Employing corpus-based Word Sketch collocation summaries as an L2 writing reference tool: The impact on lexical accuracy and diversity of Japanese EFL compositions

2017 Fiscal Year Research-status Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K02927
• Research Institution: Kobe University
• Principal Investigator: QUINN Cynthia 神戸大学, 国際文化学研究科, 特任准教授 (00368474)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: L2 writing / corpus referencing

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

In H29, participant recruiting, corpus-based Word Sketch training, and experimental sessions were conducted. Overall, 21 students joined the study and each wrote an initial diagnostic essay to serve as baseline data for assessing linguistic diversity as well as a one-page personal opinion essay written along with Word Sketch as a vocabulary resource. During the experimental sessions, the entire writing process was screen recorded, which included the students’ written preparation, composition, and corpus (i.e. Word Sketch) referencing attempts. Based on the screen-recorded essay data collected this year, the research plan for the upcoming year (H30) will be adjusted to incorporate a greater emphasis on linguistic accuracy, rather than on diversity. Otherwise, no other changes are necessary, as the pilot proved to be effective.

Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

The past year was spent creating research materials and conducting a data collection pilot. As for research materials, a background survey on students’ English writing experiences and referencing habits was prepared as well as training materials that instructed learners on how to use the corpus-based word sketches. In total, 21 students from the researcher’s English writing courses were recruited to join the study, and one of the course assignments was used as the basis for the experimental writing task. As for data collection, each session lasted 90 minutes as learners composed a personal opinion essay using Word Sketch as a vocabulary resource. The entire composition process was screen recorded with Camtasia software to capture the full writing and referencing process.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

Round 1 of data collection in H29 was designed as a pilot. As such, Round 2 in this upcoming year will be improved by narrowing the study to focus on linguistic accuracy, as opposed to diversity. Although diagnostic essays were collected from the participants to serve as baseline data for measures of linguistic diversity, the texts were too short to serve this purpose, making it difficult to assess changes in the learners’ vocabulary variety. Therefore, the writing task for Round 2 of data collection will involve learners revising their essays (rather than composing), as they reference the corpus to resolve errors in their writing. Except for revising the learners’ writing task, no other changes in the research plan are necessary, as the pilot proved to be effective.

Causes of Carryover

Technology that was budgeted to be purchased in H29 will instead be purchased this upcoming year, H30. Specifically, a Mac laptop computer and IC recorder will be necessary to run the experimental sessions for this year, whereas these were not necessary last year. In addition, travel was not necessary as the majority of time was spent on research materials preparation and conducting experimental sessions, which was very time-consuming. Finally, funds for a research assistant are being postponed until the data analysis stage, which will likely occur in H31.