EFL Students’ Perceptions of Using COCA to Develop Their Vocabulary

Abstract

This paper presents a research study investigating students’ perceptions about the use of COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) to expand their English vocabulary. The purpose of the study is to determine perceived benefits of using online corpora for improving EFL students’ vocabulary from the perspective of students. In the study, a group of EFL students in the Preparatory School at a state university in Turkey were introduced what a corpus is and how to use it to develop their vocabulary. The study was carried out for four weeks and the participants attended three hours of instruction each week. After each instruction, students were required to do some corpus-based vocabulary activities. The data for this research were collected via a questionnaire. At the end of the fourth week, the students reflected their perceptions about using the online corpus (COCA) in the questionnaires given. The data gathered from the study were analyzed quantitatively. The results indicated that most of the students think that using COCA as an online corpus is highly beneficial to enriching their English vocabulary. The results will supply EFL teachers with planning information about how corpora and corpus-based vocabulary activities might best be integrated into English language curriculum