Emerging engineerings in the field of linguistic communication teaching method have provided a huge chance for research workers, linguistic communication instructors and scholars to incorporate engineering into the linguistic communication larning course of study. As a consequence, all subjects of the English Language such as phonetics, lexicology, graphology, grammar, and discourse analysis have been greatly influenced by technological developments during the past decennaries. Crystal ( 1995 ) stresses the research possibilities achieved by betterments in processing and analysing immense linguistic communication texts through computing machine systems. Undoubtedly, the great part of the computing machine sciences to linguistic communication teaching method has been observed within applied linguistics in constructing, processing, and analysing linguistic communication principal ( Johns, 1990 ) . The principal is “ a aggregation of texts- written, transcribed address, or both- that is stored in electronic signifier and analyzed with the aid of computing machine package plans ” ( Conrad, 2005, p. 393 ) . These significant aggregations of linguistic communication texts have been available to research workers for about 40 old ages, and they sketch a position of linguistic communication construction that has non been available earlier ( Sinclair, 2004 ) .

The focal point of principal is on “ of course happening “ texts which users of linguistic communication create for a “ communicative intent “ . Corpora of spoken linguistic communication represents a assortment of genre types including day-to-day conversations, talks, seminars, theatre, wireless and telecasting books and even schoolroom discourse. Written principal can be classified into academic, journalistic, or literary prose ( Conrad, 2005 ; Meyer, 2002 ; Biber & A ; Conrad, 2001 ) .

2. The concordancing package

The modern-day version of concordancing includes a package plan that is able to analyse all cases of a lingual signifier or construction in a principal with the context in which the words is perchance used. On analyzing a word, for illustration, the plan scans the texts in its storage, identifies all the happenings of the word under scrutiny, and lists these words within their immediate context ( KWIC ) shown on the screen ( Barlow, 1996 ) . These compiled lists are called harmony lists which enable instructors and scholars to detect words in their natural contexts ( Biber, Conrad, & A ; Reppen, 1998 ; Sinclair, 1991 ; Tribble & A ; Jones, 1990 ) , so that they can see how they collocate with other words, which patterns they follow, which prepositions they go with, and so on ( Willis, 1990 ) .

Figure 2.1 KWIC consequences for the word ‘reply ‘adopted from Collins Wordbank Corpus

lung malignant neoplastic disease will be the fleet answer. It frequently coes as a surprise

hold to direct you a dissatisfactory answer, but the standards for listing

thing from the life, and Paul ‘s Swift answer that he did non make much

[ P ] They gave him a blunt answer. This industry had been

CASH BONUS for your prompt answer! [ P ] And do n’t bury — you

delight forgive this really belated answer. Profound apologies. But let

I ‘m frequently asked. The honest answer, which is that I smoke, slumber,

London ) , working honest, genuine answer merely. [ p ] 8389-Kind hearted,

sure is the slightly nervous answer. [ p ] 10.30 am [ P ] So here I am

Prime Minister gave a confident answer to that anticipation: Just allow

[ P ] Yes, ” came the cautious answer. [ p ] My name ‘s Kolchinsky. I

so gave an amazing answer: `The merely thing I can state is

out Despite his blithe answer, George ‘s compassion and

came my girl ‘s sleepy answer. [ 318 ] There was no clip to be

Andrews, ” came the muffled answer. `I spoke to you earlier on

I know it, ” came the incensed answer. `I ‘ll be in touch. ‘ Thankss,

He ‘s dead, ” came the cheesed off answer. `My beginning was a senior

No, I do n’t, ” was his blunt answer. So you think he ‘s already in

English, ” came the apathetic answer as if it was of small

mccrain, ” came the gruff answer as the adult male smoothed down his

physicians, ” was the disconcerting answer. Drugs are now so widespread

about Mr Hume in an ardent answer, speaking about `a calamity of

Doroteo arango ” receives the startling answer: `Suicide is a absolutely

And the Yorkshiremen ‘s instant answer – necessarily coming from Tony

Gorbachev is anticipating a speedy answer from Iraq to his program for

3. Data- goaded acquisition and linguistic communication instruction

The usage of harmony package makes the learning context more learner-centered ; scholars can be inspired to detect new significances and to place lexical and grammatical collocations ( Johns, 1990 ) . Johns refers to scholars analyzing harmony lists as “ linguistic communication investigators whose undertaking is to detect the regulations of the linguistic communication they are concentrating on by happening, placing and deducing these lingual deductions from context ” ( 1997, p. 101 ) .

He coined the term data- driven acquisition ( DDL ) to mention to all the principal and harmony based activities ( Johns, 1990 ; 1991 ) . Hunston ( 2002, p.170 ) maintains that, “ DDL involves puting up state of affairss in which pupils can reply inquiries about linguistic communication by analyzing principal informations in the signifier of harmony lines or sentences ” . The advocates of DDL contend that harmonies are superior to conventional grammar books, lexicons and class books, because “ they provide easy entree to immense sums of `authentic ‘ linguistic communication in usage, foster the scholars ‘ analytical capacities, promote their expressed cognition of the L2, ease critical linguistic communication consciousness, and back up the development of scholar liberty ” ( Gabel, 2001, p. 123 ) . Johns ( 1991 ) argues that the usage of traditional lexicons as a agency of vocabulary acquisition is a boring undertaking which lacks productiveness and, through limited, and unreal illustrations for each definition, scholars can non to the full hold on the assorted significances of a individual word. On the other manus, by seeking for word context with the aid of a harmony tool of principal, scholars are engaged in a more efficient linguistic communication larning experience. Chen ( 2004 ) adds that the integrating of principal into vocabulary larning Fosters scholars ‘ motive for acquisition.

4. Collocations

Collocations are defined as “ the happening of two or more words within a short span of each other ” ( Benson, 1990, p.12 ) .This group of words “ have been diversely called prefabricated units, prefabs, phraseological units, lexical balls, multiword units, or formulaic sequences ” ( Nesselhauf, 2005, p. 1 ) . In ESL/EFL acquisition, the cognition of collocations is a necessity in accomplishing native-like competency. Harmonizing to Lewis ( 1997 ) focal point on collocations is more of import than grammar in linguistic communication instruction, since grammar examines merely the most general regulations of the linguistic communication. MC Carthy ( 1990 ) emphasizes the importance of collocations and asserts that “ collocation is a matrimony contract between words and it forms an of import forming rule in the vocabulary of any linguistic communication ” ( p.124 ) . Kjellmer ( as cited in Shei & A ; Pain, 2000 ) states that ‘automation of collocations ‘ enable native talkers to express sentences more fluently. Language scholars, being incompetent in this mechanization, are therefore less fluid when utilizing the linguistic communication. Similarly, Aston ( 1995 ) notes that “ the usage of a big sum of prefabricated points velocities linguistic communication processing in comprehension and production likewise, and therefore creates native-like eloquence ” ( p.64 ) .Hausmann ( as cited in Nesselhauf, 2005, p.22 ) loosely divides collocations into six types:

adjectival + noun ( heavy tobacco user )

( subject- ) noun + verb ( storm-rage )

Noun + noun ( piece of advice )

Adverb + adjective ( profoundly disappointed )

adverb + verb ( badly knock )

verb + ( object- ) noun ( stand a opportunity )

Benson et Al. ( Ibid. ) add preposition to the above categorization to do such combinations:

noun + prepositions ( interested in )

preposition + noun ( by accident )

adjectival + preposition ( angry at )

Collocations with such varied categorizations are one of the most debatable issues in linguistic communication acquisition ( Dundley-Evans, 1994 ; McAlpine & A ; Myles, 2003 ) . Gui and Yang ( 2002 ) found that collocational errors were the most dominant errors for Chinese EFL pupils. Similar findings were besides reported by Zarei and Koosha ( 2002 ) for Persian pupils. Altenberg and Granger ( 2001 ) and Nesselhauf ( 2003 ) show that even advanced flat pupils larning English normally face jobs in utilizing collocations.

The DDL attack efforts to supply linguistic communication instructors and scholars with a new position to heighten lexical competency. In this manner, corpus audience undertakings through harmony tools can be efficaciously utilised to find the collocational relationships among words. Sinclair ( 1997 ) and Granger ( 1998 ) argue that DDL should best be exploited to learn collocations which are sometimes debatable for native talkers every bit good.

5. Review of related research

Despite the deficiency of adequate empirical research, the available literature indicates a comparatively positive impact of the principal on larning vocabulary and collocations. By and large, research findings emphasize the benefits of principal audience for linguistic communication scholars ( Bernardini, 2002 ; Kennedy & A ; Miceli, 2001 ) . Chan & A ; Liou ( 2005 ) in their survey investigated the influence of utilizing five web-based pattern units on English verb-noun collocations with the design of a web-based Chinese-English bilingual concordancer ( keyword retrieval plan ) on collocation acquisition. The findings indicated that scholars made important betterment in utilizing collocation instantly after the on-line pattern but regressed subsequently. Yet, the concluding public presentation was still better than pupils ‘ entry degree. In another survey, Gordani ( 2012 ) examined the consequence of the integrating of principal in general English classs on the pupils ‘ vocabulary development for two groups of scholars. The consequences revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group on the posttest suggesting that the chief consequence of principal integrating has been important.

Celik ( 2011 ) conducted a research to analyze the effects of DDL on Turkish EFL scholars ‘ accomplishment and keeping of collocational competency comparing to dictionary usage among two experimental groups in an on-line scene. The consequences revealed that pre and posttests did non demo a important difference. However, a ulterior ‘retention ‘ trial showed that the corpora-A­aˆ?based acquisition group had a higher degree of keeping.

In the Persian context, Koosha and Jaefarpoor ( 2006 ) , in their survey, tried to look into the effectivity of concordancing stuff through DDL attack on learning /learning collocation of prepositions among two groups of university pupils. The findings of the survey confirmed the positive effects of DDL attack on acquisition and learning the collocation of prepositions. They besides found the impact of L1collocational forms into L2 production.

Due to the demand for more research grounds on the impact of principal and DDL attack on the scholars ‘ collocational competency in assorted scenes, this survey is conducted to look into the effects of web-based concordancing direction on Persian EFL pupils ‘ acquisition of collocations.

6. The Survey

6.1. Aim

This experimental survey will describe on the effects of web based concordancing activities ( Data-driven larning ) on Persian EFL scholars ‘ acquisition of collocations.

6.2. Research inquiries

Is DDL attack an effectual manner to heighten Persian EFL scholars ‘ cognition of collocations, compared to the traditional attack?

Is there any important difference between controlled and experimental groups in footings of their acquisition of collocational vocabulary?

6.3. Participants

The participants of this survey are supposed to be 100 Persian University pupils, both male and female, majoring in English linguistic communication. They are all sophomore pupils analyzing in two universities in Tehran. By random choice, they are divided into control and experimental groups.

6.4. Materials and instruments

First, the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency will be administered to find the homogeneousness of the groups in footings of their English proficiency.

A collocational cognition trial is prepared by the research worker in order to find the collocational cognition of the pupils. The Chronbach alpha expression will be used to gauge the dependability coefficient of the trial. It is given to all the participants as a pretest at the beginning and as a posttest at terminal of the semester to find the impact of the specific instructions the participants are traveling to have.

The concordancing package which will be used in this survey is The Collins Wordbank Corpus with 65million words incorporating different genre, sphere, registry and manner.

Teaching stuffs on the collocations for controlled group are selected from several reading text editions which are normally taught at this degree. The text editions are Concepts and Remarks by P.Ackert & A ; L.Lee ( 2005 ) ; Active Skills for reading 3, by Neil J. Anderson ( 2002 ) ; and Select Readings ( Intermediate ) , by L. Lee and E. Gundersen ( 2002 ) .

The stuffs for practising collocations with the experimental group will be taken from The MicroConcord Corpus.

6.5 Procedure

As mentioned above, foremost, the participants will indiscriminately be divided into control and experimental groups. Then, to find the homogeneousness of the groups with respect to their English proficiency, the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery ( MELAB ) is administered to both groups.

In the following measure, they are pretested by the trial of collocations. Then, the overall internal consistence of the collocational trial is calculated utilizing Cronbach Alpha expression. At the 3rd phase, the participants attend the English vocabulary class, a hebdomadal two-hour session, during a fifteen-week semester.

In each session, the control group receives the traditional-based direction in learning vocabulary whereby collocational forms are taught through dictionary audience and expressed account by the teacher in English or Farsi ( participants ‘ L1 ) . The collocational stuffs used for this group are selected from their reading text editions including, Concepts and Remarks by P. Ackert & A ; L. Lee ( 2005 ) ; Active Skills for reading 3, by N. J. Anderson ( 2002 ) ; and Select Readings ( Intermediate ) , by L. Lee and E. Gunderson ( 2002 ) .The experimental group, on the other manus, undergoes a direct information driven- based direction where collocations are introduced through concordancing lines presented to the participants in printouts. Subsequent data- driven exercisings, based on the words collocating with the question word, are presented by the teacher to the participants.

At the concluding phase, after fifteen- session intervention, the posttest will be given in order to compare the average tonss of the groups.

6.6 Data analysis process

To happen out the effectivity of DDL attack on the pupils ‘ collocational competency in comparing with the traditional attack, we have to compare the consequences of the pretest and posttest for the experimental and control groups. Therefore, the collected informations are subjected to descriptive statistics using lower limit, upper limit, mean, and standard divergence. To find the homogeneousness of the groups the same process will be followed for the Michigan trial.

For the 2nd research inquiry, an independent T – trial will be conducted to find the significance of the difference between the agencies of the two groups.

7. Deductions of the survey

Knowledge of collocations plays a important function in geting native-like public presentation of EFL/ESL scholars. So, the findings of this survey will cast visible radiation on the effectivity of DDL through concordancing on collocations and raise the practician ‘s ‘ consciousness to use the potencies of computing machine engineering. On the other manus, principal audience enables linguistic communication scholars to detect, discover, and use new technological methods of heightening their proficiency and liberty.

Since this survey is conducted with lower degree scholars, compared to other research surveies ( Jaefarpoor & A ; Koosha ) , the consequences will turn out whether DDL is good for this degree. As to see the other side of the coin, the restrictions and deficits of the DDL will besides be manifested through these experimental probes.

Appendix A

Sample printout concordancer from Collins Wordbank Corpus

What verb ( s ) collocate with the noun “ a study ” ? VBD+a+survey

A friend one time conducted a study of work forces ‘s penchants sing

1985 Joseph Friedman drafted a study of the house, which served as

set together. And we did a study on a computing machine to analyze the

on Mount Elgon, in `88 we did a study which suggested that there

cured, the missive arrived. A study on sexual wonts was being

Other experts urged a study of the lasting natural state

in Italy. In 1930 he launched a study on `Catholic civilization ” in Vita

The Italian bishops ordered a study of Italian priests to which 25,

Shere Hite conducted a study in the United States in 1989

Lenders ( CML ) published a study which showed a clear bulk

Young Women Lawyers published a study this summer of 100 large jurisprudence

for illustration, conducted a study of its clients and

control systems. Ludlow did a study of the securities industry

Harvard University unveiled a study of American attitudes that

the anteroom group, said a study of 2,858 members showed an

to Mr Evans, who now quoted a study avering there were `15,000

possible NHS patients said a study for BBC ‘s Panorama. [ p ] Mrs the name. [ p ] Anyway, we did a study among kids which showed

[ P ] Researchers conducted a study among 11-year-olds, inquiring

to the magazine, we conducted a study, which revealed that an

as a you know we conducted a study all the 1s that we knew the

record. When they held a study on one dark in May last twelvemonth

ago s Er they ‘re they ran a study in English schools and

advisor survey and we did a study of buyers many buyers

[ M02 ] Two old ages ago we took a study. This was born in my bosom as of God.

Two old ages ago we took a study and at that point there were

truly. Erm and if you did a study of local [ ZF1 ] peo [ ZF0 ]

Appendix B

Sample collocation undertaking

Cross out the adjectival which does non collocate with the noun:

1. We are trusting for a ( speedy ; Swift ; rapid ) answer.

2. She is doing ( good ; Swift ; rapid ) advancement with her German.

lung malignant neoplastic disease will be the fleet answer. It frequently coes as a surprise

. have to direct you a dissatisfactory answer, but the standards for listing

thing from the life, and Paul ‘s Swift answer that he did non make much

[ P ] They gave him a blunt answer. This industry had been

CASH BONUS for your prompt answer! [ P ] And do n’t bury — you

delight forgive this really belated answer. Profound apologies. But let

I ‘m frequently asked. The honest answer, which is that I smoke, slumber,

London ) , working honest, genuine answer merely. [ p ] 8389-Kind hearted,

sure is the slightly nervous answer. [ p ] 10.30 am [ P ] So here I am

Prime Minister gave a confident answer to that anticipation: Just allow

[ P ] Yes, ” came the cautious answer. [ p ] My name ‘s Kolchinsky. I

so gave an amazing answer: `The merely thing I can state is

out Despite his blithe answer, George ‘s compassion and

Gorbachev is anticipating a speedy answer from Iraq to his program for

to assist you do maximal advancement, irrespective of your current

keen to do rapid advancement are able to wok in the

Haynes were doing at leisure advancement ; Malcolm ‘s bowling was

and they are doing rapid advancement. This is Sharon ‘s first twelvemonth

hold already made rapid advancement by the normal criterions of

states have made enormous advancement. Consumption per capita has

Mr Shevardnadze had made good advancement. Mr Shevardnadze said the

said they were doing good advancement, although he did non

Brisbane and India make good advancement in Chandigarh The top seeds

But we have made enormous advancement I think in traveling toward an

that we are doing steady advancement towards deriving it, and at that place groups

and ab initio made good advancement. Against them stood the

We ‘ve made first-class advancement late, largely because we ‘

still be able to do delighting advancement in many countries of his life.

he can do considerable advancement. There will besides be some

He will do significant advancement in his calling and would make

still be able to do steady advancement in most of his activities. He

are likely to do pleasing advancement. The Horse does, nevertheless,

good. He can do considerable advancement in his calling and if he is

Dogs will [ 198 ] make delighting advancement in their work in 1995.

Pig. He will do considerable advancement in many of his activities as

would look to be doing good advancement, in the right way.

[ P ] large names ” . His house made good advancement last twelvemonth in the amalgamations and

fact that he must do speedy advancement to avoid a long enchantment in the

clean forenoon, they made rapid advancement from 210-1 overnight.

[ P ] kid who does n’t do steady advancement on the inclines and take great

Teresa however made rapid advancement in supplication. She experienced