Reviews of two articles
Perez-Paredas
(2011)
This study addresses
the actual use of corpus-based resources in two groups of university EFL
learners while completing different focus-on-form activities under two research
conditions: guided and non-guided corpus consultation. The research question is
whether learner interaction with corpus-based resources differs under different
corpus consultation conditions. To answer this question, the researcher
examines the computer-tracked behavior of learners. The behavior tracking that
was analyzed included (1) the number of events or actions performed by each
individual, (2) the total of different web services used, (3) the total of
Moodle activities completed, (4) the number of searches performed on the BNC,
and (5) the number of words or wildcards per BNC research. The research shows
that the two groups of learners behaved in a different way on two of the
parameters analyzed; the number of different websites visited and the number of
BNC searches performed. The individuals in the guided condition used the BNC
more extensively and resorted more frequently to web resources than those in CG
Reinhardt (2010)
Reinhardt (2010)
discusses the potential of corpus- informed L2 pedagogy. As a complement to
Davies(2008), he focuses on the pedagogical application of corpus-based theory
and methodologies and explores possible reasons why current L2 teaching
practices generally do not reflect the knowledge gained through corpus linguistics.
Reinhardt (2010) outlines the early debates and discussions, most of which occurred
in ELT, then presents a brief overview of corpus findings about the nature of
language and learning. And he concludes with the ideas on how corpus
linguistics might make more of an impact on L2 teaching in the future. The
result corroborate empirically the suggestions found in the literature that
skills and guidance are necessary when teachers take a corpus to the classroom.
Comparison
and contrast
Perez-Paredas
(2011) and Reinhardt(2010) both explore the topic “corpus
linguistic”. Perez-Paredas (2011) examines whether learner interaction with
corpus-based resources differs under different corpus consultation conditions
under the introduction that states that the use of corpora for the teaching of
specialized languages and translation has become a widely accepted practice. Reinhardt(2010)
however illustrates discussions and debates to explain why corpus-informed L2
teaching has not become more widespread.
Clarification
question. 1) I read P. 240. in Perez-Paredas
(2011), What is “wildcard”? 2) p. 83 in the second study, what is empirical
evidence?
Application question. 1) The students in Perez-Paredas (2011) did BNC search in completing tasks. Is it possible to implement the use of concordancers into young learner of beginning level class?
