoted to evaluating the course. Initially, student teachers were asked to write minute papers and reflection papers during the semester to evaluate the process. In the final phase, semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted after the course to explore their overall evaluations. Findings implied that corpus literacy integration into teacher education programs clearly yields positive outcomes, yet only one course is not enough to popularize it among EFL teachers. Hence, extensive exposure to corpus literacy and curriculum-wide integration in the TEFL programs could contribute to its popularization among future practitioners.
This quantitative study aims to reveal the most frequently used phrasal verbs (PVs) by L1 speakers of English and Turkish EFL learners in written and spoken registers. With the purpose of spotting any overuse and/or underuse by Turkish EFL learners, it compares their usage to L1 English speakers’ through four corpora – two learner corpora and two native corpora. Additionally, the study investigates the most frequent adverbial verb particles (AVPs) and lexical verbs (LVs) in phrasal constructions comparing learners and native speakers. The results show that although LV types differ to a large extent, Turkish EFL learners display a similar profile to L1 English speakers in terms of types of PVs and AVPs. However, these verbs and particles are significantly underused, especially in spoken register – a result that contradicts previous research. Specifically, within the scope of this study, regardless of the register Turkish learners tend to favour few AVPs out of the mostly used ten while leaving out the others. The findings might be of use to EFL teachers regarding raising their students’ awareness on the contextual use of PVs in different registers with a combination of both implicit and explicit teaching in mind. In addition, learners can benefit from the ready-made PV lists to enhance their prospective usage in meaningful contexts.
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