Research Articles by Kat Oghigian
Language and Computers, Jan 1, 2011
Student Level Student range TOEIC-IP 290-520 (≈TOEFL PBT 397-477) Goals Understand basic ... more Student Level Student range TOEIC-IP 290-520 (≈TOEFL PBT 397-477) Goals Understand basic grammar and collocation usage Develop basic vocabulary for communication Approach Data-driven Learning (DDL) using a parallel corpus of English/Japanese newspaper texts (Utiyama & Isahara, 2003 ) Current Software Paraconc (Barlow, 2004)
There is no question that the use of corpora in the classroom has value, but how useful is concor... more There is no question that the use of corpora in the classroom has value, but how useful is concordancing with beginner level EFL students? In this paper, we outline a course in which a parallel Japanese-English concordancer is used successfully to examine specific grammar features in a newspaper corpus. The evaluation of learning outcomes showed this course design was useful for learning grammar basics and understanding the basic structures of noun phrases and verb phrases as well as the more complex grammar questions such as those found on TOEIC. In response to questionnaires, students reported that they found the materials novel and appealing, and believed it was useful for both grammar and vocabulary learning. We also discuss the benefits and limitations of existing parallel concordance programs, and introduce a new freeware parallel concordancer, WebConc Bilingual, currently being developed. Spring Semester Fall Semester Grammar & Vocabulary Grammar & Vocabulary 1 Word classes
Papers by Kat Oghigian
Introduction Background The impact of IT technology on communication has been both explosive and ... more Introduction Background The impact of IT technology on communication has been both explosive and pervasive. People worldwide now have the opportunity to participate in business and personal affairs on a global level. As such, proficiency in English has become a requirement for many, including Japanese, who want to thrive in this highly technological world. In Japan, the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) has surged in popularity as a method for measuring practical English proficiency with both individuals and organizations. The Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology In spite of the fact that most Japanese students study English for six years in junior and senior high school and another four years, at the most, in college or university, their practical English proficiency does not improve as much as expected. In fact, compared to other countries, the average Japanese TOEFL score ranks as one of the lowest in the world. One of the reasons TO...
There is no question that the use of corpora in the classroom has value, but how useful is concor... more There is no question that the use of corpora in the classroom has value, but how useful is concordancing with beginner level EFL students? In this paper, we outline a course in which a parallel Japanese-English concordancer is used successfully to examine specific ...
Corpus-based Studies in Language Use, Language Learning, and Language Documentation, 2011
Abstract: To date, the use of parallel concordancers in the classroom has been a largely unexplor... more Abstract: To date, the use of parallel concordancers in the classroom has been a largely unexplored area. As a result, there are few guidelines on the design of these tools or the functions they should offer. Also, the number of fully-developed parallel concordance tools ...
Linguistics and Literature Studies, 2016
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of combining two newly developed we... more The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of combining two newly developed web-based tools for the foreign language DDL classroom. One is a KWIC concordance tool, WebParaNews, and the other is a lexical profiling tool, the LagoWordProfiler. Both are freeware and are based on the same parallel corpus, ParaNews, which consists of newspaper texts in English along with their aligned translations in Japanese. Using the same syllabus to teach various types of noun phrases for ten weeks, only one tool was used with the 2013 group, and both of the two tools were used in combination with the 2014 group. In order to reconfirm the effectiveness of combining two tools, both of the two tools were also used in 2015 group. In each year the teaching effect was measured using a pre-and post-test, and students' feedback was collected using a 31-item questionnaire. Groups using both tools performed better than the single tool group on the gain between the pre-and post-test and gave more positive student feedback. This combined-resource approach using different types of information from two corpus tools may be more helpful for understanding the targeted grammar items than a more traditional single tool approach.
Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 2015
Since classroom time is limited, identifying and prioritizing relevant target vocabulary is impor... more Since classroom time is limited, identifying and prioritizing relevant target vocabulary is important. In Japan, four corpus-based high frequency vocabulary lists often used as core vocabulary sources for second language (L2) learners are the JACET List of 8,000 Basic Words, the Standard Vocabulary List, the BNC High Frequency Word List, and the 5,000 most frequently used words in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). This study explores how adequately the vocabulary of these lists was defined in terms of grade level and semantic category distribution. It was found that the selected words of each vocabulary list were at the appropriate grade level, however the semantic categories showed a marked tendency toward more adult concepts. It was also found that the addition of the COCA thematic vocabulary to the COCA high frequency list could complement the deficiency in semantic fields relevant to the developmental level of the students.
This study evaluates the efficacy of applying nine specific statistical tools (Freq, Dice, Cosine... more This study evaluates the efficacy of applying nine specific statistical tools (Freq, Dice, Cosine, CSM, LLR, Chi2, Yates, PMI and McNemar) to eight sub-domains of the BNC to create domain-specific single lexical vocabulary lists for particular proficiency levels, and examines the resulting lists for grade level, frequency level, and coverage for basic, function, and specialized words. It was demonstrated that it is possible to use particular measures to create lists for particular proficiency levels, that some measures extract a greater or lesser number of basic and function words, and that different measures extract a different number of specialized words.
The Japanese government's "Action Plan for Tourism Development" in 2003 has prompte... more The Japanese government's "Action Plan for Tourism Development" in 2003 has prompted colleges and universities to set up departments to specialize in tourism. In order to supply educators with keywords associated with tourism, this study selected beginner, intermediate and advanced level specialized vocabulary using statistical tools previously established to identify level-specific, domain-specific words (Chujo and Utiyama, 2005, 2006). In this study, a Kyoto tourism corpus was compiled from 'Kyoto-guide' texts that consists of four components: 'miru' (sight-seeing), 'kau' (shopping), 'taberu' (dining), and 'taikensuru' (hands-on activities). The corpus was then compared with the British National Corpus High Frequency Word List (Chujo, 2004) using statistical measures such as the log likelihood ratio and mutual information. An examination of the resulting vocabulary lists showed that each statistical measure extracted an appropr...
In most Asian countries, students receive between six and eight years of compulsory English educa... more In most Asian countries, students receive between six and eight years of compulsory English education before they enter university. Despite this massive investment in English education, many students, especially in Japan, continue to show a poor understanding of rudimentary grammar rules. In this paper we report on a unique English course designed specifically to address grammar issues at low (remedial) levels using a Data-Driven Learning (DDL) approach. Applications of DDL are becoming more widely reported, but they are generally at the intermediate or advanced level. One of the challenges of using DDL at the remedial level is the lack of suitably leveled corpora. Another challenge is that most corpus tools used in DDL are designed for researchers or advanced learners and thus can appear overly complex. To address these issues, we have developed a simple English corpus built from standard school texts. We have also created a freeware, parallel corpus tool, AntPConc, that is specially designed to be simple, easy, and intuitive to use by beginner learners. Results from the course show significant gains between pre-and post-tests of grammar understanding for beginner-level EFL university students. We also obtained positive student feedback on the AntPConc software.
Language Education in Asia, 2012
Very few studies have investigated the use of data-driven learning (DDL) in the beginner-level EF... more Very few studies have investigated the use of data-driven learning (DDL) in the beginner-level EFL classroom, and few or no studies have compared the use of paper-based, computer-based and combined approaches. This paper reports on the results of a three-year comparative case study of computer-based, paperbased, and combined computer-and paper-based DDL using a parallel corpus for beginner-level university students. Students followed guided tasks on a worksheet to inductively understand target grammar patterns, had an explicit confirmation or correction of their hypotheses, and did follow up practice. The DDL exercises were done on a bilingual concordancer using newspaper corpus. It was demonstrated that each DDL approach can be effective for improving grammar basics such as understanding and producing noun phrases. Pre-and post-tests showed students made significant gains using all three approaches, and there does not appear to be any significant difference in effectiveness among the three approaches.
Language Education in Asia, 2012
Very few studies have investigated the use of data-driven learning (DDL) in the beginner-level EF... more Very few studies have investigated the use of data-driven learning (DDL) in the beginner-level EFL classroom, and few or no studies have compared the use of paper-based, computer-based and combined approaches. This paper reports on the results of a three-year comparative case study of computer-based, paperbased, and combined computer-and paper-based DDL using a parallel corpus for beginner-level university students. Students followed guided tasks on a worksheet to inductively understand target grammar patterns, had an explicit confirmation or correction of their hypotheses, and did follow up practice. The DDL exercises were done on a bilingual concordancer using newspaper corpus. It was demonstrated that each DDL approach can be effective for improving grammar basics such as understanding and producing noun phrases. Pre-and post-tests showed students made significant gains using all three approaches, and there does not appear to be any significant difference in effectiveness among the three approaches.
Language Education in Asia, 2012
Very few studies have investigated the use of data-driven learning (DDL) in the beginner-level EF... more Very few studies have investigated the use of data-driven learning (DDL) in the beginner-level EFL classroom, and few or no studies have compared the use of paper-based, computer-based and combined approaches. This paper reports on the results of a three-year comparative case study of computer-based, paperbased, and combined computer-and paper-based DDL using a parallel corpus for beginner-level university students. Students followed guided tasks on a worksheet to inductively understand target grammar patterns, had an explicit confirmation or correction of their hypotheses, and did follow up practice. The DDL exercises were done on a bilingual concordancer using newspaper corpus. It was demonstrated that each DDL approach can be effective for improving grammar basics such as understanding and producing noun phrases. Pre-and post-tests showed students made significant gains using all three approaches, and there does not appear to be any significant difference in effectiveness among the three approaches.
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Research Articles by Kat Oghigian
Papers by Kat Oghigian