EFL Teacher’s Reflections towards the Use of Computerized Corpora As a Teaching Tool in Their Classrooms

Öz

The relation between corpus based applications and language teaching in EFL context is far more obvious today, due to the potential of computerized corpus to offer new insights for the language teaching opportunities, which calls for efficient and technology literate language teachers. Although corpus and corpus tools attract a great deal of attention in research community, the use of corpora in EFL classrooms remains limited for various reasons. Part of the reason behind this picture may be due to unpopularity of corpus and corpus tools among the language teachers. Thus, the aim of this case study is to discuss ways of familiarizing language teachers with the potential benefits of the corpus tools and of increasing their perceptions towards it, since this will be an essential step towards the integration of these tools into the classroom environment. To this end, a case study with six (6) language teachers in an EFL context was carried out. Purposive sampling was used in the selection of the samples. Data on the perceptions expressed by the language teachers were collected through open ended interviews. The results suggest that almost all six teachers favored the language exploration process through a range of concordance searches on structural and lexical aspects of language but added that the potential of corpus to offer wide range of grammatical structures and lexical patterns at one time may be difficult to grasp for themselves as well as for their students in the classroom.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Corpora, Perception, Teacher training

-

Öz

Etkin ve teknoloji okuryazarlığı iyi olan yabancı dil öğretmenlerinin varlığını gerekli kılan bilgisayarlı derlem uygulamaları sayesinde, yabancı dil öğretiminin önünde yeni ufuklar açılmış ve derlem tabanlı uygulamalar ile dil öğretimi arasındaki ilişkiyi günümüzde çok daha belirgin şekilde ortaya çıkarmıştır. Derlem ve derlem araçları araştırmacılar arasında bilinmesine ve ilgi çekmesine rağmen çeşitli sebeplerden dolayı dil öğretiminde hak ettiği ilgiyi henüz görememiştir. Bu durumun sebeplerinden bir tanesi derlem ve derlem araçlarının yabancı dil öğretmenleri arasında popular olmaması olabilir. Çalışmanın amaçlarından birincisi, derlem ve araçlarının potansiyel faydalarını yabancı dil öğretmenlerinin daha fazla tanımasını sağlamak ve onların farkındalık seviyelerini artırmaktır. Bu durum derlem ve araçlarının dil sınıflarına entegrasyonu için gerekli bir aşamadır. Bu örnek olay incelemesi altı İngilizce öğretmeni ile gerçekleştirilmiştir. Deneklerin seçiminde amaçlı örnekleme modeli kullanılmış ve dil öğretmenlerinin konu hakkındaki algıları açık uçlu mülakat ile belirlenmiştir. Tüm denekler İngilizcenin yapısal ve terimsel yönleri üzerine derlem dizinlerinde yaptıkları yeni keşiflerden çok memnun kalmışlardır. Derlemin kullanıcılarına potansiyel olarak sağladığı dilbilgisi ve kelime yapıları hakkındaki alanın anlaşılmasının kendileri ve öğrencileri açısından zaman alabileceği ifade edilmiştir

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Derlem, Algı, Öğretmen yetiştirilmesi

Kaynakça

1. Allan, Q. (1999). Enhancing the language awareness of Hong Kong teachers through corpus data: The Telenex experience. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 7(1), 57–74.
2. Anthony, L. (2004). AntConc (Version 3.0.1) [Software]. Retrieved July 10, 2008, from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/antconc_index.html.
3. Aston, G. (ed.) (2001). Learning with corpora, Houston, TX: Athelstan.
4. Aston, G. (2000). Corpora and language teaching. In L. Burnard and T. McEnery (Eds), Rethinking language pedagogy from a corpus perspective: Papers from the Third International Conference on Teaching and Language Corpora (pp. 7-17). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
5. Best, J. & Kahn, J. (1998). Research in Education (8th edition). USA: A Viacom Company.
6. Bernardini, S. (2000). Systematising serendipity: Proposals for concordancing large corpora with language learners. In L. Burnard and T. McEnery (eds), Rethinking language pedagogy from a corpus perspective: Papers from the Third International Conference on Teaching and Language Corpora (pp. 225-234). Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
7. Bennet, G. (2010). Using corpora in the language learning classroom: Corpus linguistics for teachers. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
8. Biber, D., Conrad, S., & Reppen, R. (1996). Corpus-based investigations of language use. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 16, 115-136.

9. Boulton, A. (2009). Data-driven learning: reasonable fears and rational reassurance. Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics 35 (1), 81–106.
10. Blaxter, L. Hughes, C., & Tight, M. (1996). How to Research. Buckingham: Open University Press.
11. Braun, S. (2005). From pedagogically relevant corpora to authentic language learning contents. ReCALL, 17(1), 47–64.
12. Burnard, L., & T. McEnery (eds) (2000), Rethinking language pedagogy from a corpus perspective: Papers from the Third International Conference on Teaching and Language Corpora, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
13. Cobb, T. (1997). Is there any measurable learning from hands-on concordancing? System, 25(3), 301–315.
14. Cohen, L., & Manion, L. (1995). Research Methods in Education. London: Routlage.
15. Farr, F. (2008). Evaluating the use of corpus-based instruction in a language teacher education context: Perspectives from the users. Language Awareness, 17(1), 25–43.
16. Flowerdew, L. (2001), The exploitation of small learner corpora in EAP materials design. In M. Ghadessy, A. Henry, and R.L. Roseberry (eds), Small corpus studies and ELT: Theory and practice, pp. 363-379.Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
17. Flowerdew, J. (1996). Concordancing in language learning. M. Pennington (Ed.), The power of CALL. pp. 97-113. Houston, TX: Athelstan.
18. Frankenberg-Garcia, A. (2010). “Encouraging EFL teachers to use corpora in the classroom”. BAAL and Cambridge University Press Seminar Using corpus evidence in the classroom: Working with teachers and learners. University of Birmingham, 24–25 June 2010.
19. Gavioli, L. (2001), The learner as researcher: Introducing corpus concordancing in the classroom. In G. Aston (ed.), Learning with corpora, pp. 108-137. Houston, TX: Athelstan.
20. Gilquin, G., & S. Granger (2010). How can DDL be used in language teaching? In A. O’Keeffe & M. McCarthy (eds.), The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics, pp. 359–370. London: Routledge.
21. Granger, S., &. Tribble C. (1998), Learner corpus data in the foreign language classroom: Form focused instruction and data-driven learning, in S. Granger (ed.), Learner English on computer, pp. 199-209. London: Longman.
22. Granger, S. (ed.) (1998), Learner English on Computer. London: Longman.
23. Hunston, S. (1995). Grammar in teacher education: The role of a corpus. Language Awareness, 4(1), 15–31.
24. Johns, T. (1991), Should you be persuaded?: Two examples of data-driven learning materials, English Language Research Journal, 4, 1-16.
25. Johns, T., & King, P., (Eds.). (1991). Classroom concordancing. Birmingham: University of Birmingham
26. Johns, T. (1988). Whence and whither classroom concordancing? In T. Bongaerts, P. de Haan, Lobbe S., & H. Wekker (Eds.), Computer applications in language learning (pp. 9–27). Dordrecht: Foris.
27. Kaltenbo¨ ck, G., & Mehlmauer-Larcher, B. (2005). Computer corpora and the language classroom: On the potential and limitations of computer corpora in language teaching. ReCALL, 17(1), 65–84.
28. Kayaoğlu, M. N. (1997). An investigation of the learning strategies of Turkish EFL and ESL adult learners and the relationship between their beliefs about different aspects of language learning and their strategy use. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Bristol, Bristol.
29. Kennedy, C., & Miceli, T. (2001). An evaluation of intermediate students’ approaches to corpus investigation. Language Learning and Technology, 5(3), 77–90
30. Kolb, D.A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
31. Mukherjee, J. (2002). Korpuslinguistik und Englischunterricht. Eine Einführung. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
32. Muller-Hartmann, A., & Schocker-von Ditfurth, M. (2004). Introduction to English language teaching. Stuttgart: Ernst Klett Sprachen.
33. Mukherjee, J. (2004). Bridging the gap between applied corpus linguistics and the reality of English language teaching in Germany. In U. Connor & T. Upton (Eds.), Applied corpus linguistics: A multidimensional perspective , (pp. 239–250). Amsterdam, NewYork: Rodopi.
34. O’Keefe, A., & Farr, F. (2003). Using language corpora in initial teacher education: Pedagogic issues and practical applications. TESOL Quarterly, 37(3), 389–418.
35. Oppenheim, A.N. (1992). Questionnaire Design, Interviewing and Attitude Measurement. London: Pinter Publishers
36. Reppen, R. (2010). Using corpora in the language classroom. New York: Cambridge University Press.
37. Römer, Ute (2005). Progressives, Patterns, Pedagogy. A Corpus-driven Approach to English Progressive Forms, Functions, Contexts and Didactics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
38. Hasselgård, H., & Johansson, S. (2001). Learner corpora and contrastive interlanguage analysis. In A Taste for Corpora: In honour of Sylviane Granger: Fanny Meunier & Sylvie De Cock & Gaëtanelle Gilquin & Magali Paquot(eds), 32-61. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V.
39. Seidlhofer, B. (2002). Pedagogy and local learner corpora: Working with learning-driven data. In S. Granger, J. Hung & S. Petch-Tyson (Eds.), Computer learner corpora, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching (pp. 213–234). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
40. Sinclair, J.M. (ed.) (1987), Looking up: An account of the COBUILD project in lexical computing, London: Collins.
41. Sinclair J. (ed.) (2004). How to use corpora in language teaching. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
42. Tsui, A.B.M., (2004). What teachers have always wanted to know and how corpora can help. In J.M. Sinclair (Ed.), How to use corpora in language teaching (pp. 39–61). Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
43. Tribble, C. (2000). Practical uses for language corpora in ELT. In P. Brett & G. Motteram (Eds.), A special interest in computers : Learning and teaching with information and communications technologies
44. (pp. 31-41). Whistable, Kent: IATFEL.
45. Tribble, C., & Jones, G. (1997). Concordances in the classroom: A resource guide for teachers. Houston, TX: Athelstan
46. Woods, D. (1996). Teacher Cognition in Language Teaching: Beliefs, decision-making and classroom practice. GB: Cambridge University Press.