Classroom applicationsof corpus analysis

Cobb, Thomas; Boulton, Alex

doi:10.1017/cbo9781139764377.027

Cited by 107 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Students have to do with a "massive but controlled exposure to authentic input, " so fundamental for language learning (Cobb and Boulton, 2015) and such controlled and contextualized contact fosters more language awareness, noticing and autonomy. Corpora do not only contain the answer to many possible questions: the investigation itself leads to better metalinguistic competencies.…”

Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-Driven Learning: A Scaffolding Methodology for CLIL and LSP Teaching and Learning

Corino

Onesti

2019

Front. Educ.

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When dealing with Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), teachers always have to confront with issues which are strictly linked to the specificities of the language of a given field. This is not only the case of language teachers, but it is also and particularly true for CLIL teachers in Italy, who are subject teachers sharing with language teachers some aspects of pupils' language education. This paper is grounded in the discussion of Data-driven Learning (DDL) as a scaffolding method to support the language aspects of CLIL, and the role of data-driven materials in enhancing learning in general. Corpus-based methodology in CLIL classes (the LSP learning environment par excellence) means to empower both teachers and students to develop competences in moving away from mere surface features of text to selecting and understanding meanings and structures. In doing so, they use texts with specific intentions, becoming familiar with tools such as corpora to compensate, for instance, the deficiencies of general dictionaries. Over 25 years ago Tim Johns advocated the learning-centered value of DDL, calling "every student a Sherlock Holmes." In fact, DDL good practices perfectly align with current theories and practices of SLA, namely the constructivist and learner-centered approaches to language acquisition. It underpins the mandate in contemporary communicative language instruction for the use of authentic language materials and for the development of metalinguistic knowledge and learner autonomy. The uses and benefits of corpora for language learning are widely reported in the literature, although there is still little field practice, in Italy at least. Our word wants to suggest possible good and effective practices combining CLIL needs and the DDL approach to language and content. A case study where DDL was successfully used in a vocational context will be presented. The reference corpus was based on oral and written productions by English native speakers, elicited from a picture specifically sketched for the activity (a hairdresser's salon with multiple actions and objects). Both lexical items and syntactic structures were extracted by students who were confronted with the data and had to deal with different tasks for their analysis. Results were encouraging and students who were exposed to DDL engaged in an involving activity that considerably improved their language skills in their actual working practice.

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Section: State Of the Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

Data-Driven Learning: A Scaffolding Methodology for CLIL and LSP Teaching and Learning

Corino

Onesti

2019

Front. Educ.

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“…34 In terms of research as a whole, Boulton (2012a) reviewed twenty studies that attempt empirical evaluation of some aspect of corpus use in ESP, finding that learners even with relatively limited levels of proficiency and linguistic sophistication can appreciate them and derive benefit from them in a variety of conditions -on paper or hands-on, as a learning aid or reference tool, etc. In a meta-analysis of 21 DDL studies (not just ESP), Cobb and Boulton (2015) found a mean gain (pre/post-test) of d=1.68, and a mean difference (control/experimental group) of d=1.04; these figures represent large effect sizes according to Plonsky and Oswald's (2014) meticulous survey of previous metaanalyses in language teaching and learning as a whole. A more rigorous and inclusive meta-analysis by the same authors (Boulton & Cobb in preparation) identified over 200 empirical studies of DDL, the majority of which involved learners majoring in nonlinguistic subjects and/or needing English for specific purposes, with only slightly lower effect sizes.…”

Section: Integrating Corpus Tools and Techniques In Esp Coursesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Integrating corpus tools and techniques in ESP courses

Boulton¹

2016

asp

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L’un des buts de la recherche en anglais de spécialité, quelle que soit la définition que l’on en donne, est de fournir des analyses fines de différentes variétés de la langue. La linguistique de corpus offre de nombreuses possibilités à ce domaine, même si aucune description clés en main ne peut parvenir à répondre à tous les besoins ou à toutes les questions. Cet article suggère quelques propositions destinées à aider l’utilisateur final – apprenant ou enseignant – à mettre en œuvre des outils et des techniques de corpus afin d’observer, en fonction de ses besoins, des usages réels de la langue dans des contextes pertinents. L’approche est articulée avec des approches pédagogiques courantes (par exemple, l’étude exploratoire de documents authentiques) et de pratiques fréquentes (par exemple l’utilisation de moteurs de recherche sur Internet), ce qui permet à différent types d’utilisateurs de mieux intégrer ces outils et ces techniques dans leurs activités quotidiennes. Au-delà des recherches sur Internet, des corpus génériques en ligne peuvent être exploités à des fins spécifiques ; les utilisateurs qui ont des besoins pérennes très ciblés peuvent aller plus loin en construisant leur propre corpus. L’article fournit des exemples de ces divers usages, et conclut par une brève mise en perspective des résultats de la recherche dans ce domaine.

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“…Teachers and students have been using concordances or alike to obtain, organize, and study real language data derived from corpora. This approach is called data-driven learning (Johns, 1991), and is advocated by many researchers (for instance, Boulton & Thomas, 2012;Boulton & Pérez-Paredes, 2014;Chang, 2014;Cobb & Boulton, 2015;Vyatkina, 2016;Boulton & Cobb, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Handbook of Research on Integrating Technology Into Contemporary Language Learning and Teaching

2018

Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design

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Classroom applicationsof corpus analysis

Cited by 107 publications

References 18 publications

Data-Driven Learning: A Scaffolding Methodology for CLIL and LSP Teaching and Learning

Data-Driven Learning: A Scaffolding Methodology for CLIL and LSP Teaching and Learning

Integrating corpus tools and techniques in ESP courses

Handbook of Research on Integrating Technology Into Contemporary Language Learning and Teaching

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