The Effectiveness of a Corpus-based Instruction in Deepening EFL Learners’ Knowledge of Periphrastic Causatives  

Oleh:

Huang, Li-szu Agnes

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: TESOL Journal vol. 6 (Jun. 2012), page 83-108.
Topik: corpus-based instruction; causatives; learner corpus
Fulltext: The Effectiveness.pdf (292.28KB)

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This study investigated whether a corpus-based instruction could deepen EFL learners’ knowledge of periphrastic causatives: make, cause, and let. The participants were 47 Taiwanese undergraduates from two intact classes. One class as the experimental group received a three-month corpus-based instruction; the other as the control group had no instruction on English causatives. A pre-test was first administered to measure participants’ knowledge of periphrastic causatives. Following a data-driven model of illustration – interaction – induction, the researcher as instructor conducted the instruction and took notes on students’ performance. After the instruction, a post-test was given to both groups whereas a questionnaire on learning effects and students’ feelings for corpus-based activities was distributed to the experimental group. Three data sources were analyzed: pre- and post-tests, field notes, and questionnaires. The results indicated that the experimental group improved and outperformed the control group significantly in the post-test. The questionnaire results confirmed that the instruction was effective in increasing students’ knowledge of the three causatives. However, the field notes revealed learners’ difficulties in using certain causatives. To better distinguish these verbs’ usages, learners should attend to semantic distinctions more than syntactic structures. Instructors also need to provide clear guidance on data search and data interpretation.

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