Corpus use by student writers: error correction by Thai learners of English

[摘要] Researchers in corpus linguistics and applied linguistics have recommended the use of corpus data by language learners to promote independent learning (Bernardini, 2004; Yoon & Hirvela, 2004; O’Keeffe et al, 2007). However, it is not clear to what extent learners are able to use corpus resources independently, and how they can be trained to use a corpus more effectively.This thesis reports a study of learners using a corpus for error correction. The learners recorded their processes using a think-aloud protocol.The thesis records three main findings. Firstly, the learners found it easiest to spot and correct errors of clause structure, noun class, adjective pattern, and collocation; they found verb pattern the most difficult errors to correct. Secondly, the learners most frequently searched for information about colligation, collocation, acceptability/occurrence of strings in a corpus, and determiner-noun agreement; they searched for information about lexical pattern relatively infrequently. Finally, the learners worked most effectively with the corpus when they entered single words as the search terms and scrutinized the concordance lines for collocates and patterns; they worked least effectively with the corpus when they entered whole strings of words. The thesis also makes recommendations for facilitating corpus use in classrooms and specifies the training that learners need to use corpora effectively.

[发布机构] University:University of Birmingham;Department:School of English, Drama and American & Canadian Studies, Department of English Language and Linguistics

[关键词] P Language and Literature;P Philology. Linguistics