Getting to ‘know’ connectors? Evaluating data-driven learning in a writing skills course

This paper sets out to evaluate the effect on learners’ knowledge and use of language of one prominent technique in corpus pedagogy, the data-driven use of corpus concordances with learners as researchers, or Data-Driven Learning (DDL) (Johns 1988, 1991). More specifically, the paper attempts measurement of the effect of DDL on the achievement of the goal of appropriate production by learners of logical connectors, an important subskill in the context of the wider objective of the acquisition of basic academic writing skills in English. The evaluation uses learner corpora from experimental and control groups, supported by other methods. The conclusion is that DDL, applied in the context of the communicative teaching of writing skills, is moderately effective, and that there is potential both for the further development of learner corpora in an evaluative role, and for use of a wider range of instrumentation.