Welcome To The Presentation of

We have divided our topic into Three sub-topics:

• Using corpus data in the classroom• Concordances in the classroom

without a computer: assembling and exploiting concordances of common words

• Telling tails: grammar, the spoken language and materials development

Using corpus data in the classroom

What is Corpus?

A bank or collection of authentic texts collected in order to find out how language is actually used. Example: a corpus of newspaper English, a corpus of legal documents etc.

Introduction:• There has been occurred a revolutionary changes during the last 20 years in the way of language study.• By handling large amounts of data with the help of computer it is now possible to build language corpora and it allows researchers to analyze how language is being used in present time and how was it in the past.• To make corpora there has to compile many books and there was no scope of start afresh and which were not right or nearly right.• At present computers have developed in such a way that there is no longer any restriction on the size of a corpus and there is no complicacy of making a new one.

Frequency information:• “frequency information” means the recurrence of the information or the data.• In data collection it has much importance because corpus is built by using the more used or frequent words. It is easy to discover which is the most frequent among words which are synonyms, for examples, ‘start’, ‘begin’ and ‘commence’. •In the whole Bank of English, ‘start’ is about 10% more frequent than ‘begin’ and ‘commence’ is very infrequent. Similar variants also can be showed in ‘judgment’ and ‘inquire’.• Frequency information allows teachers and learners to know and to use actively. It is also very much important to know which words are infrequent.• “he gave her a smile” semantically means nearly the same as “he smiled at her.” These types of sentences are many in English and learners are suggested to use the right one based on situations.

Contexts and co-texts:

• The situational and linguistic environments-they are commonly used in. It is another reason for analyzing a large amount of data. • Here is a verb ‘break out’ which is seen to be used in such things as ‘wars’, ‘fights’, ‘strikes’, and ‘fire’ that break out. Using these verbs with different nouns can create misunderstanding.

Grammar: • The central element of language teaching. Indeed most syllabuses are still grammar-based, whether overtly or covertly.• But at present it has been risen some questions about the use of grammar- 1. Is the grammar that is taught really the grammar of the language? 2. Are the course books as important in real life as they in the classroom? 3. Are the uses of tenses are clear-cut?There are also the questions of teaching learners. So, we should have to think about it before teaching in the classroom.

Concordance•What is Concordance?A list of authentic utterances each containing the same focused word or phrase.•Problem Arises From the first look on concordance- (1) each of the lines is discrete (2) often on completely different subject

(3) Most of the lines do not show even whole sentences. •Solution to that problem: Guessing or understanding what the line is about. We just need to

have a rough idea; not required to understand the topic.

Up a tiny vacant table at the open window of pierre’s café ordered himself an ice-cream and Irish Coffee, and

n the earlier erroneous FBI reports. Although the judge had ordered all the televisions removed from the juror’s motel room

he landlord had found out that she had deceived him and had ordered her to vacate her apartment. She had promised this

ational, an engine overheated. As a precaution, the captain ordered it shot down. None of the aircraft’s passengers wer

Classroom Uses of ConcordancesIn the Case of Preposition

In the Case of Phrasal Verbs

Collocation and Phraseology•What is Collocation?

Collocation refers to the words which are frequently used together.

•Focus on Collocation•Example:

“tall” and “high” are synonymous. It can be ‘a tall building’ or ‘a high building’ but never ‘a high man’

What is Phraseology?Phraseology refers to the particular way in which words and phrases are arranged when saying or writing something.A reading of Concordance lines for ‘take’ shows that phraseology (what’s your take on. . .) is equally important as the part of structural system as the preposition ‘on’.

PragmaticsPragmatics is a branch of linguistics that focuses on what is explicitly stated and on how we interpret utterances in situational contexts.

According to Thomas (1995), Pragmatics considers- •The negotiation of meaning between speakers and listeners

•The context of the utterance

•The meaning potential of utterance

The word “sorry” is used in the following sentences to show apology in different ways-

•I am sorry but you will have to leave. (presence not welcomed)

•I am sorry, the table is reserved. (Already Reserved)

•Mr. Ahmed: Go and get me the papers, Matthew. Matthew: I’m sorry, are you talking to me? (Checking whether it was asked to him)

•I am sorry to hear about your loss. (showing sympathy)

Conclusion of Chapter 1•Corpus analysis has shown us that there are many common features of native speaker use which non-native speakers do not typically pay attention to. •Teachers give students many strategies for coping, some of which could be developed through the use of concordances. •By studying concordance lines, students will become more aware of language, and will know how particular words are used by native speakers. And, in doing so, they will develop analytical skills.

Concordances in the classroom without a computer: assembling and exploiting

concordances of common words.•IntroductionConcordances –alphabetical list of the words in a book.•Preparation for concordancing by handThere are three essentials which can be used for concordancing by hand. They are- ( a)text themselves, (b)frequency information, (c)a good dictionary•Assembling and investigating concordancesTomlinson used five sessions where hand concordancing is used.

v Sample session 1: a focus on as for ESP learners:We can notice in the following sentences---Maintenance costs are decreased proportionately as productivity rises(as indicates time)Complex activity which includes such actions as the search for food(as indicates example)Food intake and energy requirement suggests that as with energy, intake should vary(meaning similar to)Appears to be relatively unimportant in grazing as animals will graze in the dark and(expressing a reason)

v Sample session 2:common words in spontaneous spoken narrativeThere is a lot of words which are not directly telling the story but relates to the discourse itself. These words may be at, had, I, in, of, one ,so, that/that’s ,his, what/what’s. Many useful common lexical phrases were identified and practiced -in the case of this one, I have to make it clear, just a bit less than…….,phrases with of like and all the rest of it .Focusing on in; i.e. in an attempt to………The session 1 and 2 are for elementary and fresh beginners.

v Sample session 3:real beginners-a focus on thatIn this session with real beginners ,learners first completed a task listing English words that are international(e.g. football, hotel, disco). These included-Taxi? Oh yes, that’s a good one.Picnic. What about that?Oh yes, that’s a good one.How about that?Ah, we’ve done that one!We’ve got that, sorry.Got that!That’s a good one, yes!Olympics? That’s Greek!

The phrases with that are all common phrases and useful for classroom communication. Learners were asked to classify them; for example phrases starting with that, and phrases ending with that or that one. Some learners preferred to group the ones with similar words or patterns together, as shown here.

How about that? We’ve done that one. Oh yes, that’s a good one.What about that? We’ve got that that’s a good one, yes

v Sample session 4: remedial beginners –a focus on the preposition inWhich phrases with in refer to place and which to time? Are there any phrases left over? Note that this three way classification activity(place, time, and other)will work with any preposition.The examples found in the current texts included:Biltmore House in Asheville, USAbuilt in 1890the most expensive house in the worldin 1922a cottage in North Walesbuilt in the 19th centurythe smallest house in Great BritainIn this first set of examples, all the uses of in were either place or time. Besides there are some fixed phrases like in fact .It is also interesting for learners to note the examples of the adverbial use of in like Will you join in? Hand your books in where in ends a sentence(this is rare in most other languages )

v Sample session 5: revision activities based on course materials: intermediate learnersHere are two ways of exploiting the course materials.a)select the same number of common words and divide them up amongst the class giving one word to each student, or two words to each pair of students . Alternatively, the students write the concordance lines with a gap instead of the central word , for the class to guess the missing word.I suddenly thought of it ---eating an animalEasier to imagine them ---whole animalsThat’s because I see rabbits ---pets(b) In the same way, students can prepare their own test items. Groups of students select a set of three or four cloze items to donate to a ‘test item bank’ kept by the teachers, who can select from the items to assemble a class test. This gives learners a sense of responsibility as well as motivation to revise and reread ,thereby gaining a deeper experience of language.

Enhancing the processSelecting words for concordaningonce you become familiar with your frequency list you will find it easier to scan a text and pick out suitable words.If you are teaching ESP, try to find frequency list for your specialist area.Try to cover as many of the frequent words as you can; some words can be focused on several times , with different types of texts.-Keep a record of words covered, together with the meanings and uses of those words.

Varying the focus and processWe can varythe number of words we focus in a session .the number of text we investigate each time .the type of text-spoken, written or both .the type of words focused on each time.

Balancing the pedagogic corpus

The pedagogic corpus consist of the texts and recordings from the class course book, plus any supplementary materials used by the class as a whole.In other words, text and transcripts familiar with the students.Individual learners should be encouraged to read more widely on their own.A pedagogic corpus is inevitably quite small and needs to be selected in a principled manner.

We have access to data which tells us how the target language is typically

written and spoken and we know for a fact that language use is variable

depends on the context in which it is being used

Telling tails: grammar, the spoken language and materials development

Authentic vs. Scripted dialogues:When naturally-occurring language is compared with language constructed for the purposes of language teaching, marked differences can be observed.Text 1: Scripted text from a text book:(Making a Doctor’s appointment)(telephone rings)Patient: could I make an appointment to see the doctor please? Receptionist: Certainly, who do you usually see?Patient: Dr. Cullen.Receptionist: I’m sorry but Dr. Cullen has got patients all day. Would Dr. Maley do?Patient: Sure.Receptionist: Ok then. When would you like to come?Patient: Could I come at four o’clock? Receptionist: Four o’clock? Fine, could I have your name please? (Nunan and Lockwood 1991

Text 2: Authentic text: (Confirming an Appointment with the Doctor)Receptionist: Doctor’s rooms, can you hold the line for a moment?Patient: Yes. Receptionist: Thanks.(pause)Receptionist: Hello.Patient: Hello.Receptionist: Sorry to keep you waiting.Patient: That’s all right um I’m just calling to confirm an appointment with Dr. X for the first of October.Receptionist: Oh….Patient: Because it was so far in advance I was told to.Receptionist: I see what you mean, to see if she’s going to be in that day.Patient: That’s right.Receptionist: Oh we may not know yet.Patient: Oh I see.Receptionist: First of October….Edith….yes.Patient: Yes.Receptionist: There she is Ok you made one. What’s your name?Patient: At nine fift….Receptionist: Got it got it. (Burns, Joyce and Gollin 1996)

Observation: In this text we find more ‘unpredicted’ sequences such as the opening exchange in which the patient is asked to hold the line and content-less words (oh). The scripted text is easier to comprehend but is unlikely to be reproduced in actual context of use:The unscripted text is real English but more difficult to comprehend and to produce and therefore likely to be considered less appropriate pedagogically

Tails: Tails are an important feature of a listener-sensitive, affective grammar and occur frequently in informal contexts of

language use. Tails allow speakers to express attitudes, to add emphasis, to evaluate and to provide repetition for listeners. All the tails are one kind of

emphatic recapitulation, refer to such features as tags but do not offer detailed

treatment.

Observations about tails:1. a noun (or pronoun) and a verb which extend a pronoun (or noun) or demonstrative which has occurred earlier in the clause. The noun can either follow or precede the verb (e.g. he was very helpful, Max was; He was very helpful, was Max)2. When a pronoun comes first in a clause and the tail is formed with a noun then the noun normally makes the comment stronger (e.g. He was a great leader, Gandhi was)3. The noun can also be used as a tail on its own (e.g. he was very helpful, Max)

4. When pronouns occur in tails the word order of the preceding phrase is repeated; otherwise the sentence may be heard as a question (e.g. you are good boy, you are; (you are good boy, are you?)5. Tails can occur with tag questions and can be placed either before or after the tag (e.g. she’s a good player, Hiroko is, isn’t she? It’s not easy to eat, is it, Spaghetti?)6. When the tail repeats a verb which is not a verb ‘to be’ or an auxiliary/modal verb then a do verb is used (e.g. she sings very well, she does; They complain all the time, they do)7. Tails always agree with the phrase to which they refer (e.g. It’s not a good wine, that isn’t; she’ll never pass the exam, won’t Toni)Negatives with ‘hardly’, ‘scarcely’ etc. keep a negative tail (e.g. He scarcely speaks, he doesn’t)

1. What is Language awareness?Language awareness refers to an explicit knowledge about language, and conscious perception or sensibility in language learning, language teaching and language use.

2. What is Consciousness-raising?Consciousness-raising, also known as awareness-raising, is part of the process a learner can go through with new language.

1 Characteristics of Language awareness2. III in place of PPP3. Importance of Heads and Tails Examples of Heads: a. The women, they all shouted. b. b. That chap over there, he said it was OK.

Examples of Tails : c. He’s a real problem is Jeff. d. b. It’s too hot for me, Singapore.

Rules, Choices and the Hegemony of the Native speaker

1.Conscious about Grammatical rules2.Use of correct form of verbs3.Evaluation of speaking through a standard grammar.4.Maintaining Heads and Tails in speaking

Overall ConclusionThe basic messages which come across from the three chapters are:1. Many L2 learners have been disadvantaged because of using idealized data and the language. There is no scope of using very recent data and ideas. Recently published books have no access to be used in the evaluation process, what should be changed. Learners need to start learning what is simple and to the right things.2. All three chapters argue for the need of data from a corpus of authentic language use. Students should be encouraged to write their own grammar of the target language. And, their works can be monitored by the teacher.3. It focuses on the analysis of authentic language data that learners should give attention to investigate the meaning for the sake of communication in the target language. And, the teacher should make suitable environments or should arrange meaningful materials for better outcome.