English Academic Writing: Social constructivism and corpora. Janet-Marie McLaughlin

Transcription

1 English Academic Writing: Social constructivism and corpora Janet-Marie McLaughlin

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3 Linguistik Janet-Marie McLaughlin English Academic Writing: Social constructivism and corpora Shaker Verlag Aachen 2013

4 Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at Zugl.: Hildesheim, Univ., Diss., 2012 Copyright Shaker Verlag 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Printed in Germany. ISBN ISSN Shaker Verlag GmbH P.O. BOX D Aachen Phone: 0049/2407/ Telefax: 0049/2407/ Internet: info@shaker.de

5 Table of Contents List of Tables...vii List of Figures... viii 1. Introduction... 1 Part I: Social Constructivism Introducing Social Constructivism Changes in Theory, Practice and Learning to Learn Social Constructivism: The focus Social Constructivism and Communicative Language Learning and Teaching Development of Social Speech into Thought The Zone of Proximal Development The Role of Scaffolding and Decentering in the ZPD The Seven Principles of Social Constructivism Features of a Social Constructivist Classroom Collaboration: Theory and practice Learner Autonomy: Theory and practice Defining Autonomy Note Taking Report Back Phase Constraints that Affect Learner and Teacher Autonomy Need Analysis Generativity: Theory and practice Active Engagement: Theory and practice Inductive Learning Data Driven Learning Data Driven Language Learning and the ZPD Social Constructivism and Corpus Personal Relevance: Theory and practice Reflectivity: Theory and practice Encouraging Reflection Error Correction Pluralism: Theory and practice Summary of Part I i

6 Part II Corpus Linguistics Introducing Corpus Linguistics The Meaning of Corpus Linguistics Corpora and Technology Corpus Linguistics and English Language Teaching Corpora and Teaching Material Corpus, Language, and the Discourse Community Corpus Linguistics and Learner Dictionaries The Mental Lexicon Interconnections in the Mental Lexicon Concept Formation: Word meaning Corpus and Word Interconnections Learners Own Corpus Compilation Learning Vocabulary Neologisms Vocabulary Lists and Direct Translation Equivalents Factors that Aid Vocabulary Learning Noticing Elaboration: Input to Uptake Vocabulary Development and Acquisition Corpus and Knowing a Word Word Frequency Frequency of Words and Advanced Language Learners Communicative Competence Corpus and Sociolinguistic Competence Corpus and Cultural Associations Corpus and Register Register and Phrasal Verbs Politically Correct Language Corpus and the Cultural Associations of The Poor in British English The Passive Poor The Active Poor The Poor and their Associates Semantic Prosody ii

7 8.6. Synonyms Polysemy World Knowledge Relevance of Language Chunks Importance of Chunks for Language Learning and Teaching Language Patterning Binomials Learning English at an Advanced Level Corpus and Language Chunks Nativelike Selection Nativelike Selection: Finnegans Wake Nativelike Selection: Anthem Written and Spoken Academic Language Language Chunks Learning Language Chunks Comparison of Frequency of Single Words with the Frequency of Chunks First Step of the Comparison Second Step of the Comparison Third Step of the Comparison Evaluation of the Data Lexico-grammatical Patterning Chunks of Language Lexico-grammatical Patterns Containing Prepositions Investigating L2 Problems with Frequent Words such as Prepositions Description of the University Tests Single Word Test Designations Results of the Single Word Test and Frequency of these Words The Chunk Test Results of the Chunk Test Analysis of the Results of the Chunk Test Comparing the Results of the Single Word Test with those of the Chunk Test iii

8 10. Summary of Part II Part III Pedagogical Action Research Introducing Pedagogical Action Research Definition of Pedagogical Action Research Description of Pedagogical Action Research Cycle The Difference Between Pedagogical Action Research and Action Learning Guidelines for Pedagogical Action Research Positivist Research versus Constructivist Research Specific Features of Pedagogical Action Research Ethics of Pedagogical Action Research Relevance of Pedagogical Action Research in Educational Settings Pedagogical Action Research as Reflective Teaching Practice The Relevance of Pedagogical Action Research at Tertiary Level Pedagogical Action Research Project: English Academic Writing Aims of the Pegagogical Action Research Project The Research Questions The Situation Brief Description of the Students who Study with the English Department Investigating the Problems of English Academic Writing Exploration of the English Academic Writing Skills which the Hildesheim University Students Bring to their Studies First Year Students Previous Experience of English Academic Writing Evaluation of the Questionnaire and of the Data Gathered Description of the Pedagogical Action Research Project Research Group Control Group The Teacher s/researcher s Role in the Project Data Collection Special Corpus Designed for the Project Classes The Pedagogical Action Research Project: Content and structure of English Academic Writing seminars Linking Practice and Theory Application of Seven Principles of Social Constructivism iv

9 Generativity: Practice and theory Personal Relevance: Practice and theory Collaboration: Practice and theory Active Engagement: Practice and theory Reflectivity: Practice and theory Autonomy: Practice and theory Pluralism: Practice and theory The First Tutorial Needs Analysis Materials for the Tutorials Finding the Focus Structure of the Homework of English Academic Writing Tutorials Error Correction Reformulation Example of Colour-coding for Reformulation The Importance of Reformulation Reformulation and Learner Autonomy Reconstruction Example of Colour-coding for Reconstruction Theoretical Rationale behind Reconstruction The Third Tutorial Examples of Error Corrections Using a Corpus Using a Corpus for English Academic Writing Corpus and Language Accurracy Social Constructivism and Corpora Second Tutorial: Structuring the text The Fourth Tutorial: Paragraphing Paragraphing: The first task Paragraphing: The second task Paragraphing: The third task Paragraphing: The fourth task Paragraphing: The fifth task Paragraphing: Conclusion of the lesson Difficulties of Teaching and Learning Paragraph Structures v

10 13.8. The Fifth Tutorial: Reporting/Referring verbs Rationale Behind Tutorial on Reporting/Referring Verbs Critical Thinking Summary of the Pedagogical Action Research Classes Results of the Pedagogical Action Research Project The Structure of the Editing Process Working Towards Accuracy The Process Students Progress Towards Accuracy over the Course of the Semester Collecting the Data Results of the Data Collection Justification for Counting Errors per Word Analysis of the Students Progress Towards Accuracy Feedback on Written Academic Work Students Response to Feedback Students Difficulties with Colour-coding The Product Evaluating the Product of the Students English Academic Writing Criteria for Marking the Papers Marking the Papers Analysis and Evaluation of the Results Investigating the Low Mark Awarded to a Research Class Student Analysis of the three Areas Graded: Content, Use of Language and Adherence to Academic Conventions Content Use of Language Adherence to Academic Conventions Discussion of the Results of the Pedagogical Action Research Project Conclusion Bibliography References Appendices vi

11 List of Tables Table 1: Disciplines in which German academics claim English as their working language Table 2: Vocabulary size and coverage Table 3: Rank of frequency of top 10 words in the CIC Table 4: Varieties of idiomaticity Table 5: Known and unknown words from an extract of Finnegans Wake Table 6: Chunks of text in Anthem and their frequencies in ukwac Table 7: Frequency of words in Sinclair s text Table 8: Frequency of single words from Sinclair s text in the ELT Journal Corpus Table 9: Frequency of the chunks from Sinclair s text found in the ELT Journal Corpus Table 10: Frequency of the chunks from Sinclair s text in the BAWE Corpus Table 11: Frequency of chunks from Sinclair s text found in the BNC Corpus Table 12: Frequency of chunks found in ukwac Table 13: Results of the single word test Table 14: Frequency of the prepositions and the frequency of the single words Table 15: Frequency of words in ukwac and percentage of correct answers from HUS Table 16: Amount of written work expected from students in English Department over the course of one semester Table 17: Tenses of reporting verbs in ELT Journal Corpus Table 18: Years of use of stated in BAWE Table 19: Frequency with which students state they ask for feedback on their written work Table 20: Students opinion as to the usefulness of feedback received Table 21: Results of the grading of the papers Table 22: Percentage received by all students in descending order Table 23: Comparison of results of different years of study Table 24: Percentages given for Content of papers Table 25: Percentages given for Use of Language in papers Table 26: Percentages given for Adherence to Academic Conventions in papers Table 27: Comparison of marks for Adherence to Academic Conventions with length of time studying vii

12 List of Figures Figure 1: Interconnections of the seven principles of social constructivism Figure 2: A social constructivist model of the teaching-learning process Figure 3: Material for inductively finding a rule for the use of italics Figure 4: Kachru s three concentric circles of English (1985) Figure 5: Worksheet for Creating you own Corpus Figure 6: Example of the highlighting of a KWIC Figure 7: The functions of formulaic sequences Figure 8: Results of the gap test Figure 9: Results of the gap test Figure 10:Results of the gap test Figure 11:Example of new text incorporated into the old text Figure 12:Example of the tagged student s work Figure 13:Concordance of the tagged text for the number 1 in a student s second text Figure 14:Students progress toward accuracy in EAW over the course of the semester Figure 15:The three stages of a student s text Figure 16:Changes made to an already corrected text after seminar on personal pronouns Figure 17:Student s re-writing of corrected text Figure 18:Example of concordance supplied for corpus query error correction Figure 19:Incorporation of newly learned material in a student s text Figure 20:Examples of grid for tutors results Figure 21:Text returned to student who had difficulty using a corpus to correct her own errors viii

13 Acknowlegements I would like to thank the following people who helped me, in one way or another, to write this thesis. First and foremost, I would like to thank the students who participated in the research classes and made them such an enjoyment to teach. Thanks go to Dr. Saskia Kersten for both her technical and moral support. To Sylke Schmeißing for support and cups of tea. To all the members of the English Department of Hildesheim University who cheerfully listened to my moaning while writing this work, I appreciate your support and help. I would like to thank Professor Lenz who made the research possible and for all his suggestions and his patience along the way. Finally, I would like to thank Ramesh Krishnamurthy who sparked off the initial ideas for the research, encouraged my enthusiasm for corpus linguistics and who is the best teacher I know.