Sample Application of Datd-driven Learning

Activity : reason+because

Aim of the activity: Correctness is often an issue with foreign language students. In this case on-line corpora can be used simply as a reference source. The sample also shows how the browser's search function can be used. The corpus that is used here is fairly small which makes the outcome slightly more predictable.

Question for students: How acceptable is a construction like this:"The reason is because he didn't want to harm her?”

Ask the students to open their WWW browser and point it to the VLC Web Concordancer at http://vlc.polyu.edu.hk/.

In the "Key Words" type "reason" and press the "Go" button. Wait a few seconds for the concordances to come up. The screen should look like the image below.

Use the browser's search feature to find instances of "because". Examine the lines that this search returns. The students are required to pick up all the instances of "reason+because". Then look at the context of these instances by clicking on "reason" in the relevant line.

Reflection:
The expression "reason+because" is widely used by Chinese students. But actually it is not so for natives. This is an experimental research made by the students. All the teacher needs to do is arouse the students' thinking. The students can have their own hypothesis about the grammar in question first. Then they consult the corpora to verify their hypothesis. This kind of learning is actually doing research. No one will lose interest in such a study. There are many other questions needing such research. DDL is very efficient in solving such problems.