Corpus Linguistics and ESP - is there a link? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Corpus Linguistics and ESP - is there a link?

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Maria Jos Pereira de Oliveira (Agrarian School in Santar m, Portugal), 'Corpus ... Finds that Swan's word list contains words not common in corpora ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Corpus Linguistics and ESP - is there a link?


1
Corpus Linguistics and ESP - is there a link?
  • Mike Scott
  • University of Liverpool
  • 10 October 2005
  • XIX Seminário Nacional de Inglês Instrumental
  • PUC-SP

2
Theme
  • The rapidly-developing field of Corpus
    Linguistics (CL) and its potential for informing
    ESP teachers, researchers and students. 

3
Issues and Questions
  • What is available now in CL?
  • Is the traffic one-way or can ESP inform CL too?
    Atuação recíproca (Celani 10.10.2005, 1030)
  • Does CL only help us understand the
    characteristics of genres or can it help us get
    at topics such as how learners might cope with
    it, e.g. via key words?

4
Structure for Today
  • Characteristics of CL
  • Characteristics of ESP
  • Linkages
  • Studies involving both
  • Directions for us to advance in

5
Characteristics of CL
  • Data-driven
  • Empirical
  • scornful of intuition
  • Generating theory
  • but not driven by theory
  • Discovery-oriented
  • Software/Tool-oriented
  • Dependent on the corpora

6
Characteristics of CL (2)
  • European, especially Scandinavia, UK
  • Bolsões e.g. in Brazil, Japan, USA
  • but hardly widespread!
  • Middle-class middle-aged white males
  • Technology gadgets
  • Anoraks and nerds
  • Uncertain status as a discipline
  • Innovative in methodology
  • Focus on the language

7
(No Transcript)
8
Characteristics of ESP
  • Forced upon us not by theory
  • but by globalisation
  • Backs to the wall
  • untrained teachers told to do it
  • so an origin of desperation
  • Students unhappy with Mary gave the elephant a
    bun
  • and the Jones family picnic in Yosemite.

9
Characteristics of ESP (2)
  • Still uncertain status as a profession
  • Challenging established practice
  • use of L1
  • mono-skill approach
  • no textbook
  • ELT methods (audio-lingualism, PPP, TBL etc.) not
    necessarily appropriate
  • student knows more than teacher
  • authentic text
  • Innovative in methodology

10
Common factors
  • innovative methodology
  • interest in learning
  • by examining data
  • which is unfiltered

11
Studies
  • Not many existing papers

12
Paper 1
  • Lynne Flowerdew, 1998, Corpus Linguistic
    Techniques applied to Textlinguistics. System
    26, 541-552
  • Exploration v. exploitation of corpora
  • Argues for systemics, genre- and
    discourse-analysis, instead of the corpus as
    evidence for the language

13
Paper 2
  • ESP World (2003)
  • Maria José Pereira de Oliveira (Agrarian School
    in Santarém, Portugal), Corpus Linguistics in
    the teaching of ESP and Literary Studies
  • General enthusiasm for corpus methods

14
Paper 3
  • Alejandro Curado FuentesPatricia Edwards
    RokowskiUniversity of Extremadura ,Using Corpus
    Resources as Complementary Task Material in ESP
    (2003)
  • Advice on corpus construction
  • Some exercise-types examples

15
Paper 3 cont. Exercise-types
  • GUESS THE COLLOCATE(S)____________________
  • LAW / IMAGE GOVERNANCE REPORT SECTOR
  • MATCH CONSTRUCTIONS WITH THE TEXT TYPES IN WHICH
    YOU SEE THEY ARE COMMON
  • In the current example I think it's gonna be --
    This paper describes-- It is used to
    infinitive
  • REPORTTEXTBOOKREVIEWE-DISCUSSION

16
Paper 4
  • Pascual Pérez-Paredes, Universidad de Murcia,
    Spain (2003), Small corpora as assisting tools
    in the teaching of English news language A
    preliminary tokens-based examination of Michael
    Swans Practical English Usage news language
    wordlist
  • Finds that Swans word list contains words not
    common in corpora
  • Concludes that students need access to various
    corpora.

17
Paper 5
  • Pernilla Danielsson Michaela Mahlberg, 2003,
    There is more to knowing a language than knowing
    its wordsUsing parallel corpora in the
    bilingual classroom
  • Discusses discovery learning using parallel
    corpora (English Swedish)
  • Ways of identifying translation/meaning
    alternatives using ParaConcs hotwords

18
Paper 6
  • Lynne Flowerdew, 2005, An integration of
    corpus-based and genre-based approaches to text
    aanalysis in EAP/ESP countering criticisms
    against corpus-based methodologies. English for
    Specific Purposes, Vol. 24, 321-332.
  • Shows how ESP-originated rhetorical structures
    (Swalesian moves) can be identified using corpora
  • Resists the attack that CL methods are too
    bottom-up
  • Reviews studies showing that some structures/MWUs
    are over-used by students relates this to their
    ESP classes.

19
Paper 7
  • Olga Mudraya (2005 in press) Engineering
    English A lexical frequency instructional
    model. English for Specific Purposes.
  • Considers technical and especially sub-technical
    vocabulary
  • Builds 9,000 type list of use to Thai Engineering
    students
  • Considers consistency (range)
  • Concordance activities to identify
    collocational/colligational patterns

20
Keywords as a link?
  • Text focus
  • Aboutness
  • Gist

21
Activities (1)
  • supply KWs and predict/guess at the text
  • rationale boosts confidence reduces tension of
    reading the text variant on old un-pedagogical
    supplying of a glossary prior to reading

22
Activities (2)
  • sort KWs into categories (people, places,
    processes etc.)
  • rationale leads to Critical Reading what was
    said and what was downplayed and what omitted

23
Activities (3)
  • Predict which other text-types would typically
    contain those KWs
  • rationale focus on notion of the colony,
    text-types, intertextuality

24
Activities (4)
  • KWs as a basis for writing tasks
  • rationale students start from their own KWs and
    generate a text reduces tension of writing a
    well-formed text, provides a basis for
    brain-storming

25
Activities (5)
  • KWs and pronunciation
  • rationale helps focus the ESP students mind on
    the essential as opposed to hoping s/hell
    pronounce everything correctly

26
Activities (6)
  • KWs as a basis for oral presentations
  • rationale helps prepare the audience, prior to
    or immediately following outline summary of the
    presentation helps focus the presenters mind
    towards the audience (away from the teacher) and
    increase likelihood of awareness of difficulties
    audience might face, as well as focus on the
    essential as opposed to incidental

27
Activities (6)
  • Read/listen and note down the KWs
  • rationale preparation for note-taking but less
    stressful

28
Conclusions
  • CL and ESP have some common aspects
  • innovative methodology
  • interest in learning
  • by examining data
  • which is unfiltered
  • Keywords may represent a means of focussing on
    the text and what it is about.
  • Although KWs can be found and worked on in ESP
    without using CL, CL does offer a useful way of
    finding handling KWs.

29
English for Specific Purposes
Corpus Linguistics
Keywords
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