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Corpora and concordancing tools
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Sat, 03/14/2009 - 18:18
Hi everyone. Have any of you used any corpora plus concordancing tools to assist your EAP teaching? If so, was that useful?
best
Andrea
Mon, 03/16/2009 - 09:25
#2
I've found the Compleat Lexical Tutor useful for answering queries about collocations. We introduce it to students and get them to do vocabulary research using it. There are a range of different types of corpora to search plus lots of other functions I haven't had time to try out.
Olwyn
Wed, 03/18/2009 - 01:12
#3
I use mainly http://www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx for checking collocations, word combinations, word sets, etc. This is a free version which is not full. So, simple things can not be found there sometimes. I know there is such a tool as British national corpus http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/, but I haven't used it yet.
Does anyone use this site for teaching?
Nataliya
Wed, 03/18/2009 - 15:21
#4
I often use the BNC at Brigham Young University available at: http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/
Mostly I use it because it allows you to select an academic corpus, which most other sites do not. It also allows you to refine your search in terms of broad academic disciplines (and it's free).
If you can build up a corpus from your own sources, e.g. student texts (but be sure to ask permission from students to use them), Microconcord is a free search engine that you can download and use with it.
Sue
Wed, 03/25/2009 - 18:43
#5
Hi all,
Like Fliss I use Antconc - but not every day - when I'm investigating texts. One aspect I like is its ability to use multiple files at the same time and to give a graphical illustration of where a lexical item is located within a paticular file. I use SCP (Simple Concordance Program) for creating learner corpora from student writing and helping them investigate their own language. With this I run KWIC lines to focus on common errors, but try to ensure that I have more correct lines than incorrect in order to send the message of success. I also use this to create blanked KWIC lines of lexis that they are studying. I have students use the corpora at Compleat Lexical Tutor to investigate the 'tested' vocabulary that they need to study, as well as to show that much of the 'slated' vocabulary is not essential. When an item does not appear in 4,000,000 words, I do not think that it is important for Foundation Program students to learn it unless it is vital to their courses. I sometimes use the concordancer at the VLC on Hong Kong's Poly U site.
For investigating collocations linked to corpora, I have students use Just the Word which has small bar charts to show the frequency of the different suggestions.
Regards,
Phil
Mon, 03/30/2009 - 15:46
#6
There's also TextStat (up to version 2.7 last time I looked) which is both good and free, and which works well with Word and Excel (as well as websites, apparently, but I haven't used that yet). So if you want to upload learners' texts and do KWICs, for example, it's very easy.
See here for comparative study: http://llt.msu.edu/vol9num3/review2/default.html
Andy
Thu, 03/26/2009 - 04:12
#7
Hi all! Thank you for sharing all this. Related to this, would you favour using online dictionaries, printed dictionaries? How do you think dictionary skills can help EAP learning?
best
Andrea
Sun, 03/29/2009 - 18:47
#8
Hi. Sorry, made a mistake. There was a double posting by me here and I erased it, but did not realise yours was a reply to it, Zira. Can you share once again? Thanks and sorry again!
best
Andrea
Mon, 03/30/2009 - 14:42
#9
Hi Andrea,
I responded to your question earlier, but, unfortunately, it was lost. Personally, I think that being able to use both is vitally important as students usually need to work in both environments. I was previously teaching lower language ability students on a Foundation course where we introduced them to simple monolingual dictionaries in order to teach them the importance of alphabetisation, how to negotiate the pages, the importance of headwords as well as identifying the appropriate meaning. At the same time, we wanted them to be creating short writing tasks using a word processor and encouraged the use of online dictionaries to help identify the appropriate replacement for errors indicated by the spellchecker, rather than accepting the first option.
We think that it is crucial that students realise that a good dictionary can really help in the development of their language and have been trying to illustrate that a monolingual dictionary is more likely to be a better option than the version that most of our students have in their mobile phones.
Phil
Mon, 03/30/2009 - 15:45
#10
Thank you for posting again, Phil, and sorry.
Yes, I agree an integration of both types of dictionary might be best. The activities you suggest are great! What about using production dictiobnaries such as Longman Activator to assist students´ writing? And collocation dictionaries, or a concordancer, or both?
best
Andrea
Mon, 03/30/2009 - 17:14
#11
Hi Andrea,
As I said earlier, I have students use concordances quite a lot in order to help them interact with vocabulary as much as possible. I must admit that I haven't used the Longman Activator, and will take a look at it as students at all levels on our Foundation program have difficulties with writing. We do encourage them to use a collocation dictionary by having one available for writing, but most rarely use it unless reminded several times of its presence. We do encourage students to make use of their dictionaries whenever possible and encourage them to create dictionary-based activities for each other.
Phil
I use Antconc (free to download) daily... during lessons and while correcting, and some of my students find it useful too as it helps them find answers to discipline-specific things that are not in dictionaries or grammar books.
Fliss Hope