Data-driven learning with younger learners: exploring corpus-assisted development of the passive voice for science writing with female secondary school students

Corpus-based approaches to language and literacy education, commonly known as data-driven learning (DDL), are increasing in prominence. However, the vast majority of DDL interventions involve adult tertiary level learners, leaving a dire need for comprehensive DDL studies for secondary education. The present study reports on a half-year DDL experiment conducted at an all-girls secondary school in Australia, focusing on the development of receptive and productive knowledge of passive voice constructions used when writing scientific research reports for a physical science class. Pre/post-tests were conducted testing learners' receptive knowledge and productive use of the passive, alongside data on learners' autonomous use of corpora within a written research report. Learners' perceptions of corpora and DDL were also collected through questionnaire survey and interview data taken both immediately post-training and three months after training. The results suggest learners' corpus consultation was effective in improving use of the passive voice for science writing with pre-tertiary learners, although clear preferences for (and criticisms of) certain corpus tools, functions and usage was apparent, and continued uptake post-training was relatively weak. Generally however, the implications of these findings paint a positive picture of what is possible regarding DDL with younger learners, and provide a model of how a DDL intervention with younger learners can be successfully managed and integrated in a context where secondary content teachers, rather than solely the applied linguist, can be the main stakeholders in a DDL intervention.