PALC 2005 Łódź, Poland My Concordancer Tailor-made software for language learners and teachers Yvonne Breyer

Agenda Applying corpus linguistics Core elements of corpus investigation Concordancers & the language classroom Proposal: My Concordancer

Evidence for continuing interest in Corpora in LL & LT Great interest at conferences Workshops for in-service teachers Growing body of literature

The Gap Research x Hier kann man die Zitate Classroom

x Christopher Tribble, 2000 Joybrato Mukherjee, 2004 “In reality, the influence of applied corpus-linguistic research on the actual practice of English language teaching is still relatively limited.” “[D]espite the best efforts of people like Tim Johns, Guy Aston, John Flowerdew and myself [Christopher Tribble] not many teachers seem to be using corpora in their classrooms.”

Key ingredients for success Other factors: Training for pre-service teachers Availability of relevant corpora Functionality of software Time constraints (curriculum, work load) IT competence & infrastructure Zitate die entweder Prognosen oder Statements über das Potential von Corpora in Language Learner machen.

Core Elements Concordance Software Corpus User

Concordancing in the classroom Teacher controlled applications Learner-centred activities Curriculum decisions Test correction Material development Hands-on concordancing Self-correction Serendipity learning

Pedagogical Implications Core Elements: Corpus Representativity Authenticity Concordance Software Corpus User Pedagogical Implications Availability

Training Learners to teach Core Elements: User Training Learners Concordance Software Training Teachers Corpus User Training Learners to teach

Core Elements: Software Concordance Software Consider requirements for learners & teachers In-/Output functions Concordance Software Compatible + Corpus User On-screen editing Affordable User-friendly Interface +

Intuitive & user-friendly interface Less formal training required Software: User-friendly Intuitive & user-friendly interface Familiar controls = The significance of learner training is important and this has been recognised. Less formal training required Less frustration More autonomy

Software: User-friendly 1. 2. Similar comparisons can be made with features such as the right click context menu. This should include familiar features such as cut, copy etc. 3.

Software: User-friendly Proposal: Contemporary design Familiar controls Less training required More intuitive handling

Software: On-screen editing Wishlist: Add comments Search for words in context Highlight words in context

Software: On-screen editing 1. Add comments Proposal

Software: On-screen editing 2. Proposal Search context

Software: In-/Output 3. Proposal In-/Output

Software: In-/Output 3. In-/Output Input formats: html; htm txt doc

Planned release of beta version My Concordancer in May/June 2005. Work in Progress 20. April 2005: www.datadrivenlearning.net online 20 April – 20 July 2005: Seminar at Essen-Duisburg University 25 April – 25 May 2005: National Survey Planned release of beta version My Concordancer in May/June 2005.

Thank you! www.corpus-linguistics.net www.datadrivenlearning.net

Training O’Keefe & Farr, 2003 Learner training (Kennedy/Miceli 2001; Gavioli 2001) Training learners to teach with corpora Integrating corpus training into pre-service teacher education “If corpus applications and corpus findings are to reach the right audience (i.e., language learners), they must be integrated at the very core of teacher education courses.” The significance of learner training is important and this has been recognised.

John Flowerdew, 1997 Geoffrey Leech, 1997 Tim Johns, 1988 “[T]he concordancer is, I believe, one of the most powerful tools that we can offer the language learner.” “[T]here are signs that concordancing has reached the stage where it is about to have a significant impact on the organization and practice of language teaching.” “There is every reason to believe that language corpora will have a growing importance in teaching.”