Examining the respective and relative effectiveness of direct and indirect DDL in a tertiary EAP course in Hong Kong

Abstract

Data-driven learning (DDL) has spurred considerable interest in the field of second language learning. While a number of studies have found DDL an effective approach to teaching (academic) writing, little research has been conducted to compare the respective and relative effectiveness of direct and indirect DDL. Direct DDL refers to the direct contact with corpora for language learning, while the indirect mode concerns the use of printed language examples generated from corpora. This study examines the respective and relative effectiveness of two interventions focusing on the learning of that-clauses for an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course offered by a local university-affiliated community college. Seventy-five year 1 students who used English as a second language were recruited for the study, consisting of two treatment groups and one control group in this study. The two treatment groups received the direct DDL and the indirect DDL interventions respectively, while a traditional deductive learning approach was adopted in the control group. The three groups’ pre-, post-, and delayed writing test results were analyzed in terms of frequency and variety of use of that-clauses using ANOVAs. Results from this study show that both the direct and indirect interventions were effective in leading to short-term learning gains in the frequency of use of that-clauses respectively. While a significant effect was found in the indirect intervention in sustaining students’ learning outcomes in the frequency of use, the direct intervention had the advantage of enhancing the variety of that-clauses significantly. Nevertheless, neither of the approaches was relatively more effective in improving students’ knowledge of that-clauses in terms of frequency of use. More research needs to be conducted to explore the relative effectiveness of the two DDL approaches in terms of variety of use. The findings have important implications for the role and implementation of direct and indirect DDL in EAP courses.