AJB_UCLS Using Corpora in Language Study and Teaching

Faculty of Education
Autumn 2006
Extent and Intensity
0/1/0. 2 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
James Edward Thomas, M.A. (seminar tutor)
Guaranteed by
doc. Mgr. Světlana Hanušová, Ph.D.
Department of English Language and Literature – Faculty of Education
Contact Person: Mgr. Petra Hoydenová
Prerequisites
It is expected that course participants will have have studied English , some linguistic subjects, have an awareness of some aspects of language acquisition and pedagogical approaches to language teaching. As this course concerns data-driven learning (DDL), which are computer-based, it is taught in a computer lab. All participants are therefore expected to be experienced users of the web and have basic computer skills.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 15 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 0/15, only registered: 0/15, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/15
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
New applications of corpus linguistics to language teaching are being developed in many parts of the world. The use of corpora is gaining recognition as discovery learning, task-based learning, and as tools in learner independence par excellence. And now that there is a plethora of freely available resources on the web, language education practitioners have them at their ready disposal. In this course, we will look at the nature of corpora, how different corpora meet different requirements, the array of tools offered by concordancers (the programs used to access the data that corpora hold), and the language awareness that develops from their systematic use. Language professionals involved in general teaching, developing student writing, correcting written work, creating teaching resources, preparing tests and to a lesser extent, translating, will have the opportunity to experience this wide range of applications. Exploiting corpora to these ends will involve developing a new range of computer skills, linguistic awareness and pedagogical thinking.
Syllabus
  • During this course we will: * learn how to use several web-based concordancers, and compare them * perform searches for a wide range of lexical forms, grammar structures, lexicogrammar, genre variations, multi-word units, collocations * use several pedagogically-based corpus linguistics web-sites * create sample teaching material and tests in a variety of formats (e.g. worksheets, interactive exercises, instructional web pages) using data derived from corpora * compare the web as corpus with corpora constructed according to established principles * create our own dedicated mini-corpora * observe how influential CL has been in the creation of modern teaching resources, dictionaries and grammars in particular. * consider the pedagogical and linguistic implications of DDL and their applications for students, teacher trainees, teachers and translators * read and discus some of the growing body of relevant literature.
Assessment methods (in Czech)
Assessment of this course will be by two major assignments and some short tests (terminology). Some specific discussion forums based on the reading material will also be assessed.
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every other week.
Teacher's information
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~thomas/EAP/concordancers.htm
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/ped/autumn2006/AJB_UCLS