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CORPUS-‐INFORMED ACTIVITIES FOR EAP WRITING CLASSROOMS
Robert Poole [email protected]
@esl_robert (follow for corpus & grammar)
OVERVIEW 1. A brief case for using corpora and corpus data 2. Intro to the Corpus of Contemporary American English
(the COCA) 3. Corpus-‐informed EAP AcBviBes
4. D.I.Y. corpus projects for your classroom 5. Framework and Bps
6. Resources
CORPUS STUDY… 1. Increases autonomy as learner becomes researcher
2. Facilitates discovery learning
3. Creates condiBons for noBcing
4. Fosters a student-‐centered classroom
however
WHAT IS A CORPUS?
A FEW POPULAR CORPORA
COCA • 450 million words, 1990-‐present. Available online at hZp://corpus.byu.edu/coca/.
• Great for comparing different spoken and written varieties
MICUSP • 830 A papers from various disciplines • 2.6 million words • Great resource for showing models of papers from a parbcular field
GloWbE • 1.9 billion words from speakers in 20 countries. • Great for comparing the use of a word in different countries.
THE COCA WEBSITE
List: raw frequency of the item searched, most basic info
Chart: great for viewing differences between groups, e.g. spoken and wriSen
KWIC (keyword in context): see grammaBcal paSerns surrounding the word, different parts of speech in different colors
Compare: useful for comparing two words, e.g. chief & major
Display opBons for results; top-‐right of COCA website.
COMPARE: provides results comparing the collocates of two words
CHART: provides results across the 5 major registers in a bar table format
KWIC (key word in context): provides results with the different word classes color coded
Word(s): your search word, phrase, string
Collocates: the words that occur o\en with your search word, e.g. strong is collocate of coffee; powerful is not.
POS: parts of speech, great for narrowing a search, e.g. the [j*] teacher will show a list of words that occur in the tag posiBon
Register: the different varieBes of language
EAP (OR NON EAP) CORPUS-‐INFORMED ACTIVITIES
• Register awareness & informal/formal choices
• Word choice
• Grammar correcBon (See Liu & Jiang, 2009)
• Rhetorical awareness
EAP ACTIVITY: FORMAL OR INFORMAL?
1. Search for the phrasal verb figure out. 2. How many Bmes was it used in academic? How many
Bmes in the spoken?
3. Search for the synonym discover. How many Bmes was discover used in spoken and academic?
figure out
discover
TASK: Think of 2-‐3 more phrasal verbs and their one-‐word synonym. Search in the corpus and compare how they are used in formal academic and informal spoken contexts. What do you noBce? What guideline could you create?
WORD CHOICE: COMPARING SIMILAR WORDS
listen hear
WORD CHOICE: CHOOSING SYNONYMS
[=word] for synonym searches
WORD CHOICE: SEEING PATTERNS (KWIC)
COMPARING WORDS: WHEN & WHILE
when while
ACADEMIC VOCABULARY WITH WORDANDPHRASE.INFO
WORDANDPHRASE.INFO
WORDANDPHRASE.INFO
A FRAMEWORK FOR CORPUS IN THE CLASSROOM 1. ask a research quesBon
2. determine the register of focus
3. select an appropriate corpus (or build your own)
4. Gather results
5. Interpret
6. Create exercises
7. Engage students in a whole-‐language acBvity
*You don’t need a lab. You just need the data.
AN EXAMPLE 1. Research quesBons
Which linking word is used most frequently in academic wriBng at the beginning of sentences?
2. Register: Academic wriBng
3. Corpus: COCA academic corpus
4. Gather results for various linking words: Record frequencies, screen capture charts
5. Interpret
6. Create acBvity (or show the numbers)
7. Discuss: why X is most frequent? Why Z not frequent?
CORPUS REPORT ASSIGNMENT Think of a quesBon you could “ask” the corpus. You can invesBgate to see what adjecBves are o\en used with a word, determine whether a rule you were told is accurate, compare the use of a word in spoken and wriSen registers, etc.
Your one-‐page paper will:
1. Explain why you invesBgated the item you chose
2. Explain the context where the word is used
3. Explain how you searched for the word
4. Report the results you found
5. Interpret the results (i.e. answer why? and so what?)
BUILDING YOUR OWN CORPUS….MUCH EASIER THAN YOU THINK! Ideas for classroom corpora:
• Convert 10 A papers to txt files in minutes • Copy 10 arBcles from your campus newspaper on a topic of
interest for your class • Copy a blog/s on a topic of interest OR • Get free txt files of books at Project Gutenberg AND movie
scripts at IMSDB.com.
USING ANTCONC
• Download the free corpus program ANTCONC (available for both Microso\ and Mac)
• Add 5, 10, 15 txt files • Click word list • Use search bar to search for specific
words
USING ANTCONC
• Click on a word in the list to get example sentences (concordance)
• Use concordance plot to see where the word is used.
• Save as txt files.
• Adapt in Word for an acBvity.
FOCUS ON JUST ONE TEXT.
This is a a word list of “The Great Gatsby” ; the text was downloaded from Gutenberg. 1. Look at how characters are
discussed 2. Focus on vocabulary of interest 3. Talk about the topics o\en
discussed
LOOK AT A COLLECTION FROM ONE AUTHOR.
These are 10 press releases from an environmental group in southern Arizona. • What are they talking about? • How are the talking about the mine? • What is important for the writer? • Why certain verbs or adjecBves?
KEYWORDS: COMPARE TEXTS A keyword is a word that occurs at much higher frequency in a text or group of texts than it does in another texts or group of texts. Thus, it is KEY to the meaning of the main text.
1. Add your file/s.
2. Go to sesngs > tool preferences > keyword lists.
3. Add file/s you want to compare. (must click load)
4. Click apply.
5. Go back to main screen.
6. Click keyword list > start.
TEACHING RHETORIC THROUGH KEYWORDS
The Top 10 keywords from the wribngs of the Save the Scenic Santa Rita’s Organizabon
In texts and debates it is common to find paZerns of ideas and strategies. These paZerns of ideas are olen represented by keywords. For your homework, analyze the keywords from the two lists and explain why these keywords are rhetorically important for each group’s messages. What ideas and strategies are likely being used in the texts from the two groups? What do the keywords show us about the strategies the company and the environmental organizabon are using? In your wribng, you should consider the rhetorical situabon and use the words ethos, logos, and pathos.
Top 10 Keywords from the Rosemont
Copper Company
REBUILDING THE RHETORICAL SITUATION
a final EIS for the Rosemont Copper project along with the Record of
Our leadership has always understood that our project would receive
answered fully and successfully and that the project meets all and
robust economics of the Rosemont project, propels Augusta to
The Rosemont Copper project is located in Pima County
Rosemont Copper will set a high standard for sustainable mining
Phase 2 of the program will now focus on infill drilling
robust economics of this project, will propel Augusta to become a
the mine will produce over 400 direct jobs and about 1,600
the proposed Rosemont mine would destroy more than 3,0
permit the company needs to construct the proposed Rosemont open-‐pit copper mine.
the Cienega Creek watershed caused by the proposed Rosemont open-‐pit copper mine that will
conservaBon area is directly east of the proposed mine site.
…Bmeline for the proposed Rosemont copper project.
That copper would presumably be exported to Korea.
the mining operaBons would be visible from Green Valley
that the mine would inflict on Southern Arizona
any legal challenge would likely take years to resolve.
The mine would also have ripple effects on water supplies
FOLLOWED BY A DISCUSSION 1. Who do you think is the author of these sentences?
2. What do you think is the purpose of this wriBng?
3. What rhetorical effect do you think the author wants to achieve through the use of these words?
4. Why would he/she choose these words and not other similar words?
5. What do you think the author wants the audience to feel or think?
TIPS FOR YOUR OWN CORPUS ACTIVITIES • In the beginning, you will likely want to do the searches, get info,
and create handouts/worksheets.
• It’s okay to simplify and modify example sentences to fit the level and needs of your students.
• Use more basic texts for lower-‐proficiency students.
• Encourage group work and ask students to work with fewer lines.
• Have higher-‐proficiency students do “corpus reports”.
• Use the ReadMe and Help documents available with all corpus programs.
RESOURCES corpus.byu.edu
hSps://books.google.com/ngrams
hSp://www.wordandphrase.info/
Calper’s searchable bibliography
www.just-‐the-‐word.com
Corpus linguisBcs and Lang Teaching & Learning on Google+
hSp://eflnotes.wordpress.com/tag/cupofcoca/
wordwanderer.org
Lextutor
THANK YOU!
[email protected] for pdf of slides, quesBons about COCA in the classroom, or for a COCA Tutorial document. esl_robert on TwiSer for ESL, grammar, language, and corpus View COCA tutorial videos at: hSps://www.youtube.com/user/callgusandrobert