Investigating Saudi EFL learners' experiences of using learner corpus as a lexico-grammatical tool

The corpus analysis showed that learners employed their lexico-grammatical patterns to serve four main functions: stance expressions, supporting points, introducing items, and recommendations. In phase two, twelve participants were involved in learner corpus experience in which they were exposed to the same corpus of opinion writings. Through four teaching weeks, which focused on the four functional categories found in the learner corpus, qualitative data were collected through field notes, participants’ responses to informal prompts, and reflective essays. <br><br>Findings showed that the participants perceived the learner corpus experience as novel and useful.

Some technical and language challenges were observed during the corpus exposure, and students used different learning strategies to mitigate these difficulties. Learners perceived the corpus experience as a tool that could facilitate their development as independent learners. In addition, the participants acknowledged using the corpus not only for lexico-grammatical patterns, but also for learning and extracting individual lexis.<br><br>The study offers several pedagogical implications for educators including the choice of texts for classroom use, implications for teachers working with corpora, and the potential contribution of learner corpora in data-driven learning. <br>