Corpora in and for TESOL

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

Abstract

The increasing popularization of technological devices over the years has considerably changed our personal, professional and academic lives. Our work in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is no exception to this rule. Computers, more specifically, have had a pervasive influence in relation to both the “T” and “E” in TESOL. The advent of personal computers in the 1980s (as well as of subsequent similar devices like laptops) has facilitated investigations of electronic collections of texts representing an entire language or one of its varieties/uses – a field known as Corpus Linguistics (CL).

CL has advanced our knowledge and understanding of English, and it can have an invaluable pedagogical impact. Over 35 years ago, Johns pioneered the link between CL and language learning by proposing the principles of data-driven learning (DDL). DDL places learners at the center and encourages them to take charge of their own learning through corpus investigations. To date, however, TESOL professionals and students have not fully embraced corpora into their practices yet.

The present chapter discusses how language patterns such as collocation can be identified in freely available online corpora and how direct use of corpora in the classroom can impact educational contexts. The chapter also presents the structure of the book and its target readership.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationTeaching English with Corpora
Subtitle of host publicationA Resource Book
EditorsVander Viana
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherRoutledge
ChapterI
Pages3-30
Number of pages28
ISBN (Print)9781032252971, 9781032252995
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 26 Oct 2022

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • corpora
  • corpus Linguistics
  • corpus analysis
  • online corpora
  • data-driven learning (DDL)
  • teaching English to speakers of other languages
  • teaching English as a foreign language
  • English as a foreign language

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