Category: DDL

#CFP #deadline extended edited book focusing on use of corpora for data-driven learning with young learners

 

Call for chapters for an edited book focusing on the use of corpora for data-driven learning (DDL, Johns, 1991) with young (i.e. pre-tertiary) learners.

DDL, despite being a feature of corpora and language learning research for some time, has really taken off as a viable methodological approach in the last decade due to innovations in corpus query interfaces, data visualisation, open access and improved internet access/speed. However, for a number of reasons including access, resources and difficulties in convincing those outside academia of the value of DDL, the majority of studies on DDL are conducted with tertiary or adult learners, leaving DDL for younger learners (those in pre-school, primary, or secondary education) as a relatively underexplored area in the literature.

With this in mind, chapter proposals are invited that explore the use of DDL with younger learners. Studies dealing with DDL for first or second language acquisition, genre and register learning/teaching and DDL for the teaching/learning of subjects other than languages are particularly welcome. The corpora involved in any of these studies can be spoken, written or multimodal. Chapters may be empirical studies of corpus use and its effects on learning, studies that explore the perceptions of corpus use by younger learners/teachers of younger learners, or studies that make a novel contribution to theory or methodology, such as new software or corpora that deal specifically with younger learners, and new approaches in training teachers / students of younger learners in DDL techniques.

Final chapters will be approximately 6000-7500 words. Chapter proposals of 400-500 words are due mid April, 2018. The edited volume is to be published by Routledge in 2019, part of the Taylor and Francis publishing group.

Please feel free to signal your interest or discuss your ideas by contacting the editor at p.cros@uq.edu.au.

Acceptance notification in April, with final submissions due December 2018/January 2019.

Please contact:

Dr. Peter Crosthwaite, Ph.D., FHEA
Lecturer, School of Languages and Cultures,
University of Queensland

Free copy of our latest paper in Computer Assisted Language Learning

Our article, Language teachers’ perceptions on the use of OER language processing technologies in MALL, has just been published on Computer Assisted Language Learning Journal, Taylor & Francis Online.

50 free eprints can be downloaded from the following URL:

http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/epWFWhVAGFZ4yRSIaMcA/full

Get yours now!!!!

Abstract

Combined with the ubiquity and constant connectivity of mobile devices, and with innovative approaches such as Data-Driven Learning (DDL), Natural Language Processing Technologies (NLPTs) as Open Educational Resources (OERs) could become a powerful tool for language learning as they promote individual and personalized learning. Using a questionnaire that was answered by language teachers (n = 230) in Spain and the UK, this research explores the extent to which OER NLPTs are currently known and used in adult foreign language learning. Our results suggest that teachers’ familiarity and use of OER NLPTs are very low. Although online dictionaries, collocation dictionaries and spell checkers are widely known, NLPTs appear to be generally underused in foreign language teaching. It was found that teachers prefer computer-based environments over mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets and that teachers’ qualification determines their familiarity with a wider range of OER NLPTs. This research offers insight into future applications of Language Processing Technologies as OERs in language learning.

KEYWORDS: Language learning, teachers’ perceptions, OER, MALL, natural language processing technologies, higher education

Language learning theories underpinning corpus-based pedagogy #cl2015

 

IMG_20150722_140248
Lynne Flowerdew
Language learning theories underpinning corpus-based pedagogy

The noticing hypothesis (Schmidt)

Attention consciously drawn

Noticing linked to frequency counts

Implicit vs explicit learning

 Constructivist learning

Learners engage in discovery learning

Inductive learning

Cognitive skills, problem solving to understand new data

Widmann et al. 2011: the more possible starting points for exploitation, the more likely for different learners- SACODEYL project.

Sociocultural theory

What about language learning outside the classroom and incidental learning?

 

Digital natives and corpora in language learning #corpuslinguistics

For digital natives, “research” is more likely to mean a Google search than a trip to the library […] it remains to be seen how corpus resources co-exist with online services like Google and online distionaries and how learners’ search habits behave in both contexts (Pérez-Paredes et al. 2012:484).

Pérez-Paredes, P., Sánchez-Tornel, M., & Alcaraz Calero, J. M. (2012). Learners’ search patterns during corpus-based focus-on-form activities. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 17(4), 483-516.