Applying corpus linguistics to pedagogy

Abstract

This article reviews and discusses four somewhat contentious issues in the application of corpus linguistics to pedagogy, ESP in particular. Corpus linguistic techniques have been criticized on the grounds that they encourage a more bottom-up rather than top-down processing of text in which concordance lines are examined atomistically. One criticism levelled against corpus data is that a corpus presents language out of its original context. For this reason, some corpus linguists have underscored the importance of 'pedagogic mediation' to contextualize the data for the students' own writing environment. Concerns relating to the inductive approach associated with corpus-based pedagogy have also been raised as this approach may not always be the most appropriate one. A final consideration relates to the issue of whether a corpus is always the most appropriate resource to use among the wealth of other resources available.

Biting off More Than They Can Chew? The Impact of Pedagogical Application of Corpus on Vocabulary Ability of Intermediate-Level ESL Learners in Mainland China: A Quasi-Experimental Study

“…How should the pedagogical application of the corpus be modified or improved? Flowerdew (2009) reviewed and discussed the four controversial aspects of the pedagogical application of corpora and offered concrete suggestions for avoiding pitfalls and modifying the method. The four aspects include 1) the combination of the bottom-up and top-down fashion, 2) pedagogical mediation for revealing the embedded context, 3) the intervention of teachers, and 4) the use of a suitable corpus.…”

Concordance-based Material as a Form-focused Solution to Constituent Misordering

“…Still, in spite of the premise that it is a growing discipline in applied linguistics, some current perspectives on it are worth considering here. Flowerdew (2009) critically evaluates several strengths and weaknesses of corpus linguistics to some extent, especially with respect to the widely held, seeming myths perpetuated about the application of corpus linguistics to pedagogy. Among them, those related to the argument for corpus-based application here are a) exclusively bottom-up processing, and b) nontransferability of insights.…”

“…Some say corpus data are merely samples of language, thus deprived of context necessary for students to process and interpret the text properly and for this reason not enabling the students to transfer what they learn through corpus-based queries (Flowerdew 2009). However, to this remark Flowerdew (2009, 403-5) rightly argues that this challenge seems to depend to a large extent on what is to be transferred, and on this account, certain forms of pedagogic mediation (e.g., peer discussion and didactic writing hints) can be utilized so as to point out the pragmatic appropriacy and discipline-related variation to the students.…”

“…This, at the very least, explores further usefulness of concordancing for EFL students and, plausibly, encourages a similar application of concordance-based material for students of other first language backgrounds. The paper, in this way, is trying to answer a call for more research on corpus-based applications to pedagogic use, an area in corpus linguistics that has a lot more room for further development and exploration (Flowerdew 2009). …”

On the Application of Corpus of Contemporary American English in Vocabulary Instruction

“…First, the mini-texts should include example sentences which can reveal the most frequent uses of the queried words. Flowerdew (2009) points out "knowledge of … relative frequencies can be helpful to language practitioners in deciding what items to teach" (p. 330). Therefore, frequency in corpus helps teachers to decide which example sentences of the queried words to be included in mini-texts to create specialized word lists.…”