The Application Of DDL To The Level-based Teaching For College Students

Alongside the rapid developments in corpus linguistics, the potential of corpora as a resource in language learning and teaching has been evident to researchers since the late1960s (Sinclair,1966). Corpora are now being used increasingly for pedagogical purposes. One application involves language learning through direct contact with language corpora, often referred to as data-driven learning.Data-driven learning is a way of enhancing and focusing the input to the learners. They provide authentic data, encourage reflection, and are well suited for consciousness-raising activities (Johansson,2009). Meanwhile, corpora stimulate learners to work actively and independently, and in this way DDL probably increase both the motivation of the learners and the learning effect. However, there exist some reasonable fears that prevent this approach from becoming popular in language learning and teaching. Moreover, its influence on learners in different language proficiency levels has not yet been adequately tested, although there were several investigations suggested that DDL was a desirable approach to assist vocabulary learning (Johns,1991,1993,2002; Flowerdew,2008; Gavioli,1997; Romer,2006; Boulton,2007,2008,2009a,b,2010,2012). In addition, with a view to keeping up with the new developments of higher education in China, deepening teaching reform, improving teaching quality, and meeting the needs of the army, the country and society for qualified personnel and officers in the new era, computer-based and Internet-based courses are encouraged in the teaching reform so as to meet the needs of China’s military reform, social development and international exchanges (College English Curriculum Requirements,2007). There is thus a demand for research to underpin the integration of corpora and concordance lines in language learning environment. Attention is specially drawn to the effectiveness of the use of corpora in language learning. Thus, in the background of level-based teaching in the university, several research questions are posed based on the facts mentioned above:1. Is there a substantial difference between learners in different language proficiency levels (Level3&Level5) applying paper-based/soft DDL (Gabrielatos,2005) to the learning of verb+noun language items presented in the materials?2. Compared with intermediate learners of English (level3, defined as lower level), do advanced learners of English (level5) make any significant progress during the learning session?3. Do learners’attitudes towards DDL, or rather, soft DDL, vary in a general sense?4. How do these learners perceive corpus use in assisting language learning?The thesis designed an empirical experiment of paper-based DDL on verb-noun collocations with learners in different language proficiency levels, trying to assess systematically the effects of the DDL approach, avoiding the technological problems confronted in computer-based DDL. The researcher pretested30level-3learners and30level-5learners in the level-based language teaching. Over the following4weeks, they participated in paper-based DDL activities that exposed them to36verb-noun collocation items, selected by corpus-based error analysis of CLEC (Chinese Learner English Corpus). Each learning activity lasted about20-30minutes. The paper-based DDL materials were from COLEN, a pedagogical corpus. After the whole learning session, the participants were posttested, using essentially the same paper employed in the pre-test, together with a questionnaire survey to evaluate their actual use feedback. Thereafter, several statistical treatments were conducted.Statistical analysis of the test results indicates learners at different levels can benefit from corpus-assisted language learning differently without expensive technological resources or extensive training. With a definite motivation, level-3students were more ready to live their parts on DDL than level-5students. The paired sample T-test at the0.05level did indicate a significant difference between pre-test and post-test (p=.000) for both level-3and level-5class. The findings present evidence in support of the DDL approach discussed in Boultons’(2009a, b) that low-level and intermediate learners can also benefit from DDL. Differences in post-test scores by learners at different levels did not reach a significant level, although the data favored learners with lower language proficiency. It should also be pointed out that although level-3learners were doing much better than level- 5learners in pre-test, both pre-test and post-test results were under the average level, which indicated DDL effects were much more likely to be long-term benefits.Learning results showed level-5learners benefited more than level-3learners, although different level learners performed differently in this approach. The level-3students’ performance in DDL was stable compared with level-5learners’. Level-5learners initially did a much worse work in pre-test than level-3learners did. However, progress of level-5learners was much more striking than that of level-3learners.A questionnaire survey showed a favorable reaction to the activities. Learners are generally receptive to the approach and perceive corpora favorably to their studies. Even though level-5class did not work as well as level-3class did in the learning and tests, they responded much more positively than level-3class did. In their questionnaires, it could be observed that level-5learners were eager to be an active and motivation-pursuing learner, willing to try something new and interesting. Detailed analysis showed the number of level-3learners who were not certain about their actual opinions towards DDL was largely higher than that of level-5learners. The majority of the learners predicted that DDL approach was promising but the limited context made the learning difficult. Thus, DDL affects not only the learning strategies, but also the role of the student.In doing so, we hope that learners are supposed to know how to apply DDL to their own work, particularly to addressing their questions, and that the results of the study will shed light on the pedagogical implementation of DDL. Paper-based DDL can be adopted at the very beginning of using corpora to assist language learning. Prepared paper-based DDL can therefore lead to relatively immediate benefits on a certain range of word collocations. Moreover, a combination of DDL approach and teachers’instruction are supposed to be tailored according to the needs of the learners. Finally, there is a need for more longitudinal studies on the effectiveness of corpora in assisting language learning.