Corpus Based Language Learning Reflections

The lexical approach
J. Richards & T. Rogers (2001)

This text introduces the lexical approach in language teaching which refers to the belief that the building blocks of language learning and communication are lexis, or, words and word combinations. This approach holds ‘chunks’, or multiword lexical units, as well as vocabulary as central to language learning (p.132). Collocation is also important in lexical theories, which refers to the regular occurrence together or words. Though some researchers criticize the lexical approach as putting too much of a cognitive load on students, I do see the advantages of language learners developing a repertoire of common phrases and lexical ‘chunks’. In my own experiences learning Korean, I’ve found that learning these kind of high frequency word combinations has really come in handy when communication in day to day situations with natives.

Using corpora, or large collections of writings that have been stored digitally, researchers can manipulate the data to find word frequencies as well as specific example sentences to exemplify certain language points. Several types of materials and teaching resources to support lexical approaches in language teaching include complete course packages including texts, tapes, and teachers manuals, collections of vocabulary teaching activities, “printout” versions of computer corpora collections packaged in text format, and computer concordancing programs and attached data sets (p. 136). I find that these types of materials would be a beneficial aid for teachers and students in language learning classrooms. After some training as language analysts, students can do independent research and be challenged to come up with their own generalizations about language. In other words, we teachers can help foster student curiosity of language and help them to become ‘language detectives’.

From printout to handout: Grammar and vocabulary teaching in the context of Data-driven Learning
Tim Johns (1994)

This article was quite dense and honestly a bit difficult to read, but I’ll attempt to comment on the ideas that I took from it.

Tim Johns discusses the teaching of grammar in light of new technological advances which allow us to draw upon large language corpuses to attempt new language teaching strategies that were not possible previously. Lists of sentences that all incorporate a certain language function can be drawn up using computer models and used for teaching. Students can attempt to notice patterns between different chunks of words and also create generalizations based on their observations.

In language learning classrooms, Johns posits that “first, we need to provide adequate opportunities, in classes and in individual consultations, for students to raise problems and queries, which in turn can help us to see the directions which our teaching should take. Second, we should attempt to make our teaching transferable in the sense that strategies developed in the classroom for ‘puzzling out’ how the language works should also be applicable outside the classroom (p. 295). Both of these points are very sound and I especially like how these new language models using language condorance samples can help students become more reflective and independent learners. Rather than learning ‘grammar rules,’ by taking a deeper look at authentic language samples, students can not only come up with their own rules but also make decisions about their ‘appropriacy.’