Browsing by Author "Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli"

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Achieving Academic Proficiency Standards in Higher Education through Corpus-Based Language Teaching
(Journal of English Language Teaching, 2018) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
Schools and colleges in India are now facing the challenge of preparing students for higher studies in countries like the USA and the UK, where English is the primary mode of study. It is argued that a large number of ESL and EFL learners fail to meet the expected academic proficiency standards of B2 of the CEFR due to their poor prior exposure to English. Mushrooming of institutions offering short-term training in English for TOEFL and IELTS sets the tone of the problem. However, corpus based approach, when embedded into our curriculum practices, can address a range of teaching issues, and help our students cope with the needs of higher education, in India as well as abroad. While corpus-based language teaching (CBLT) is not new to India, there are reasons why it has not received as much support as other approaches did. In this paper, I discuss the popular notions that withheld CBLT from its growth and present how corpora—general or specific—can assist ELT practitioners achieve high quality standards in higher education.
Analyzing Dictionary Search Preferences: A Study of User Behaviour
(ELTAI, 2023-03) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
Understanding a student’s dictionary search preferences is crucial for us to determine learner language needs. We can restructure our instructional materials and strategies for our learners. This paper reports a small-scale dictionary use survey conducted at BITS Pilani, Pilani campus. 91 engineering students from different disciplinary backgrounds have responded to a questionnaire which included items on aspects the students tend to look up in a dictionary and the purposes that determine their look up practices. The findings clearly indicate that many students rely on online dictionaries, and their search preferences are mostly determined by their need to comprehend information rather than produce it.
Dictionary search preferences by engineering students: A small-scale survey. Journal of English Language Teaching
(Journal of English Language Teaching, 2022) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
Understanding a student’s dictionary search preferences is crucial for us to determine learner language needs. We can restructure our instructional materials and strategies for our learners. This paper reports a small-scale dictionary use survey conducted at BITS Pilani, Pilani campus. 91 engineering students from different disciplinary backgrounds have responded to a questionnaire which included items on aspects the students tend to look up in a dictionary and the purposes that determine their look up practices. The findings clearly indicate that many students rely on online dictionaries, and their search preferences are mostly determined by their need to comprehend information rather than produce it.
Do-It-Yourself” English Courses for Higher Education
(Journal of English Language Teaching, 2020-04) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
Do-It-Yourself is an innovative practice in ELT, where the students have the autonomy to pursue their language interests. When combined with modern corpus tools such as concordances and genre pedagogy, the DIY courses can enable learners learn various aspects of language crucial for their success on specific academic programs. In this paper, I propose to introduce the concept of DIY in ESP courses in higher education context and show how they can truly promote learner-centeredness in an ESP education
Exemplification in student essay writing: A study of learner corpus of essay writing (LCEW)
(Wiley, 2024-07) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
In academic writing, exemplification plays a crucial role in contextualizing complex ideational material through instances the readers can understand. In addition to illustrating ideas through concrete instances, the act of providing examples serves the purpose of helping the readers grasp the writer's intentions. However, strategically performing exemplification to elaborate the propositional material seems to be a challenge for many novice student writers. Although some studies have mentioned that students use significantly less frequently the exemplification resources in their writing, fewer studies have probed into EFL student writing to determine the problems they face in elaborating the ideas. Using the marker approach, which examines the discourse functions bottom-up from markers to moves, the learner corpus of essay writing (LCEW) was analyzed for three major forms of exemplification: representation, argumentation, and analogy. The results indicate that the examples are strictly limited to certain patterns like specifying concepts through a subcategory and illustrating the arguments through everyday experiences. Moreover, many examples deviate from the usual patterns of exemplification causing confusion. These findings have pedagogic implications for academic writing courses in the EFL context.
Lexical Bundles in Saudi EFL Student Writing: A Study of Learner Corpus
(John Wiley, 2021) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
Lexical bundles are important in structuring ideas, establishing links within the discourse and expressing the stance of the writers. This study attempts to understand the use of lexical bundles in student writing through a learner corpus of academic writing compiled over a period of three years. 534 essays covering four major essay genres were analysed in the study using the functional framework developed and updated by Douglas Biber, Ken Hyland and Christopher Tribble.
Linguistic markers of stance in essay writing: a corpus-based study of EFL student writing
(Springer, 2025-03) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
This study aims to understand how novice English foreign language (EFL) writers express their stance and attitude in essay writing using Ken Hyland’s model of stance and engagement (2005). Adopting a corpus-based approach to analysis, we have examined four stance features—hedges, boosters, attitude markers, and self-mentions—in a learner-driven corpus of 532 essays collected from the PYP students in a university in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over a period of three years. Our results indicate an overuse of boosters and an underuse of the attitudinal markers. It also shows how student writing relies on a few recurrent patterns to express stance in writing. Keeping the findings in view, we suggest a few implications for teaching English for academic purposes (EAP) courses to PYP students.
Understanding the Use of Academic Word List (AWL) in EFL Academic Writing
(Asian EFL Journal, 2021-06) Vijayakumar, Chintalapalli
With the help of a learner corpus of academic writing (LCAW) which was collected over a period of three years from the undergraduate preparatory year students in Saudi Arabia, we have attempted to understand the use of AWL words by the EFL undergraduate students for form, meaning and use aspects of word knowledge using three freely available tools: AntConc corpus analysis tools, Tom Cobb’s Compleat Lextotur, and Cambridge English Vocabulary Profile.