1. Functions of the lecture:
The Engineering Lecture Corpus (ELC)
(PART TWO)
Siân Alsop
Coventry University |

2. What sort of findings 1/3
Pragmatic
functions:
Defining
Housekeeping
Humour
Prayer
Story
Summary
UK and NZ instances of Story (personal / professional narrative) follow a fairly consistent Labovian (1972) structure e.g. CCiv_1001
But some lack the Resolution stage e.g. CCiv_1014
All accord with Martin’s (2008) description of narrative / exemplum within his breakdown of the Story genre
Rely on positioning of self as expert to construct professional identity (Davies and Harré 1990; Dyer and Keller-Cohen 2000)
Absence of technical language
Other (often anonymous) as inexpert
Narrator as expert commentator
Element of self-mockery to balance self-aggrandizement

3. What sort of findings 2/3
A fairly even spread of instances of <Story> across the UK and NZ components
Examples only found in one Malaysian lecture (so far)
A fairly even spread of instances of <Story> across the UK and NZ components
Examples only found in one Malaysian lecture (so far)
All fit with Martin’s (2008) definition of an Exemplum within the story genre
Positioning is a much less significant strategy
Does this suggest that, despite a common language medium, certain parts of Engineering lectures are context- and culture-specific?

4. What sort of findings 3/3 Some hypotheses about Story:
Only used in Malay (not yet fully translated)?
Not considered instrumental?
More comfortable expressing personal experience in first language?
Not considered to be an appropriate register for an academic lecture?
Is the lecture format more rigid than in the UK/NZ – heavier reliance on textbooks and set materials? – no room for storytelling?
Lecturers tend to be recruited directly into academia in Malaysia – do they lack the field experience to inform narratives of personal experience?
Growing need to understand how lectures function – for native and non-native speakers delivering/receiving lectures in English

5. Size matters… but it’s what you do with it that counts
Pedagogy
Size matters… but it’s what you do with it that counts
First pragmatic annotation of it’s kind? (BASE and MICASE)
Authentic examples – more than intuition
Analysis at the micro level
Systematic identification and contextualisation of specific language functions
Publicly available data – access to an occluded genre

6. References
Dyer, J. and Keller-Cohen, D. (2000) 'The Discursive Construction of Professional Self through Narratives of Personal Experience'. Discourse Studies 2 (3),
Harré, R. (1987) ‘The Social Construction of Selves’, in K. Yardley and T. Honess (eds), Self and Identity: Psychosocial Perspectives. New York: Wiley
Martin, J. R. (2008) Negotiating Values: Narrative and Exposition. Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 5 (1) 41-55
Maynard, C. and Leicher, S. (2007) 'Pragmatic Annotation of an Academic Spoken Corpus for Pedagogical Purposes'. in Corpus Linguistics Beyond the Word: Corpus Research from Phrase to Discourse. ed. by Fitzpatrick, E. Amsterdam: Rodophi,
Nesi, H. and Ahmad, U. (2009) 'Pragmatic Annotation in an International Corpus of Engineering Lectures'. American Association for Corpus Linguistics Conference held 8-11/10/09 at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Rühlemann, C. (2010) 'What can a corpus tell us about pragmatics?', in The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. eds. O'Keeffe, A. and McCarthy, M. London: Routledge , pp. 288–301
Simpson-Vlach, R. and Leicher, S. (2006) The MICASE Handbook: A Resource for Users of the Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Young, L. (1994) 'University Lectures – Macro-Structure and Micro-Features'. in Academic Listening. ed. by Flowerdew, J. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Websites
British Academic Spoken English (BASE)
Engineering Lecture Corpus (ELC)
Michigan Corpus Academic Spoken English (MICASE)