Effectiveness of data-driven learning (DDL) on enhancing high-proficiency and lowproficiency Thai EFL undergraduate students' collocational knowledge

Abstract

The collocational knowledge is definitely significant to English language learners as it provides them with an opportunity to achieve mastery of lexical knowledge and enhance their communicative competence. Despite its significance, many scholars have reported that a lot of EFL and ESL learners, irrespective of their English proficiency levels, have encountered several problems about learning and producing English collocations. Consequently, a study scrutinizing the effectiveness of a particular collocation teaching and learning approach should be conducted so that its findings might be applied for helping learners effectively deal with such difficulties. The present study, therefore, aims to investigate the effectiveness of the Data-driven Learning (DDL) on enhancing collocational knowledge of high-proficiency and low-proficiency Thai EFL students. To reach the conclusion, the 96 participants divided into two proficiency groups with equal numbers were conveniently selected to attend classes where they were required to learn the target collocations through the application of DDL method. The comparison between their pre-test scores and the post-test scores were statistically drew through utilization of t-test to determine the effectiveness of DDL. The results confirm that DDL can enhance the collocational knowledge of both low-proficiency and high-proficiency Thai EFL students. In addition to the effectiveness of DDL, the learning strategies and problem-solving strategies utilized by Thai EFL students during learning English collocations through DDL are also investigated and the data regarding these perspectives were elicited through 'Students' Reflection' and 'Think-aloud Task'. The findings reveal that although both of the low-proficiency and the high-proficiency participants could follow DDL procedures, several learning strategies and problem-solving strategies were utilized to maximize the effectiveness of the application of DDL on English collocation learning. © 2019 Asian E F L Journal Press. All rights reserved.