Computer-assisted Analysis of Language Learner Diaries A Qualitative Application of Word Frequency and Concordancing Software
John Flowerdew · 2002
The use of word frequency and concordancing programmes has primarily been directed towards providing quantitative data about language corpora, including that of learners. In this paper I demonstrate a more qualitative application of such programmes, to identify teacher education students attitudes towards language learning and language in general. As part of an English language teacher education programme in my university in Hong Kong, students are required to take a language learning experience course in which they learn an additional language from the beginning, the idea being that they undergo a similar experience to that of the pupils they will themselves teach when they go out on teaching practice and qualify as practicing teachers. As part of this course, in addition to learning the language, reflection sessions are held in which participants focus on various aspects of the learning process, language itself, and their attitudes towards both the learning process and the language. For this part of the course students are required to keep a weekly diary in which they record their reflections. Based on the diaries of three cohorts of students in this programme the analysis in this paper shows how, through the identification of key words by means of a word frequency programme and the identification of the stretches of text in which these words occur by means of a concordancer, a picture can be built up of the students important preoccupations as language learners. By comparing these preoccupations with the goals of the reflection sessions in the course a measure is obtained of the courses effectiveness.