LINGUIST List 22.3595 Thu Sep 15 2011 Diss: Applied Linguistics: Chang: 'The Use of General and ...' Editor for this issue: Xiyan Wang <xiyanlinguistlist.org> To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.cfm. Directory         1.     Ji-Yeon Chang , The Use of General and Specialized Corpora as Reference Tools for Academic and Technical English Writing: A case study of Korean graduate students of engineering Message 1: The Use of General and Specialized Corpora as Reference Tools for Academic and Technical English Writing: A case study of Korean graduate students of engineering Date: 03-Sep-2011 From: Ji-Yeon Chang <jchang200gmail.com> Subject: The Use of General and Specialized Corpora as Reference Tools for Academic and Technical English Writing: A case study of Korean graduate students of engineering E-mail this message to a friend Institution: Seoul National University Program: College of Education Dissertation Status: Completed Degree Date: 2011 Author: Ji-Yeon Chang Dissertation Title: The Use of General and Specialized Corpora as Reference Tools for Academic and Technical English Writing: A case study of Korean graduate students of engineering Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics Dissertation Director(s): Sun-Young Oh Oryang Kwon Byungmin Lee Jin-Wan Kim Jin-Hwa Lee Dissertation Abstract: The present study set out to investigate whether or not corpora could provide help to nonnative English speaking graduate engineering students in Korea, who are required to write in English in an EFL setting where English language resources are relatively scarce and who are known to suffer from lexicogrammatical problems. To this end, the study first addressed the respective advantages and disadvantages of general and specialized corpora with a focus on corpora as reference tools for English writing. Secondly, the participants' evaluations of the given corpora were also examined, along with their attitudinal changes and patterns of corpus use. Finally, the present study uncovered the limitations of corpus consultation during the process of English writing. Ten graduate students in a computer engineering lab at a Korean university participated in the present study. The study lasted for twenty-two weeks, and its data were collected from surveys, interviews, logs, and a wide variety of written products as well as the researcher's observations. The major findings of the present study are as follows: The present study showed that a certain level of English language proficiency was required to take full advantage of corpora, and some participants considered corpus consultation time-consuming. Using corpora did not always lead to raising language awareness and improving interlanguage. The study also showed the possibility that corpora could be perceived as copying tools. During the English writing process, the participants found that corpora were less helpful in solving problems beyond the sentence level. Based on the research findings, it is assumed in the present study that corpora would be of great help to Korean graduate science/engineering students, who are under pressure to write and publish papers in English, by complementing their reference tools rather than replacing them. In particular, specialized corpora would be highly valuable to these students in confirming the usage of technical vocabulary, including its noun articles. In order to improve student writers' interlanguage, however, at least some measurements seem to be necessary to increase their language awareness. Furthermore, for student writers to use corpora appropriately, it is necessary to provide instructions to them on how to paraphrase and summarize with explicit guidelines about plagiarism. Finally, the present study warns of the possibility that corpora can be exploited to reinforce English hegemony in the EAP world, although the use of a specialized corpus is open to debate. The present study suggests that three criteria should be satisfied in order to maximize the efficacy of corpus consultation... Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue Page Updated: 15-Sep-2011       About LINGUIST    |   Contact Us       While the LINGUIST List makes every effort to ensure the linguistic relevance of sites listed on its pages, it cannot vouch for their contents.