ALIS Newsletter - September 2019 (Plain Text Version)
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ARTICLES CORPUS LINGUISTICS IN TESOL: DOING WHAT WORKS Eric Friginal, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Introduction The corpus approach to researching the features and patterns of language benefits English language teachers and TESOL practitioners as they facilitate the learning and acquisition of English. Over the years, the number of teachers incorporating corpus-based materials in their classrooms has grown exponentially; yet, there still are relevant teacher-related hurdles, including, in general, a lack of confidence in the approach, time constraints, difficulty learning to use and access tools, recurring questions of relevance, and the challenges in orienting students and re-designing courses to integrate corpus tools and corpus-based activities. Corpus linguistics is primarily a methodological approach to the study of language structure, patterns, and use. Exploring corpora has become a popular approach in the quantitative analysis of the linguistic characteristics of written and spoken discourse, resulting in the development of more accurate teaching materials and frequency-based dictionaries and ESL textbooks, especially for university-level learners of English (Friginal, 2018). Corpora (singular form corpus) are, in a sense, datasets of systematically collected, naturally-occurring language stored and processed in computer platforms. The four main characteristics of a corpus are that it is (1) authentic, (2) relatively large, (3) electronic, and (4) conforms to specific criteria (Bowker & Pearson, 2002). There are corpora containing a variety of registers, also referred to as text types, including academic English, spoken English, newspaper articles, novels and short stories, or legal cases. There is no particular rule regarding the size of a corpus, but it should be large enough to allow a systematic analysis of relevant, target linguistic patterns. With the advent of personal computers, as well as major innovations on the internet, corpora have been freely shared and analyzed predominantly for research purposes, but also increasingly for pedagogy. One obvious benefit of this approach is that corpora allow for the observation and study of real-world language use, with relevant frequency distributions and access to actual occurrences of features, rather than relying only on limited teacher or learner intuition. Considering its potential, it is easy to envision the utility and benefit of corpus-based approaches in a variety of teaching contexts (Friginal, Dye, & Nolen, in press). Theory to Practice: Corpora, Instructional Technology, and Data-Driven Learning Direct applications of corpora and corpus tools in the classroom support various language teaching and language acquisition theories and concepts, especially related to learner autonomy, use of realia and authentic texts, the utility of leaner-computer and learner-learner interactions, and explicit teaching of language features and patterns. In the broader field of English teaching across learners and contexts, corpora and corpus tools have been incorporated into three primary instructional approaches: (1) educational or instructional technology-based learning, (2) computer-assisted language learning (CALL), and (3) data-driven learning (DDL). These three strategies, especially the first two, share common characteristics: both are machine-specific (i.e., computers) and they also align well with and support other instructional approaches such as learner-centered instruction or autonomous learning. Specifically, DDL focuses on learners’ direct discovery and use of linguistic information/data in the language classroom and beyond. DDL allows learners to inductively discover language structures and patterns through interacting actively with corpus software (e.g., a concordancer) and personalized instructional materials. With this, DDL presents learners with authentic language that centers literally on a particular word or phrase (as shown in Figure 1). Concordancers may provide users with the organized contexts of items that are searched, allowing learners to explore the words before and after a given word. At the same time, concordancers provide the immediate context surrounding a target word or phrase, and this context is placed on the word or phrase of interest leading to potentially discovering the meaning of the sentence or paragraph as a whole (Friginal, Dye, & Nolen, in press).
Research: How Effective Are Corpus-Based Approaches in TESOL? Corpora have been put to practical use, especially in the writing classroom, as described in a number of studies since the mid-2000s. Freely available corpus databases such as the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) or the Michigan Corpus of Upper-Level Student Papers (MICUSP) are easily accessible online. In the field of TESOL, many of these studies highlight the classroom experiences of non-native speakers (NNS) of English. A great deal of linguistic variation exists across academic disciplines, and this can be particularly challenging for NNSs working to improve their writing within a specific field. Lee and Swales (2006) designed an experimental course entitled “Exploring Your Own Discourse World” to help international doctoral students in the U.S. compare their own writing to that of more established writers in their fields. The students were able to examine the use of linguistic elements like common verbs and their conjugations, definite article usage, and collocates used in their disciplines. By comparing their own writing to those of experts, students can identify, refine, and adapt their linguistic choices enabling themselves to enhance their overall written presentation of ideas and research processes. The benefit of acquiring this skill is that students can continue to use the approach more independently and universally, well after a course or workshop has finished. For example, Gilquin, Granger, and Paquot (2007) examined the effectiveness of using NNS learner corpora in conjunction with native corpora in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) context. They found the approach to be useful in expanding NNSs’ linguistic repertoire and in avoiding falling into common writing traps that many NNSs face (e.g., repetitive use of transition words and phrases). In Friginal’s (2018) university-level Writing in Forestry course, students used corpus tools to focus on developing their research report writing skills by analyzing the distribution of specific linguistic features such as linking adverbials, reporting verbs, verb tenses, and passive sentence structures. The results of the study showed improvements in the students’ report writing abilities after the corpus instruction. Overall, research continues to show a great deal of enthusiasm from teachers regarding corpus use, and there are some data, although still limited, showing that university-level learners also tend to respond positively to these types of corpus-based courses and approaches. Conclusion: Doing What Works In general, teachers who articulate a clear and immediate academic English-related goals for their students and those confident in the use of various types of software for teaching and academic research, have developed a major interest for the corpus approach. They typically find various meaningful opportunities to utilize data from corpora in the classroom and beyond (Friginal, 2018). Applying corpus tools in English instruction, thus, came naturally, and many teachers find the approach to be exciting, creative, and fun for themselves and their students. Clearly, however, there still are major limitations and the corpus approach is not universally-applicable across TESOL contexts. What works, then, based on current research on teacher perspectives and experiences (see Friginal, 2018 and Friginal et al., in press for a more detailed discussion) are intangibles such as the following themes below:
Sufficient Teacher Preparation and Ample Time To effectively introduce students to corpus tools requires sufficient time for explanation, demonstration, and practice. Several hours of class time will have to be committed exclusively for this purpose. Depending on the teacher’s goals, different elements will require varying amounts of time. The most basic aspects of concordancers and online corpus databases could be introduced within a single class, but if the students are expected to compile their own corpora to be analyzed, more time will have to be allotted. Multiple opportunities to practice using corpus tools are needed.
Sufficient Explanation of Merits and Limitations Most learners will intuitively discover the benefits and applications of this approach as they progress further into their learning, but one of the most challenging initial responsibilities of the teacher (to get students to fully commit) is to properly and convincingly explain to students why these tools can be helpful. Focus and commitment to learning the process are needed so students can understand why their time is being spent on an initially difficult or complicated set of instructions. Successfully explaining why concepts like frequency, rarity, or authenticity of texts are valuable in learning English or specifically in writing or editing their own papers is certainly critical. Without appropriate explanation, it would be easy for students to feel resentful, bored, or overwhelmed.
Appropriate (English) Language Level of Proficiency of Learners The students need to have a sufficiently strong foundation of English before setting out to analyze millions of words of text for specific linguistic features such as linking adverbials or collocations. Otherwise, they may not know what features to search for or how to interpret the results. For this reason, it is recommended that these types of courses be designed for at least intermediate students, but preferably more advanced learners.
Relevant Learner Goals and Access to Tools and Materials Students’ desired outcomes should relate specifically to the instruction and learning contexts. Easy access to corpora, computer labs, the internet, and related materials will have to be part of the classroom routine and setting. A speaking or listening course could incorporate corpora, but may not be as suitable as a vocabulary/grammar and writing course. It would also be helpful if the students are at least minimally computer literate. References Bowker, L., & Pearson, J. (2002). Working with specialized language: A practical guide to using corpora. New York, NY: Routledge. Friginal, E. (2018). Corpus linguistics for English teachers: New tools, online resources, and classroom activities. New York, NY: Routledge. Friginal, E., Dye, P., & Nolen, M. (in press). Corpus-based approaches in language teaching: Outcomes, observations, and teacher perspectives. Boğaziçi University Journal of Education. Gilquin, G., Granger, S., & Paquot, M. (2007). Learner corpora: The missing link in EAP pedagogy. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 6(4), 319–335. Lee, D., & Swales, J. (2006). A corpus-based EAP course for NNS doctoral students: Moving from available specialized corpora to self-compiled corpora. English for Specific Purposes, 25(1), 56–75.
Eric Friginal is professor of applied linguistics at the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL and director of International Programs at the College of Arts and Sciences, Georgia State University. Peter Dye is an English instructor and academic manager in Oglethorpe University’s International Study Center. He has taught a range of EAP/ESP courses in Spain, South Korea, and the United States. Matthew Nolen is an English language instructor and the Language Program director at Conexion Training, Panama. His research interests include corpus linguistics in the classroom, data-driven learning, and learner autonomy. |
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