Demystifying Corpus Linguistics for English Language Teaching


Book Description

The aim of this edited volume is to demystify corpus linguistics for use in English language teaching (ELT). It advocates the inclusion of corpus linguistics in the classroom as part of an approach to ELT in which students engage with naturally occurring language. The first chapter provides a basic but essential introduction to corpus linguistics, including sections on corpora and corpus methods, and this is followed by a review of the use of corpus linguistics in ELT. Chapters on the traditional ELT strands of skills, vocabulary and grammar as well as chapters on pluricentric approaches (on language and culture, World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca) flow naturally from the second chapter, which reports on a survey of the attitudes of trainee teacher to the use of corpus linguistics in the ELT classroom. The final two chapters show how the work of corpus linguists can benefit classroom teacher preparation, materials development and textbook writing. This book will be of interest not only to academics in fields such as English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics, but also to educators of teacher-trainees and teacher-trainees themselves, as well as teachers who are looking for new interactive approaches to ELT.




Crossing Boundaries through Corpora


Book Description

This volume illustrates new trends in corpus linguistics and shows how corpus approaches can be used to investigate new datasets and emerging areas in linguistics and related fields. It addresses innovative research questions, for example how prosodic analyses can increase the accuracy of syntactic segmentation, how tolerant English language teachers are about language variation, or how natural language can be translated into corpus query language. The thematic scope encompasses four types of ‘boundary crossings’. These include the incorporation of innovative scientific methods, specifically new statistical techniques, acoustic analysis and stylistic investigations. Additionally, temporal boundaries are crossed through the use of new methods and corpora to study diachronic data. New methodologies are also explored through the analysis of prosody, variety-specific approaches, and teacher attitudes. Finally, corpus users can cross boundaries by employing a more user-friendly corpus query language.




Corpora for Language Learning


Book Description

This volume presents a diverse range of expertise and practical advice on corpus-assisted language learning, bridging the gap between corpus research and actual classroom practice. Grounded in expert discussions and interviews, the book offers an extensive exploration into the intricacies of corpus-based language pedagogy, addressing its challenges, benefits, and potential drawbacks while demonstrating the power of data-driven learning (DDL) tools, including AntConc, WordSmith Tools, and CorpusMate. The book navigates the complexities of integrating DDL into mainstream educational systems, showcasing real-world applications for teaching. The authors bring together cutting-edge, international perspectives on this topic in dialogue with those using such techniques in their classroom practice. Both a rigorous academic resource and a hands-on guide for practitioners, this book is recommended reading for educators, researchers, or anyone wanting to upskill themselves in learning to harness the power of data in language pedagogy in primary, secondary, tertiary, or other professional contexts.




The Handbook of Teaching Qualitative and Mixed Research Methods


Book Description

The Handbook of Teaching Qualitative and Mixed Research Methods: A Step-by-Step Guide for Instructors presents diverse pedagogical approaches to teaching 71 qualitative and mixed methods. These tried-and-true methods are widely applicable to those teaching and those being trained in qualitative and mixed-methods research. The methods for data collection cover ethics, sampling, interviewing, recording observations of behavior, Indigenous and decolonizing methods and methodologies as well as visual and participatory methods. Methods for analyzing data include coding and finding themes, exploratory and inductive analysis, linguistic analysis, mixed-methods analysis, and comparative analysis. Each method has its own 1,500-word lesson (i.e., chapter) written by expert methodologists from around the globe. In these lessons, contributors give the reader a brief history of the method and describe how they teach it by including their best practices—with succinct, step-by-step instructions—focusing on student-centered experiential and active learning exercises. This comprehensive, one-of a-kind text is an essential reference for instructors who teach qualitative and/or mixed methods across the Social and Behavioral Sciences and other related disciplines, including Anthropology, Sociology, Education, and Health/Nursing research.




ELT: The Basics


Book Description

ELT: The Basics offers a clear, non-jargonistic introduction to English language teaching for EFL/ESL teachers in training, early career teachers, those considering taking up ELT, and experienced teachers who may want to read about the way the profession has developed and continues to evolve. Key features of this book include: Real classroom data and data from ELT training programmes Discussion of a wide range of learning contexts and different types of learners (young learners, adults, third age, academic, refugees and immigrants, etc.) Comparisons of different types of syllabuses and methods, and discussion of current technologies An emphasis on classroom interaction as the key to maximising learning Featuring a glossary of key terms, cartoons and illustrations, further reading, personal reflection points, and discussion of the most important and relevant research, this book is a clear and accessible introduction to the complex field of ELT.




Building the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of English Language Learners and Teachers


Book Description

Building the Self-Efficacy Beliefs of English Language Learners and Teachers explores, juxtaposes and bridges two fields of research that have developed separately: the self-efficacy beliefs of English language learners and the self-efficacy beliefs of English language teachers. The aim is to expand understanding in each field and highlight how the two areas can mutually inform each other. This should encourage fresh perspectives, providing direction for researchers, and improving learning, teaching, and teacher education. Empirical research suggests that English language learners and teachers who believe they can fulfil a task are more likely to succeed than those who believe they cannot. Based on a deep understanding of how self-efficacy beliefs are formed and developed, this book illustrates how such beliefs can be supported and researched amongst English language learners and teachers. Bringing together the work of educators and researchers working in contexts including Algeria, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Iran, Israel, Japan, Türkiye, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam, this volume includes meta-analyses largely focusing on quantitative data and empirical studies employing qualitative approaches and mixed methods. Studies included examine factors impacting the development of language teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and investigate domain-specific dimensions of the self-efficacy beliefs of English language learners and teachers. This rigorous and original volume will appeal to an international readership of scholars, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers with interests in language education, teacher education, TESOL, linguistics, and educational psychology.




Demystifying Bilingualism


Book Description

This book analyses changing views on bilingualism in Cognitive Psychology and explores their socio-cultural embeddedness. It offers a new, innovative perspective on the debate on possible cognitive (dis)advantages in bilinguals, arguing that it is biased by popular “language myths”, which often manifest themselves in the form of metaphors. Since its beginnings, Cognitive Psychology has consistently modelled the coexistence between languages in the brain using metaphors of struggle, conflict and competition. However, an ideological shift from nationalist and monolingual ideologies to the celebration of bilingualism under multicultural and neoliberal ideologies in the course of the 20th century fostered opposing interpretations of language coexistence in the brain and its effects on bilinguals at different moments in time. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Cognitive Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Multilingualism and Applied Linguistics, Cognitive and Computational Linguistics, and Critical Metaphor Analysis.




Exploring Corpora for ESP Learning


Book Description

This book investigates the effects of corpus work on the process of foreign language learning in ESP settings. It suggests that observing learners at work with corpus data can stimulate discussion and re-thinking of the pedagogical implications of both the theoretical and empirical aspects of corpus linguistics. The ideas presented here are developed from the Data-Driven Learning approach introduced by Tim Johns in the early nineties. The experience of watching students perform corpus analysis provides the basis for the two main observations in the book: a) corpus work provides students with a useful source of information about ESP language features, b) the process of "search-and-discovery" implied in the method of corpus analysis may facilitate language learning and promote autonomy in learning language use. The discussion is carried out on the basis of a series of corpus-based "explorations" by students and provides suggestions for developing new tasks and tools for language learners.




Lexical Bundles in Native and Non-native Scientific Writing


Book Description

This book presents an investigation of lexical bundles in native and non-nativescientific writing in English, whose aim is to produce a frequency-derived, statistically- and qualitatively-refined list of the most pedagogically useful lexical bundles in scientific prose: one that can be sorted and filtered by frequency, key word, structure and function, and includes contextual information such as variations, authentic examples and usage notes. The first part of the volumediscusses the creation of this list based on a multimillion-word corpus of biomedical research writing and reveals the structure and functions of lexical bundles and their role in effective scientific communication. A comparative analysis of a non-native corpus highlights non-native scientists’ difficulties’ inemploying lexical bundles. The second part of the volume explores pedagogical applications and provides a series of teaching activities that illustrate how EAP teachers or materials designers can use the list of lexical bundles in their practice.




Crossing Borders, Writing Texts, Being Evaluated


Book Description

This book provides critical perspectives on issues relating to writing norms and assessment, as well as writing proficiency development, and suggests that scholars need to both carefully examine testing regimes and develop research-informed perspectives on tests and testing practices. In this way schools, institutions of adult education and universities can better prepare learners with differing cultural experiences to meet the challenges. The book brings together empirical studies from diverse geographical contexts to address the crossing of literacy borders, with a focus on academic genres and practices. Most of the studies examine writing in countries where the norms and expectations are different, but some focus on writing in a new discourse community set in a new discipline. The chapters shed light on commonalities and differences between these two situations with respect to the expectations and evaluations facing the writers. They also consider the extent to which the norms that the writers bring with them from their educational backgrounds and own cultures are compromised in order to succeed in the new educational settings.