Introductory description

Linguistic data can be explored in much closer detail since computers began to store texts electronically. Research into collections of such texts (known as corpora) has transformed dictionary writing, discourse analysis and increasingly has an impact on English language teaching. This module will extend students’ critical understanding of the pedagogic use of language corpora. They will explore various aspects of corpus creation and develop skills in advanced corpus querying and data manipulation. The module is particularly suitable for those who are interested in teaching vocabulary and related lexical skills.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Topic areas to be covered through the module will be as follows:

• History: the development of corpus research and corpus-based teaching
• Theories and principles underlying contemporary corpora: text sourcing, metadata,
  tagging, search criteria and techniques
• A corpus-based understanding of vocabulary knowledge (semantics, syntax, pragmatics);
  the implications of this for L2 vocabulary acquisition
• A corpus-based understanding of grammar and language ‘error’
• Using corpora to investigate language varieties and genres for pedagogic purposes
• A corpus-based approach to material creation for TESOL
• Learner corpora and how they can be used
• Creating corpora for specific purposes

Additionally, the following themes will run across all topics:

• Continual improvement of students’ proficiency with corpus software
• Theories of data driven learning
• Teachers’ roles in data driven learning; how to make corpus findings accessible and
  meaningful to language learners.
• Preparation for the module assignment

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• By the end of the module, students should be able to use contemporary corpus software at a high level of expertise.
• By the end of the module, students should be able to understand the relationships between corpus based analysis/ teaching, and specific theories of language and learning.
• By the end of the module, students should be able to develop specific corpus-based language learning activities, adapted as appropriate for a range of differently resourced contexts.
• By the end of the module, students should be able to articulate a critical rationale for these activities.

Indicative reading list

Anderson, W. and Corbett, J. (2017). Exploring English With Online Corpora: An introduction.
Multilingual Matters Baker, P. (2012). Contemporary corpus linguistics. London: Continuum.
Cheng, W. (2012). Exploring corpus linguistics. Abingdon: Routledge.
Davis, P., & Kryszewska, H. (2012). The company words keep. Peaslake: Delta.
Flowerdew, L. (2012). Corpora and language education. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
Frankenberg-Garcia, A. (2012). New Trends in Corpora and Language Learning (Corpus and Discourse) Continuum. Hyland, K., Huat, C., & Handford, M. (2013). Corpus applications in applied linguistics. London [u.a.]: Bloomsbury. Lindquist, H. (2010). Corpus linguistics and the description of English. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press.
Liu, D. & Lei, L. (2017). Using Corpora for Language Learning and Teaching. TESOL International
McEnery, T., & Hardie, A. (2012). Corpus linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McEnery, T., Xiao, R., & Tono, Y. (2006). Corpus-based language studies. London: Routledge.
O'Keeffe, A., & McCarthy, M. (2012). The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Thomas, J. (2017). Discovering English with sketch engine. Lulu (print-on-demand).
Timmis, I. (2015). Corpus linguistics for ELT. Abingdon: Routledge.
Wichmann, A. and Fligelstone, S. (2017). Teaching and Language Corpora (Applied Linguistics and Language Study). Routledge.

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Research element

Throughout the module students will develop specialist corpus query skills in order to exploit the online databases in Sketch Engine, the corpus tool used in the module. They will develop skills of evaluating query results and refining their queries to gain more accurate and effective data. For the assignment students will need to research in the literature to support their choices in the pedagogic materials they have made.

International

The students on this module come from a variety of backgrounds, countries and ethnicities. These are a rich resource for module discussion on questions of how corpus technology can be used differently in different teaching contexts. Students thus gain a better appreciation of their own position in the world as and ELT practitioner and user of corpus tools and that of their peers.

Subject specific skills

• Corpus querying (including use of CQL) and interpretation of results.
• Develop principled approaches to making corpus data and query results accessible to language learners.
• Develop skills of materials creation for a specific language learning context.

Transferable skills

• Work with peers to collaboratively improve skills with the software being used
• Structure and communicate ideas effectively in writing
• Plan and manage time and workload to meet deadlines