Corpus linguistics and language teaching

The next nexus?

Doug Biber

Northern Arizona University

Goals of the talk

• Introduce corpus linguistics

• Present case studies illustrating the surprising findings that emerge from corpus-based research

• Discuss the application of corpus research to classroom teaching and materials development

What is corpus linguistics?

• A research approach for describing language use:

How do speakers and writers actually use the vocabulary and grammar resources available in a language?

What is a corpus?

• A large, principled collection of ‘natural’ texts stored on computer

• A corpus should ‘represent’ particular language varieties or registers (e.g., conversation or university textbooks)

– Design is important: texts must be sampled from particular target registers

– Size is equally important: Some language features are rare but still have systematic patterns of use

Characteristics of corpus-based analysis (I)

• Relies on computer-assisted techniques– Concordancers (‘KWIC’ displays = ‘Key Word In

Context’)– Computer programs

• Automatic (e.g., grammatical ‘taggers’)• Interactive (to code grammatical variants)

Example of concordance output (from MonoConc)

Characteristics of corpus-based analysis (II)

• Analyses are empirical

• Uses both quantitative and qualitative / interpretive techniques

• Meaningful analyses must be motivated by linguistic research questions (not simply by the availability of a corpus)

So what is corpus linguistics?• A research approach – A way of thinking

about language– Shines the spot light on language use: registers

and language for specific purposes– Allows investigation of language choice: Why

does a speaker use a particular word or grammatical form rather than alternatives?

– Allows investigation of meaning in context: why synonyms are usually not interchangeable

– Allows investigation of language preference: what forms are rare? What is especially common?

Corpus descriptions capture the complexities of actual use

– Language use is often systematic but complex

– Corpus-based studies can consider the range of relevant factors and the interactions among factors

– Corpus analysis describes the patterns of use, but it cannot directly determine how those findings are relevant for language learning

– That is, corpus analyses provide the basis for informed decisions by teachers – not necessarily the immediate content of our language teaching

Case studies

• Vocabulary

• Grammar

• Lexico-grammar

Corpus-based descriptions of vocabulary:Selected reference works

Learner dictionaries based on corpora:Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE);

Collins COBUILD English Dictionary

Vocabulary textbooks based on corpora:McCarthy and O’Dell; Basic Vocabulary in Use

Thornbury; Natural Grammar

Academic studies of collocation:Sinclair 1991; Partington 1998

Case studies on vocabulary

• Corpus-based dictionaries• Collocation• Semantic prosody

Case studies on vocabulary (1):Corpus-based dictionaries

• The order of meanings reflects use

e.g. LDOCE entry for concerned:Meaning 1: ‘involved in something’ (reach an agreement with all concerned)Meaning 2: ‘worried’(concerned about how little I eat)

• Identifies common words and register differences

Words moderately common in speech (not writing -- LDOCE)flood, hopefully, messy, potato, shave, underneath

Words moderately common in writing (not speech -- LDOCE)focus, glance, moreover, pollution, scope, underlying

Synonyms: large, great, and big

Case studies on vocabulary (2):Collocations

For example:

Large number(s) ‘quantity’scaleproportionamount

versus

Great deal (of) ‘impressive’importancemajority

(see Firth 1957; Sinclair 1991; Partington 1998; Biber, Conrad, Reppen 1998)

Case studies on vocabulary (3): Semantic prosody

Copular verbs that mean ‘become’:

turn black, red, white, pale

come alive, loose, true, unstuck

go crazy, mad, wrong, bad

(Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, 444-445)

(cf. Partington 1998)

Corpus-based studies of grammar

• Demonstrative pronouns: this versus that• Word classes: nouns, verbs, pronouns• Dependent clauses: that-clauses versus

to-clauses

• (From the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English)

Case studies on grammar (1)

The grammar of individual words: Demonstrative pronouns this versus that

• The traditional description of the difference:

– This refers to a thing near the speaker

– That refers to something that is not near the speaker

The grammar of individual words (cont.) Demonstrative pronouns that versus this

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Conversation Academic WR

Fre

qu

ency

per

mil

lio

n w

ord

s

that

this

Demonstrative pronouns that versus this (cont.)

• Examples of that in conversation(vague or situational reference)

That was delicious.

A: I was, I was flat on my back. B: Uh, I can't sleep like that

• Examples of this in academic writing(text deixis)

GAAP requires that a business use the accrual basis. This means that the accountant records revenues as they are earned…

Case studies on grammar (2)

The register distribution of grammatical classes:

Nouns, verbs, personal pronouns

Distribution of nouns, verbs, and pronouns across four registers

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Conversation ClassroomTeaching

Textbooks Academic Prose

Fre

qu

ency

per

1,0

00 w

ord

s

Nouns

Verbs

Personalpronouns

Case studies on grammar (3)

Syntactic features

Dependent clauses are common in writing but rare in speech:

Contrasting intuitions with actual use

That-clauses and to-clauses in conversation vs. academic prose

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Conversation Academic prose

Verb + THAT-clause

"Extraposed"THAT-clause

Verb + TO-clause

"Extraposed"TO-clause

• Verb + that-clause in conversation:I know (that) I told you.

I think (that) we picked it up.

• Extraposed to-clauses in academic prose:It is important to specify the states …

It is difficult to maintain a consistent level…

It is impossible to liquefy a gas …

Corpus-based studies of lexico-grammar

Case studies from the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English:

– The grammatical ‘patterns’ of individual words: tell and promise

(cf. Hunston and Francis 2000; Thornbury 2004)

– Passive verbs: common and rare

– Common verbs with that-clauses in conversation

Case studies on lexico-grammar (1)

The grammar of words: tell versus promise

• Both verbs have identical valency patterns:– They can occur as monotransitive verbs (with a

direct object) – or as ditransitive verbs (with a direct object and

an indirect object)

Grammatical patterns for tell and promise in newspaper language

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TELL PROMISE

V + Direct Object

V + Clause

V + IndirectObject + Clause

• Example of TELL in newspapers – expressing both the addressee AND the content of the message:

Cheney told [Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett] [that he would cancel the $50 billion project] …

• Example of PROMISE in newspapers – expressing only the content of the promise:

The company promised [to donate about $500,000 to the cause] …

Case studies on lexico-grammar (2)

The words of grammar:

Verbs with passive voice

Verbs with passive voice

• Selected verbs that almost always occur with passive voice in academic prose (over 70% of the time):

– Verbs of scientific methodology: be analyzed, be calculated, be collected, be measured, be tested

– Their occurrence is measured in a few parts per million.

– Verbs expressing logical relations and interpretations: be based (on), be associated (with), be attributed (to), be interpreted (as), be regarded (as)

– Their presence must be regarded as especially undesirable.

Verbs with passive voice (2)

• Selected transitive verbs that almost never occur in the passive voice:

agree, guess, have, like, love, quit, reply, try, want, watch, wish, wonder

Case studies on lexico-grammar (3)

Verbs controlling that-clauses versus to-clauses

That-clauses and to-clauses in conversation vs. academic prose

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Conversation Academic prose

Verb + THAT-clause

"Extraposed"THAT-clause

Verb + TO-clause

"Extraposed"TO-clause

Verbs that control that-clauses

• Almost 200 verbs attested in the LSWE Corpus (e.g., feel, realize, hear, assume, suggest, ensure, indicate, imply, propose)

• Only 4 verbs are extremely common in conversation:

think, say, know, guess

Verbs controlling that-clauses in conversation

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THINK SAY KNOW GUESS All otherverbs

Applications of corpus-based research

Language for specific purposes

• Language use is mediated by register

• That is, notions like ‘common’, ‘rare’, and ‘typical’ are usually not meaningful for general English.

• Rather, language features and patterns are typical of particular registers.

• Case study of modal verbs in university registers

Modal verb classes across specialized university registers

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Classroomteaching

Classroommanagement

Textbooks Syllabi, etc.

Possibilitymodals

Necessitymodals

Predictionmodals

Why are there so many prediction modals in class management?

These usually serve (indirect) directive functions:

• I'd like you to review your quizzes

• I would encourage you to add this to your stack of materials

• and then assignment six will be due Tuesday

Students using corpora in the classroom

• The student as researcher: Data-driven learning (e.g., article use) (Johns – e.g., 1991, ELR Journal)

• LSP applications: student concordancing based on a specialized corpus (see, e.g., Donley and Reppen 2001, TESOL Journal; Gavioli and Aston 2001)

• Do students benefit? Yes: enhances vocabulary learning and transfer of word knowledge (Cobb 1997, System; 1999, CALL)

General considerations for curricula, materials development, and lesson

planning

• What language features and grammatical topics to include / exclude

• What vocabulary to include

• Sequencing

• Providing meaningful practice

Using corpus-based materials in the classroom: Issues (1)

• How to adapt corpus-based research findings?

• What kinds of corpus findings are useful for learners?

• How to adapt natural text for classroom use?

• What kinds of gains in proficiency should we expect from corpus-based materials?

Developing corpus-based materials for the classroom: Issues (2)

• How important is frequency / typicality? What about representation of specific target registers?

• Difficulty and learnability of the construction; inter-language sequences – natural order of acquisition.

• To what extent are current practices actually informed by research on acquisition??

• Unreliability of intuitions

Future research directions

• Need for empirical research on the translation of corpus research findings to classroom materials:

– Overall distribution of grammatical features Issues of inclusion and sequencing

– Collocation and lexico-grammatical patterns Issues of word choice and practice within a lesson

– Discourse factors influencing grammatical variation and choice Presentation and practice within a lesson

• What kinds of gains in proficiency, in response to what kinds of materials?