ALTERNATIVE VOCABULARY ASSESSMENT: USING CONCORDANCE LINE ACTIVITIES FOR TESTING LEXICAL KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

The last decade has witnessed a strong impact of emerging technologies on language pedagogydue to the developments in the computer technologies. The use of authentic linguistic examplesthrough corpora and concordance based activities is defined as data-driven learning and itexposes the students to examples of more realistic language than invented or artificial examples.Therefore, this experimental study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the use of aconcordance software and concordance lines as a pedagogical tool in vocabulary assessment ata state university in Turkey in 2015 academic year. The materials used in the study werespecialized corpora, a concordance software and treatment handouts. The corpora wereanalyzed by means of AntConc 3.2.4w. An independent samples T-test, was conducted overthe students’ GPAs, MANOVA and Standard Multiple Regression Analysis were conducted tosee whether experimental and control groups were equivalent in terms of the knowledge oftarget vocabulary items. Thirdly, Independent Samples T-test for the three semi-controlledparagraph writing assessment and lastly descriptive statistics of the student questionnaire wereadministered. By the use of computer-generated concordances in the classroom, studentsexplored regularities of patterning in L2. Corpus-based DDL is a great alternative since itemphasizes the exploration and discovery of learning process. By integrating technology intocurricular programs, the lust of digital natives for hands-on learning is satisfied as well.