Integrating corpus linguistics into online language teacher education programs

Abstract

This study reports on a qualitative study which explored 32 pre-service teachers’ evaluations of two online seven-week introductory courses in corpus linguistics (CL). Data were gathered through questionnaires, participants’ written journals, post-course semi-structured email interviews, and discussion forum entries. The qualitative analysis of data revealed that for successful integration of CL into online language teacher education programs, several procedures should be employed. These include: providing the necessary technological infrastructure in educational settings; incorporating CL instruction in initial stages of language teacher education degree programs and extending it throughout the whole curriculum; focusing more on the practical aspects of CL with much emphasis placed on the necessary pedagogical knowledge and skills for successful exploitation of CL; introducing user-friendly tools and encouraging indirect use of corpora in the absence of necessary technological facilities; providing adequate and effective instructional materials (text-based reading materials, screen capture videos, hands-on activities, etc.) along with sufficient instructor support; and encouraging the participants to reflect on the approach critically. The findings may promise implications for language teacher educators to effectively introduce CL to student teachers in virtual learning environments.

A Data‐Driven Approach to Text Adaptation in Teaching Material Preparation: Design, Implementation, and Teacher Professional Development

“…In fact, most teachers tended to skip this section and focused more on the practical use of the annotations and benchmarks for text adaptation. This observation is consistent with the observation reported in other teacher education studies that, when receiving training on corpus literacy skills, teachers are more interested in learning the practical applications of corpus tools than in theoretical knowledge (see Ebrahimi & Faghih, ). One problem of the overemphasis on the practical aspects is that teachers might neglect the prerequisites of the data‐driven approach and misuse it in contexts it is not designed for, such as in the analysis of student essays.…”

“…Nevertheless, although teachers were provided with screen capture videos and step-by-step guidelines for using the tool, many of them were still very dependent on the instructors and teaching assistants. This observation is again consistent with Ebrahimi and Faghih's (2017) finding on teachers' reliance on the instructor in teacher education programs involving technical knowledge. One possible reason for this reliance could be that few corpus literacy skills are included in teacher education programs, and most teachers are thus not accustomed to using corpusbased tools and handling technical difficulties (Zareva, 2017).…”

English for Counselor Education Purposes: Research Article Length, Design, and Publishing Impact Elements of This Subdialect

“…Research in corpus linguistics from fields related to counselor education, i.e., teacher education and counseling, has shown the benefits of Corpus Linguistics in preparing teacher educators to train pre-service teachers in language education (Ebrahimi & Faghih, 2017) and in helping counselor trainees examine their own use of language in counseling sessions (Perez-Rosas et al, 2019). Ebrahimi and Faghih (2017) cited earlier research where training in Corpus Linguistics was offered to student teachers and inservice teachers, as well as graduate students in fields like language and English, prompting creative applications of Corpus Linguistics tools and the creation of corpora by students as part of their final projects. In their own qualitative study of the experiences of 32 pre-service teachers in two introductory-level online courses in CL, Ebrahimi and Faghih (2017) found that the pre-service teachers employed tools like Lextutor and AntConc in conjunction with publicly available Corpus Linguistics databases like COCA.…”

“…Ebrahimi and Faghih (2017) cited earlier research where training in Corpus Linguistics was offered to student teachers and inservice teachers, as well as graduate students in fields like language and English, prompting creative applications of Corpus Linguistics tools and the creation of corpora by students as part of their final projects. In their own qualitative study of the experiences of 32 pre-service teachers in two introductory-level online courses in CL, Ebrahimi and Faghih (2017) found that the pre-service teachers employed tools like Lextutor and AntConc in conjunction with publicly available Corpus Linguistics databases like COCA. Participants touted the ability of these tools to create graphical maps more effective for visual learners and the insight into their students' writing that they gained; they also criticized the amount of time and creativity required of teacher educators to fully utilize Corpus Linguistics as a teaching tool.…”

Addressing Diversity in CALL Evaluation through Arguments and Theory-of-Action

“…Thus, sustainability of CALL interventions is arguably as important as effectiveness. The fact that CALL is rife with one-off projects (Kennedy and Levy 2009) must of course be attributed in part to the ever-changing nature of technology, but it is a well-known if not well-understood fact that CALL interventions shown to be effective may nevertheless remain stubbornly resistant to widespread adoption in L2 classrooms, such as the use of corpora (Ebrahimi and Faghih 2016).…”