The Comparative Effect of Corpus-Based vs. Process-Based Approach on Iranian EFL Learners’ Complex Sentence Knowledge

This study examines the comparative effects of traditional, corpus-based and process-based approaches on Iranian English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ complex sentence knowledge achievement (N = 60).The study sample was divided into three groups: one control (traditional) and two experimental groups (corpus-based and process-based).All groups were equal in size each (N = 20).The objective was to examine the probable effect(s) of the three different approaches on grammatical achievement of the participants and the ultimate effect of using the approaches on complex sentence knowledge achievement. Examining the Levene’s test for homogeneity of variance (Sig. = 0.900 > 0.05) proved non-violation of homogeneity of variance. As the results indicated, with regard to the Fisher statistic (32.340) and the level of significance (p = 0.000), it was concluded that there is a statistically significant difference between the mean scores on the dependent variable for the three groups. The Tukey HSD test was also run and the results indicated an equal difference between the approaches and the posttest (p = 0.000) at p < 0.05 significance level. Examining the result, proved that the process-based group performed much better on the posttest, indicating a stronger positive effect of the process-based approach on developing complex sentence knowledge skill. It was concluded that, process-based approach is by all accounts successful in teaching writing and material designers can use process-based approach in order to design activities for EFL students.

Keywords:

Corpus-based approach , process-based approach , complex sentence