A Corpus-based Study on the Use of MAKE by Turkish EFL Learners

M Pinar Babanoğlu

doi:10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.2n.2p.43

Abstract

This study examines the lexical and grammatical use of a high frequency verb ‘MAKE’ by Turkish EFL learners. Major goals are to investigate whether Turkish learners of English use MAKE appropriately in their argumentative essays and to see to what extent L1 transfer plays a role in such usage and to what extent different learner groups from different L1s share common interlanguage features. Overuse, underuse and misuse of MAKE by learners and native speakers gathered by frequency calculations from native speakers’ and two learners’ corpora and comparison of them among each other constitute the quantitative backbone of the research. Results showed that Turkish learners have difficulty in the use of MAKE to a certain degree. Consequently, learners should be made aware of especially delexical and grammatical patterning of high frequency verbs in English such as MAKE and they should also be shown the difference in the use of these verbs between their L1 and L2.

Highlights

This study examines the lexical and grammatical use of a high frequency verb ‘MAKE’ by Turkish EFL learners
As demonstrated in the graph, total amounts of MAKE within three corpora are slightly different, both learner corpora showed a moderate underuse when compared to native speaker corpora
As L2 vs. L1, LL ratio between TICLE and Louvain Corpus of Native English Essays (LOCNESS) JPICLE and LOCNESS was measured for L2 vs. L1, and LL ratio of TICLE and JPICLE for L2 vs. L2

Summary

Introduction

This study examines the lexical and grammatical use of a high frequency verb ‘MAKE’ by Turkish EFL learners. Learners should be made aware of especially delexical and grammatical patterning of high frequency verbs in English such as MAKE and they should be shown the difference in the use of these verbs between their L1 and L2. In interlanguage, using word combinations such as ‘make a decision’ properly is an important part for a high degree of competence in second language (Nesselhauf, 2005). These constructions are called ‘delexical structures’ (Sinclair, 1990) which are characterized as collocations because of their semantically restricted features, e.g. Is there significant difference between EFL learners and native English spkeakers in the total use of ‘MAKE’?

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion