aesla 2011 getting_things_done_pascual_pérez-paredes

Pascual Pérez-Paredes

Keynote Roundtable/Mesa Redonda principal

Corpus Linguistics for 21st Century Language Learning

Getting Things Done at the crossroads of corpus linguistics

and language education

Getting Things Done at the crossroads of corpus linguistics and language education

Background research

Pérez-Paredes, P. (2010). Corpus Linguistics and Language Education in Perspective: Appropriation and the Possibilities Acenario. In T. Harris & M. Moreno Jaén (Eds.), Corpus Linguistics in Language Teaching (pp. 53-73). Peter Lang.

Pérez-Paredes, P., Sánchez-Tornel, M., Alcaraz Calero, J., & Aguado, P. (2011). Tracking learners’ actual uses of corpora: guided vs non-guided corpus consultation. Computer Assisted Language LearningJournal.


Top-downapproaches

Vs.

Bottom-up approaches

in direct

applications


Top-down approaches are positive about the use of corpora in FLT.

Research on how corpus-based resources can be integrated in language

pedagogy is substantial as well as speculative in nature on the possibilities

of CL in language education.

Possibilities scenario

Johns 1986

Sinclair 2003

Sinclair 1991


Indirect observation methodologies

-learners’ opinions about the benefits of using

corpora for language learning, their

-self-perceived difficulties in consulting

corpora and feelings as well as

-their own evaluation of corpus use during the task

(Lee and Swales, 2006; Yoon and Hirvela, 2004; Cheng, Warren and Xun-feng, 2003).

Possibilities scenario

Johns 1986

Sinclair 2003

Sinclair 1991


Much of the research dealing with the uses of corpora in the language classroom has not addressed the users’ actual interaction with the resources themselves.

Hafner and Candlin (2007:304) have stressed the

lack of studies that provide “direct evidence of

students’ […] use of corpus tools”.

Many researchers have pointed up the importance of recording active exploitation of corpus tools (Johns, 1997; Horst et al., 2005; Chambers, 2007; Hafner & Candlin, 2007).


Lee and Swales (2006:72) carried out an experiment which the authors labelled as ‘technology-enhanced rhetorical consciousness-raising’. Those learners participating were introduced to professional researching tools such as WordSmith and used corpora devised for research purposes.


Due to the high degree of induction demanded

by DDL direct applications, metaphorical

References to learners as researchers

(Mauranen, 2004), detectives (Johns, 1997) or, travellers (Bernardini, 2000a) are frequent.


This possibilities scenario takes the research tools and methodology of the CL research paradigm straightaway to the language classroom.

The methodological transfer from the CL research area to the applied ring of language learning and teacher mostly undergoes no adaptation, and thus learners are presented with the same tools, corpora and analytical tasks as well-trained and professional linguists.


Cheng, Warren and Xun-feng (2003) believe that it

is essential that learners incorporate discovery

skills in the development of their communicative

competence, going as far as to equating language

learning with linguistic research.


The possibilities scenario I have outlined

has proved a promising and innovative

instrument to enrich the learning

experiences of language students, who are

empowered with new skills and input

opportunities. Still, the full integration of

these new skills and input into language

education presents important

challenges.

Researching learners use of corpus-based resources during focus-on-form1. Context

important challenges


When examining the research in corpus applications to language learning, one discovers that those learners outside the university system are mostly ignored. However, this research approach fails to grasp the real scope of language learning. .


2006 figures for education in EU 27 and Spain.


2006 students in US, UK and Germany


% tertiary students


Only one out of five learners are pursuing a degree in tertiary education.

But, most of the research that has been conducted in the field of CL in language education addresses this low percentage of the population.

Boulton (2008b) has shown that only four out of the fifty studies considering DDL he analysed reflected language teaching outside the university.


No mediation role in the possibilities scenario

Variations of the

initiate

interpret

consolidate

report

Use of professional softwareAuthenticity issues (Mishan 2004)Availability of corporaNature of the corpora used (Braun 2007)


An introductory activity (Observe), a

hands-on activity using the BNC

(Search the corpus), and a final

activity (Rewrite) where students put

into practice the structures under

consideration.

Challenges of the possibilities scenario in educational

settings

Pérez-Paredes, P., Sánchez-Tornel, M., Alcaraz Calero, J., & Aguado, P. (2011).

Tracking learners’ actual uses of corpora: guided vs non-guided corpus

consultation. Computer Assisted Language Learning Journal.




Results

-Every single learner, irrespective of the research condition,

used some online resource while completing the tasks.

-Different types of learners’ approaches to corpus.

-Learners in the guided-consultation condition searched the

BNC almost three times more than the individuals in the non-

guided consultation. The informants in EG performed a mean of

5.4 BNC searches, while those in the non-guided condition

searched the BNC 3.5 times. According to the Mann–Whitney

test, the number of BNC searches parameter is statistically

significant




The omnipresence of highly-linguistic loaded interfaces

in principled corpora is not only a trace of the possibilities

scenario, in other words, the use of research-oriented

lexical databases in pedagogic contexts, but also the trace

of the overreliance on stand-alone corpora for

classroom-language learning, which may be

jeopardizing the normalization of these resources in

mainstream education (Boulton, 2009a; Pérez-Paredes,

2010).




A normalized vision of the uses of corpora contrasts with

problems reported by students and researchers in

numerous studies (Bernardini, 2000b; Chambers, 2005;

Chambers & O’Sullivan, 2004; Cheng et al., 2003;

Kennedy & Miceli, 2001, 2002a; Lavid, 2007; Vannestål

and Lindquist, 2007; Yoon & Hirvela, 2004; Yoon, 2008)

and by the need expressed by Mauranen (2004:99) to

favour an integration of corpus resources which causes no

“extra hassle” in the classroom.




Contribution of bottom-up

approaches to corpora

use in FLT


Ad hoc corpora Ad hoc tools Applied nature

Context-aware Corpus + pedagogy

Corpora as products

Comprehensiveframework

Tools for corpus creation

www.um.es/sacodeyl

www.um.es/backbone


Pascual Pérez-Paredes [email protected]

www.um.es/backbone

mailto:[email protected]