Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research (아시아태평양코퍼스연구)

Institute for Corpus Research (국립인천대학교 코퍼스연구소)
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The Effects of Corpus Use on Learning L2 Collocations of Light Verbs and Nouns

  • Received : 2023.10.15
  • Accepted : 2023.12.08
  • Published : 2023.12.31
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Abstract

In data-driven learning (DDL), learners explore a corpus to understand vocabulary and grammar. Although many studies have emphasized the role of DDL in second language (L2) acquisition, L2 light verbs have been largely under-explored. To bridge this gap, this study focused on the learning outcomes of L2 light verbs among 29 intermediate-level Japanese university students. The research zeroed in on six prevalent light verbs in English: "make," "do," "take," "have," "give," and "get." Over nine weeks, the participants engaged with verb-noun collocations using worksheets that juxtaposed Japanese translations of the target collocations with their English equivalents, with the verbs omitted. With the aid of Wordbanks Online, they filled in the blanks and constructed accurate sentences. Before this activity, a 20-minute tutorial was given to the participants on how to interpret the concordance lines. The effectiveness of the DDL method was evaluated using pre-tests, immediate post-tests, and delayed post-tests. The results showed that DDL significantly improved the participants' knowledge of the target collocations of light verbs and nouns; the post-test and delayed post-test scores were significantly higher than the pre-test scores. The results showed that, overall, DDL contributed to memorizing the collocations of light verbs and nouns; however, DDL had different effects on the memorization of collocations across different light verbs. The extent of work on the worksheet is not the only factor in its retention, and observing concordance lines may promote learners' memorization of light-verb collocations.

Keywords

Acknowledgement

This study was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP20K13109.

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