Özet:

Abstract Corpus linguistics has become a crucial methodology in linguistic studies in the last half of the 20th century and especially two types of it are frequently applied in ELT: (1) reference corpus which does not serve for a particular language variety, yet it is for general purposes, (2) learner corpus which is the output obtained from learners (Baker, Hardie, and McEnery, 2006). The main objective of this study is to investigate if a learner corpus which accumulates the texts written in creative nonfiction prose (CN) has a relatively better contribution to EFL students' vocabulary knowledge when compared with reference corpora. The population of this research was 95 intermediate level students of English from four different classes and a pre-test/post-test design was used. Two of these classes were randomly selected as experimental groups: one treated with a learner corpus while the other with a reference corpus. The other two classes were the control groups. The Independent Samples t - Test results showed that there is a significant contribution of the learner corpus to the vocabulary knowledge of the EFL students when compared with reference corpora. Key words: Learner corpus, Reference corpora, Creative nonfiction prose, Computer mediated communication, Qualitative data, Quantitative data, Empirical research

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