Using Input Enhancement and Online Corpora to Develop University Students’ EFL Collocational Competence

Said Mustafa El-Garawany, Marwa

doi:10.21608/edusohag.2019.57694

Using Input Enhancement and Online Corpora to Develop University Students’ EFL Collocational Competence

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Marwa Said Mustafa El-Garawany

Lecturer of Linguistics, Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Archaeology and Languages, Matrouh University, Egypt.

10.21608/edusohag.2019.57694

Abstract

This study attempted to investigate the effect of using input enhancement and online corpora on developing university students' EFL collocational competence. Participants (N = 50) were chosen at random from first year students enrolled at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, University of Sadat City, during the first semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. They were divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 25) and a control one (n = 25). An EFL collocational competence test was developed and administered before and after experimentation that lasted for eight weeks during which the experimental group students were taught using input enhancement (in-class input-enhanced reading activities) and online corpora (out-of-class corpus-based activities via the online tool COCA) while the control group students received regular instruction. Results revealed that the experimental group students achieved significant improvement in EFL collocational competence. Thus, using input enhancement and online corpora proved to have a positive effect on developing university students' EFL collocational competence.

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