Bing-powered revision: an exploratory study of EFL students’ use of Bing for L2 writing revision

Collocations, prefabricated multi-word combinations, are considered to be a crucial component of language competence which indicates the central role they should play in language teaching and learning (e.g., Nesselhauf, 2005). However, collocations remain a challenge to L2 learners at different proficiency levels, present a particular difficulty to Chinese learners of English (cf. Granger & Bestgen, 2014). Corpora, as a valuable source of reliable information about language, are a potentially useful source of evidence in language pedagogy. The pedagogical applications of corpora can be realised through direct corpus-based data-driven learning (DDL). Although DDL represents an approach that has been argued to offer an effective teaching method for the acquisition of academic collocations and hence may be beneficial to learners (e.g., Nesseulhauf, 2005), a DDL approach has so far not become a mainstream teaching practice and it is mostly conducted through activities based on either hands-on or paper-based concordance line; this highlights the need to explore the effect of using new corpus tools, beyond simple concordancing (Vyatkina & Boulton, 2017). This study, therefore, investigates the effectiveness of DDL by using a new corpus tool, #LancsBox (Brezina, McEnery & Wattam, 2015). This study used data from 100 Chinese students of English from a Chinese university and employed a quasiexperimental method, using a pre-test-and-post-test (including a delayed test) controlgroup research design to compare the achievement of the use of DDL and a corpus- based collocations dictionary with a control group in teaching academic collocations to the Chinese EFL learners. Results showed that the DDL approach was effective in improving Chinese EFL learners’ both receptive and productive knowledge of collocations. Learners’ attitudes indicated that the majority of learners were satisfied with using the DDL approach in collocation learning while writing and believed corpus consultation, particularly by means of the concordances and collocation network, was very useful in collocations learning both receptively and productively. The findings suggested using corpus tool could facilitate learners’ collocations learning. They also contribute to the potential application of corpora and the new corpus tool into mainstream language learning classroom and providing guidance and materials for teachers wishing to implement the method in collocations learning.

Computer-based data driven learning (DDL) is becoming gradually more prevalent in L2 classrooms, and studies have shown that DDL exercises can be effective even at the beginner level in teaching vocabulary and grammar (Chujo & Oghigian, 2006, 2008). In addition, paperbased DDL studies are gaining ground (Boulton, 2008b), so that even without computers, students are able to explore concordance lines to identify recurring grammatical features and word derivations and to learn how to induce generalizations from the samples to the language in general. In this study, the researchers have developed a series of computer-based and paperbased DDL exercises focused on grammar basics and using a four-step approach that is both inductive and deductive. Course evaluations indicate statistically significant gains in most areas, and students report an overall positive rating on questionnaires. The benefits of data driven learning (DDL) or corpus-based exercises in the L2 classroom are widely recognized. Leech tells us that “... the corpus, as an information source, fits in very well with the dominant trend...from teaching as imparting knowledge to teaching as mediated learning” (1997, p. 2); others point to advantages of using DDL: authenticity; active, studentcentered learning where the learner has control of the learning process; and the powerful and motivating discovery aspect in which the learner acts as researcher (Braun, 2008; Huang, 2008; Hunston, 2002; Johns, 1994; O’Keefe, McCarthy, & Carter, 2007; Stevens, 1995). There is no question that corpus-based learning is gaining ground in second language acquisition; however, Boulton’s (2008a) survey of 50 DDL studies shows only four at the beginner level. Corpus use at the beginning level, either directly on computers or with paper-based material, is the focus of this study. In the first section of this paper, several considerations for using DDL in the beginner level L2 classroom are provided. Next, examples of computer-based and paper-based vocabulary and grammar exercises are given in the second section. These exercises have been used in the Nihon University Study, described in the third section. In the final section, the advantages and disadvantages of computer-based and paper-based corpus exercises are discussed. Language Education in Asia, 2010, 1(1), 200-214. http://dx.doi.org/10.5746/LEiA/10/V1/A17/Oghigian_Chujo Language Education in Asia, Volume 1, 2010 Oghigian and Chujo Page 201 Considerations for DDL in the Beginner L2 Classroom The authors posit that DDL can be successful with beginner level students, although there are several important considerations. Choosing an appropriate corpus. The first and arguably most essential consideration for classroom DDL exercises is choosing the appropriate corpus with regard to size, relevance, and accessibility. Size. The largest and certainly most accessible corpus is “the Internet,” estimated at 100 trillion words in 2007 by Peter Norvig, Director of Research at Google (Norvig, 2007). The use of an immense corpus this size risks “drowning [learners] in data” (Tribble, 1997, p. 2); this risk is present even with corpora of only a few million words. Comparatively smaller corpora, such as the British National Corpus (BNC) with 100 million words, or the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) with 410 million words, can be somewhat more manageable. With these corpora, it is easier to narrow the focus to a particular and more practical language function, context, or register. For example, Biber (2009) points out that conversation generally contains numerous embedded clauses, whereas writing contains many more phrases, especially noun phrases. Therefore, the focus of a communication or writing class might be directed to smaller and more relevant, specialized spoken or written corpora, respectively. Sub-corpora can further narrow the focus to types of spoken or written discourse, for example, academic discourse (e.g., from the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE)), or academic-sourced writing (e.g., the COCA academic register). Tribble (1997) advocates creating micro-corpora, but this may be overly ambitious for many teachers, particularly given copyright issues, and may be unnecessary, given the accessibility of many corpora and corpus tools. It is also important to note that with a corpus that is too small, there may not be a sufficient number of examples for learners to see a pattern. A sample of corpora and corpus tools is shown in Table 1; for a comprehensive list of corpora, corpus tools and related information, see David Lee’s Bookmarks for Corpus-based Linguists website.

A number of studies have suggested the potentials of corpus tools in vocabulary learning. However, there are still some concerns. Corpus tools might be too complicated to use; example sentences retrieved from corpus tools might be too difficult to understand; processing large number of sample sentences could be challenging and time-consuming; also, not all English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners know how to induct and deduct information from the concordance lines. So far, not much is known regarding how EFL writers actually perceive such tools as writing aids. To better understand this question, building on the same data set as the one published in 2015 (Lai & Chen, 2015), this study investigated students' perceptions of corpus tools right after they applied such tools to three writing tasks. Four online corpus tools, including monolingual and bilingual concordancers and collocation retrieval systems were provided along with two online dictionaries. After tool-training sections, students performed three timed-writing tasks online in three consecutive months and received individual recall interviews after each writing task. The interviews served as the major source of data. The analysis of the qualitative interview data revealed how the students perceived (1) the corpus tools as writing references, (2) the roles of the authentic example sentences, (3) the bilingual feature of the corpus tools, (4) the presentation of the corpus results, and (5) the features of the collocation retrieval system. Overall, the 14 students greatly valued corpus tools as writing references. The data also revealed how consulting the corpus helped the students to increase their confidence in writing, particularly in terms of wording. By eliciting students' perceptions and comments right after they integrated these tools into their writing tasks, the results obtained revealed not just writer perceptions but also on-site empirical data regarding how corpus tools contribute to EFL writing.

A number of studies have suggested the possible benefits of using concordancers in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing. To date, however, there is still limited understanding of how EFL writers may make use of such tools along with dictionaries when engaging in a writing task. To better understand the question, this study investigated a class of non-English-major college students (N = 14) over a semester. Four online corpus tools, including monolingual and bilingual concordancers and collocation retrieval systems, were provided, along with two online dictionaries. After two tool-training sessions, students performed three timed-writing tasks online during three consecutive months and received individual stimulus recall interviews after each writing task. The recall interviews served as the main source of data; other data included the video clips of the writing process, student writing samples, and the researchers’ notes. The result showed that students used corpus tools and the bilingual dictionary for different purposes. They tended to use a bilingual dictionary when information on word form and word meaning was needed. When searching for information related to word usage, collocation information, and grammar patterns, they chose corpus tools more often than a bilingual dictionary. However, they also turned to corpus tools for meaning and form when the bilingual dictionary failed to provide clear word meanings, when they needed to search for word strings, and when they needed to just confirm an intuition regarding either word form or word meaning. This study provides empirical data that help to better understand how corpus tools contribute to EFL writing.

The concept of reflection has become increasingly prevalent in higher education over recent decades, particularly in the domains of teaching and learning. Being a reflective learner means that students can critically evaluate their learning, determine areas of their learning that need further development and make themselves more independent learners. This paper discusses a case study where reflective diaries were used to facilitate and assess both learning and teaching methods. As an assessment method, reflective diaries can assess students’ comprehension of the course content and can also promote critical self-reflection and enhance self-awareness (Biggs, 1999; O’Rourke, 1998). The data were collected through individual interviews and reflective diaries written by undergraduate students at the University of Dhofar. Data analysis indicates that the use of reflective diaries proved beneficial for enhancing both teaching and learning experiences. This is because the process of writing the diaries requires students to reflect on the learning activities that have taken place in class, analyze their own learning and express it in a personal way. Reflective diaries can also enable teachers to evaluate their teaching methods and generate feedback for improving their classroom practices.

Corpus tools as an affordance to learning in professional legal education

Developing collocational competence is essential for Second Language proficiency, yet low-proficiency learners often struggle with verb-noun collocations due to the arbitrary nature of collocational patterns. While influential corpus tools such as the Corpus of Contemporary American English and the British National Corpus serve as valuable resources for collocation learning, they also pose significant cognitive challenges for low-proficiency learners. Therefore, this study investigated the effectiveness of corpus tools integrated with pedagogical practices in facilitating verb-noun collocation learning among Chinese low-proficiency learners, to identify the most suitable tool tailored to their specific learning needs. A quantitative research method was employed, utilizing an intervention design with pre-and post-tests to compare the impact of using Sketch Engine for Language Learning (SkELL) and COCA in enhancing learners’ verb-noun collocation proficiency. Furthermore, the eight-week intervention integrated SkELL and COCA into collocation lessons respectively, each designed within the framework of Corpus-Based Language Pedagogy (CBLP), presenting how strategic instruction maximized the potential of corpus tools in facilitating learners’ improvement in verb-noun collocation proficiency. The findings of the study revealed that SkELL significantly improved verb-noun collocation proficiency among Chinese low-proficiency EFL learners, attributed to its intuitive interface, simplified search functions, and scaffolded learning environment. Moreover, this study offers valuable contributions to the design of corpus-based instruction by demonstrating the effectiveness of SkELL as a corpus tool tailored to the needs of Chinese low-proficiency EFL learners. The study concluded with insights on pedagogical implications and recommendations for further research.

This study examined effects of corpus-based instruction (CBI) on first-year undergraduates' receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge development and challenges. A mixed-methods approach and quasi-experimental design were used to answer the research questions. Participants of the study were 91 first-year undergraduate students aged over 18. Data were gathered through tests, reflective journals, and semi-structured interview. The one-way MANOVA results indicated a significant effect of both instructions on the participants’ receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge development. However, CBI had a medium to large effect size on the receptive vocabulary knowledge development and a small to medium effect on the productive vocabulary knowledge development. The reflective journal and interview data also showed that most of the participants found CBI easy. However, participants also pointed out that some concordance lines included difficult words to understand, and they were unable to access more than 20 words in 24 h, which they saw as a challenge. Therefore, EFL teachers should integrate CBI to develop students’ receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge.

<p>This research intends to bring insights into learner autonomy in a Malagasy EFL setting. Despite being a topic of research in language education for about four decades, learner autonomy is still almost unknown in countries like Madagascar. Most empirical studies on learner autonomy have taken place in either ESL settings in Western countries or EFL settings in some Asian countries. Very little research has been conducted in African developing countries. In order to foster learner autonomy in a Malagasy setting, the research encompassed two main phases. Phase one focused on exploring the existing conditions for learner autonomy in a Malagasy rural school; while phase two aimed to promote one dimension of learner autonomy with student teachers through a “reflective learning” course. Phase one examined the affordances of learner autonomy in a Malagasy rural school. It investigated three dimensions of learner autonomy, namely self-initiation, self-regulation, and independence, via class observations and interviews with four EFL teachers. The data revealed some elements of autonomy. Self-initiation was fostered through encouragement and opportunities to learn outside class, while independence (from teachers) was mainly promoted through peer collaboration. Though the presence of the elements was not consistent, the fact that they were promoted at all implies possibilities to further exploit them in such a setting. Self-regulation - composed of planning, monitoring, and self-evaluation - was not promoted probably due to the teachers’ unawareness of its importance, and their lack of experience with self-regulation as former learners. The aim of phase two was to promote self-regulation at a Teacher Training College among a group of 22 first-year EFL student teachers as participants. A nine-week “reflective learning” course was designed to achieve three main objectives: (1) to help the student teachers improve their self-regulation skills via reflective journal writing, in order (2) to help them improve their writing proficiency. In addition, experiencing the benefits and the challenges of reflective learning would lead them (3) to be aware of the significance of self-regulation on their own writing and/or learning in general, and on their future teaching. To reach these objectives, the student teachers were given writing tasks and reflection prompts to answer before, during, and after the writing tasks. Each of the writing task was a 200-word argumentative essay, and was repeated twice or three times in order to facilitate the student teachers’ self-evaluation. The pre-task prompts intended to help them plan their writing (including goal setting), the during-task prompts helped them monitor, and the post-task prompts helped them self-evaluate. A session of group discussion was held each week to allow peer collaboration. The writing tasks, the journal reflections on the tasks, on the group discussions, along with journal reflections on the course were included in portfolios. The findings of phase two revealed that reflective learning was conducive to the development of the student teachers’ self-regulation of writing. They became aware of their difficulties, which they turned into goals. This awareness enabled them to develop strategic behaviour and a sense of responsibility towards their learning in general. They also realised their capability to improve with little help from teachers, which triggered positive affect. Moreover, they generally improved their writing performances mainly thanks to the sense of responsibility, the positive affect, and the habit of paying attention to details, which they had also developed throughout the course. Furthermore, reflective learning influenced their perspectives on teaching. The development of self-regulation and that of the improvement of writing varied from one student to another. In order to have a more in-depth analysis of such development (or lack of development), two case studies were used to illustrate the variations and the possible reasons behind such variations. The research leads to a few teaching implications. Firstly, learner autonomy has its place in developing countries like Madagascar. Secondly, the development of learner autonomy should be included in teacher training so that teachers know and value its benefits and challenges, based on their own learning experience. Thirdly, not every student would reach the same level of autonomy in a given time. Weaker students may need more guidance in terms of strategies than other students.</p>

ABSTRACTInternational field experiences in Kenya and Nepal supplied data for two collaborative ethnographic research projects that analyze, using the concept of contextually appropriate practice (CAP), how minority-world early childhood preservice teachers define “quality” practices. The term minority-world is used for educators who come from wealthier regions of the globe, which constitutes a small percentage of the world population, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Europe. The term majority-world has replaced the term third world, as this term constructs a discourse about third-world countries being less developed. Fifteen preservice teachers from a predominantly White university in the United States served as the participants. Two Kenyan and Nepali teachers also participated to gain an emic perspective of quality practices from local community members. Data were collected through participation observation by the researchers, written ethnographic field notes, individual interviews, group discussions, and reflective journals. CAP was used to inform the data collection and analyze in two ways. First, it was used to guide the questions during the interviews and discussion groups. Second, the tenets of CAP were used to determine themes when coding the data. The findings reveal that U.S. preservice teachers are most likely to exert a “privileged position” by assuming that quality in Kenya and Nepal could be “fixed” by adopting Euro-Western policies and pedagogies, which perpetuates neo-colonialism in the education sector. The history of marginalization, coupled with Euro-Western influences and domination, silenced and oppressed local forms of educating young children in Kenya and Nepal. It is critical to provide preservice teachers with opportunities to expand their views of quality, especially in collaboration with adults from the local teaching community, so that they can provide feedback and mentoring about contextually appropriate practices for majority-world children.

Writing for reflection: Radiography students' experiences with reflective journaling

The present study examines the linguistic resource of modality in the 2018 general election manifestos of four major political parties, namely, the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N), the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM). The analysis focuses on how these political parties position themselves and their opponents in their 2018 general election manifestos through the strategic use of modality, primarily expressed through modal verbs. The study further investigates how these political parties articulate obligations, commitments, probabilities, and assumptions, etc., through modality. The data are examined through a mixed-methods mode of inquiry combining corpus tools Antconc (4.3.1) and the textual-conceptual function of hypothesising from the Critical Stylistic framework proposed by Jefferies (2014). The frequency and distribution patterns of modality identified through corpus tools are rendered to a deeper qualitative analysis to uncover the ideological meanings encoded through modality. The results of the study demonstrate a noticeable variation in the frequency and preferred types of modal verbs across the selected political parties, with the dominant use of the modal verbs ‘will & would’. The qualitative interpretation of these modal verbs indicates their strategic use to project a positive self-image and highlights the failures and weaknesses of their political rivals. Overall, the study demonstrates the effectiveness of a mixed-methods approach to uncover ideological patterns in political texts and contributes to the growing scholarship on Pakistani political discourse.

This study was begun not long after the Indonesian Ministry of National Education (MONE) launched a new policy for Indonesian teachers to gain professional certification. This policy requires all teachers in Indonesia to undertake continuous upgrading programs to enhance their professional development (PD) and it awards them with a ‘sertifikat pendidik’ (an educator certificate) if they can successfully meet the requirements. Through this policy, the Indonesian government is promising certified teachers increased remuneration (double their existing salary). The scheme has attracted many students to enter teacher education although many studies claim there has not been any significant improvement in the teaching quality of the in-service teachers since the certification policy was implemented in 2007 (Halim, 2011; Napitupulu, 2012c). In the light of such claims, this study conducts an in-depth investigation into the learning and emerging professional identity of 13 pre-service teachers (PSTs) in one university in Indonesia, Guru University (a pseudonym). The focus of my study is an investigation into how those PSTs understood their own identity as prospective teachers and the ways they interpreted and made meaning of their learning and experiences through their reflections. I collected and recorded their reflections while the students were studying in the practicum courses offered on campus by Guru University (‘Practice Teaching 1/PT1’) and during the practicum teaching experiences the PSTs were having in school settings (‘Practice Teaching 2/PT2’). To provide alternative perspectives of the PSTs’ experiences, this study also investigates the views and beliefs about pre-service teacher education of the six university mentors and seven supervising teachers who worked with these PSTs during their practicum experiences. Reflection and reflective practice were foundational concepts/practices in this study, although as the study evolved they became less central. Key theorists in my critical inquiry into these concepts/practices, and in my analysis of the PSTs’ views about their pre-service reflection, include John Dewey (1910; 1916), Donald Schon (1983, 1987) and Paulo Freire (1970). The narrative-based accounts of PSTs’ experiences published by Britzman (2003) and Alsup (2006), in particular their critical analyses of PSTs’ struggles to negotiate their professional identity, are in some ways a model for the kind of research I am presenting in this thesis. I make extensive use of Bakhtin’s (1981) theories of language and of the ‘dialogic imagination’ to represent and inquire into the socio-cultural and political contexts mediating the PSTs’ voices and experiences. The reference to ‘becoming’ in the title of the thesis acknowledges the importance of both Britzman and Bakhtin to the whole study. The narratives which I obtained from the participants were collected in three phases in Indonesia. The first phase involved the university mentors (focus group discussion) and the supervising teachers (questionnaires and individual interviews); the second and third phases involved PSTs in the campus-based practicum and the school-based practicum using reflective journals, and participating in individual interviews and a focus group discussion, individual interviews, and (except for the third phase) autobiography. I devised a coding method based on Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) grounded theory in association with NVIVO 9 software, which I used to classify, describe, and analyse the narratives. This study demonstrates that the university mentors from Guru University and the supervising teachers in various Indonesian schools had widely differing views about teacher education, the role of reflection and the practicum in the ‘becoming of teachers’. (At a time when the government is attempting to improve the quality of teacher, this finding in itself is significant.) The university mentors were inclined to see the practicum from the formal aspects of teaching, such as the PSTs preparation of their lesson plans and the teachers’ skills in classroom management. Meanwhile, the supervising teachers in schools focused on the informal and relational aspects, such as leadership skills and the interpersonal relationship which the PSTs developed with their students. This study also shows that the identities which PSTs were constructing were complex and multidimensional, stemming from their different motivations for studying teaching. My account of the PSTs’ learning suggests that, in common with education practices in many parts of the world, their knowledge and identity in teaching must operate within the hegemony of standardised education. Many PSTs reported that they wanted to resist this hegemony and negotiate an alternative way of teaching, although they often felt powerless considering their status as praktikans (practicing teachers).

After Dewey (1933) and Schön (1983, 1987), education scholars began to look further at the concepts of reflection for learning. Following these concepts, there have been plenty of studies on reflection, particularly those discussing teachers' classroom experiences and their endeavour to de-velop professional skills. However, educational practitioners in Indonesia (as in the rest of the world) often criticise preservice teachers' (PSTs) lack of content knowledge, which they claim should be 'prioritised' during a teacher education course. Such pressing situations may have made it difficult to model or experience reflective practice. Against these odds, this research pa-per addresses issues related to the identity and professional development of thirteen English PSTs during their campus and school-based practicum in an Indonesian university. This study collected empirical data through PSTs' re-flective journals, questionnaires, individual interviews, focus group discus-sion, and autobiography. The study examines problems encountered by PSTs, namely their motivations to become teachers. This study signifies that teacher education needs to provide more reflective dialogues to shape PSTs’ identity and professionalism.

Exposing students to corpus-informed research is a typical example of data-driven learning. This paper reports on the ways that corpora (i.e., text collections), corpus tools (i.e., software packages), and corpus methods (i.e., techniques for analysing corpus data) can be used to develop students’ writing skills, while enabling them to improve their digital competencies, which is in line with current trends in education. The authors present and discuss the ways that corpus-derived materials can be developed for teaching writing skills with the goal of engaging students during their learning process and enabling them to conduct their own linguistic research. The data-driven learning (DDL) method based on corpus search was implemented in a specialized course aimed for doctoral students at the University of Rijeka Faculty of Maritime Studies. The course, implemented within the UNIRI CLASS A2 Digital Citizenship—Innovations in Learning and Teaching in 2022 project line, aimed to use the corpus-based data-driven learning method to develop students’ academic writing skills. This was intended to make students more independent and autonomous in their learning, to enhance their digital skills, and to stimulate them to be more involved in their own learning.