morethanalinguisticreferencetheinfluence.docVIP

MORE THAN A LINGUISTIC REFERENCE: THE INFLUENCE OF CORPUS TECHNOLOGY ON L2 ACADEMIC WRITING Hyunsook Yoon Dongguk University, Korea This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated the changes in students’ writing process associated with corpus use over an extended period of time. The primary purpose of this study was to examine how corpus technology affects students’ development of competence as second language (L2) writers. The research was mainly based on case studies with six L2 writers in an English for Academic Purposes writing course. The findings revealed that corpus use not only had an immediate effect by helping the students solve immediate writing/language problems, but also promoted their perceptions of lexico-grammar and language awareness. Once the corpus approach was introduced to the writing process, the students assumed more responsibility for their writing and became more independent writers, and their confidence in writing increased. This study identified a wide variety of individual experiences and learning contexts that were involved in deciding the levels of the students’ willingness and success in using corpora. This paper also discusses the distinctive contributions of general corpora to English for Academic Purposes and the importance of lexical and grammatical aspects in L2 writing pedagogy. INTRODUCTION Recently, corpus technology has demonstrated great potential for second language (L2) writing instruction by integrating vocabulary, grammar, and discourse patterns of given types of writing into the teaching of L2 writing (Gledhill, 2000; Hyland, 2002; Jabbour, 1997, 2001; Tribble, 1999, 2002). A substantial number of corpus studies have been involved in developing corpus-informed syllabi, teaching materials, and classroom activities (e.g., Conrad, 1999; Flowerdew, 1998; Thurstun Candlin, 1998). Those studies have emphasized that the corpus approach not only can enhance learners’ awareness of lexico-grammatical patterning of te