Reading Prompt #9

BLACKBOARD - Barbierie, F. (2005). What is Corpus Linguistics?
Essential Teacher (Compleat Links).
BLACKBOARD - Conrad, S. (2000). Will Corpus Linguistics
Revolutionize Grammar Teaching in the 21st Century? TESOL Quarterly, 34(3), 548-560.

What is Corpus Linguistics? And why are some language teachers so excited about it? What applications can you envision for your current or future classroom?

Barbierie describes corpus linguistics as “an approach to the study of language that relies on the use of computer-assisted techniques to analyze large, principled databases of naturally occurring language (corpora)”. Although neither author explicitly states what excites language teachers about this, I think it’s this connection between grammar and language use that presents possibilities for enhanced grammar teaching. As Conrad points out, grammar use varies across contexts; differences occur within varieties of the English language as well as across registers. With regard to variety of use across different registers (i.e. academic, newspaper, conversation), the empirical data corpus linguistics provides can help teachers focus their grammar teaching on conditions of use and not just grammatical correctness. This will help learners achieve communicative competence, not merely linguistic competence. Conrad’s discussion on lexicogrammatical findings proposes teaching certain grammar structures in relation to lexical (vocabulary) items and that frequency of certain forms may help determine a timeline for introducing specific grammatical forms to learners.

I think that institutional constraints may be an influencing factor in determining how much teachers are able and willing to incorporate new strategies supported by corpora research. Perhaps a shift in thinking will need to take place for administrators as well as teachers. In the future, I hope to work with adults. This environment may be a bit less constrained than K-12 perhaps, but this may be an overly optimistic and idealistic view on my part. I hope to have the flexibility to amend my curriculum, as needed, with new approaches to grammar teaching that are based on empirical evidence.