Category: corpora

English Language Corpora Workshop with Cambridge University Press

Are you a researcher interested in finding out about the English language corpora at Cambridge University Press? The Press has a number of English language corpora that University of Cambridge researchers can access.

This workshop will give you an introduction to the corpora at the Press and give you some hands-on experience of working with the data. The main focus will be on the 30 million word English language learner corpus, which can provide unique insights into the nature of learner language. We’ll work through some activities using the corpus analysis software Sketch Engine. We will look at the way this research can be used to inform the design of language learning materials and language teaching.

This workshop will be suitable for people who are new to corpus research or who are particularly interested in its application to language teaching and learning materials.

Please bring your own laptop to participate in the activities!

When? 14.00 on 28 February 2019

Where? The Library (top floor), Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies

Places are free, but limited, so please register here by Monday 25 February:

https:/corpora_workshop.eventbrite.co.uk/

Deadline approaching ICAME40 Université de Neuchâtel June 1–5, 2019

ICAME40 at the Université de Neuchâtel June 1–5, 2019

Switzerland

December 15 deadline

Language in Time, Time in Language

In addition to contributions to the main conference, we are also inviting submissions for four exciting pre-conference workshops, to be held on June 1 (see website for descriptions):

* Big data and the study of language and culture: Parliamentary discourse across time and space (Convenors: Jukka Tyrkkö, Minna Korhonen & Haidee Kruger)

* Languages in time, time in languages: Phraseological perspectives (Convenors: Anna Čermáková, Hilde Hasselgård, Thomas Egan & Sylvi Rørvik)

* Register approaches to language variation and change in English(es) (Convenors: Elena Seoane & Douglas Biber)

* Corpus approaches to social media (Convenors: Sofia Rüdiger & Daria Dayter)

For more information on the call for papers, workshops, submission, keynote speakers, and updated conference practicals, please visit www.icame40.ch.

Feel free to get in touch with us via email (icame40@unine.ch) or Twitter (@icame40, #icame40).

Corpus linguistics & vocabulary learning

 

clandvocab

Recently, one of my students asked for some pointers in corpus linguistics and vocabulary learning. Here´s my top 5 impromptu list.

Sinclair, J. (2003). Reading concordances. An introduction. Harlow: Longman.

This is a great resource to fully understand the implications of using concordances to derive (linguistic) meaning.

Leńko-Szymańska, A. (2015). The English Vocabulary Profile as a benchmark for assigning levels to learner corpus data. Learner corpora in language testing and assessment, 115-140.

Interesting research that discusses the use of Cambridge Vocabulary Profile to sort ICCI learners into levels.

Schmitt, N., Cobb, T., Horst, M., & Schmitt, D. (2017). How much vocabulary is needed to use English? Replication of Van Zeeland & Schmitt (2012), Nation, (2006), and Cobb (2007). Language Teaching, 50(2), 212–226.

Excellent paper that makes use of corpus linguistics research methods to assess how much vocabulary do learners need to use English.

Schmitt, N. (2014). Size and depth of vocabulary knowledge: What the research shows. Language Learning, 64, 4, 913–951.

Great paper that discusses the many sides of vocabulary knowledge. Great if you need a start for vocabulary research in language education.

Jones, M. & Durran, P. (2010) What can a corpus tell us about vocabulary teaching materials? The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics.

Hopefully, this chapter will help you bridge the gap between corpora as resources and language teaching. Very practical stuff. By the way, the whole Routledge Handbook of corpus linguistics is a superb resource.