Article published In:
Register in L1 and L2 Language DevelopmentEdited by Bethany Gray and Jesse Egbert
[Register Studies 3:2] 2021
► pp. 279–298
Edited by Bethany Gray and Jesse Egbert
[Register Studies 3:2] 2021
► pp. 279–298
Exploring register with The Prime Machine
Promoting register awareness through a module for English majors at a Sino-British university in China
Corpus approaches underpin a range of postgraduate studies and professional work in language, linguistics, translation and beyond. Awareness of the influences of contextual features on language choice is important for many activities: exploring new text varieties; finding relationships between social factors and language patterning; considering choices for post-editing machine translation; and understanding the very nature of language. Work on register relies on corpus methods, but more support and direction could be offered to help undergraduates gain earlier insights into the power of such corpus analysis. This paper introduces some ways register differences can be revealed through The Prime Machine corpus tool (Jeaco 2017a) and describes the design of a practically-oriented undergraduate module which uses this concordancer. Software features include the organization of texts and presentation of source information for readymade corpora, and methods which can be used to reveal useful starting points for register analysis of do-it-yourself corpora.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Register
- 2.2Data Driven Learning
- 2.3Software for register analysis
- 3. tPM’s readymade corpora
- 4. tPM tools for DIY corpora
- 5.Introducing register to undergraduates using tPM
- 5.1Teaching context
- 5.2Course outline
- 5.3Reflections on trouble-spots and solutions
- 6.Conclusion
-
References
References
Anthony, L.
Berber Sardinha, T.
(2017) Lexical Priming and Register Variation. In M. Pace-Sigge & K. J. Patterson (Eds.), Lexical Priming: Applications and Advances (pp. 189–229). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 
Bernardini, S.
(2004) Corpora in the classroom: An overview and some reflections on future developments. In J. M. Sinclair (Ed.), How to Use Corpora in Language Teaching (pp. 15–36). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Biber, D.
(1991) Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
(2012) Register as a Predictor of Linguistic Variation. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory,
8
(1), 9–37.
Biber, D., & Conrad, S. M.
(2009) Register, Genre, and Style. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
BNC Consortium
(2007) The British National Corpus (Version 3 BNC XML ed.): Oxford University Computing Services on behalf of the BNC Consortium. URL: [URL]
Boulton, A., & Cobb, T.
(2017) Corpus Use in Language Learning: A Meta-Analysis. Language Learning,
67
(2), 348–393.
Brezina, V., McEnery, T., & Wattam, S.
(2015) Collocations in context: A new perspective on collocation networks. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics,
20
(2), 139–173.
Charles, M.
(2012) ‘Proper vocabulary and juicy collocations’: EAP students evaluate do-it-yourself corpus-building. English for Specific Purposes,
31
1, 93–102.
Cheng, W., Warren, M., & Xu, X.-F.
(2003) The language learner as language researcher: putting corpus linguistics on the timetable. System,
31
(2), 173–186.
Cobb, T.
Conrad, S.
(2019) Register in English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes. Register Studies,
1
(1), 168–198.
Coxhead, A.
(2000) A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly,
34
(2), 213–238.
Davies, M.
(2008–) The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): 600 million words, 1990-present. Retrieved 25 February, 2020, from [URL]
(2009) The 385+ million word Corpus of Contemporary American English (1990–2008+): Design, architecture, and linguistic insights. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics,
14
(2), 159–190.
Ferguson, C.
(1983) Sports announcer talk: Syntactic aspects of register variation. Language in Society,
12
(2), 153–172.
Fligelstone, S.
(1993) Some reflections on the question of teaching, from a corpus linguistics perspective. ICAME,
17
1, 97–109.
Flowerdew, L.
(2015) Data-driven learning and language learning theories: Whither the twain shall meet. In A. Leńko-Szymańska & A. Boulton (Eds.), Multiple Affordances of Language Corpora for Data-driven Learning. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hardie, A.
(2012) CQPweb: Combining Power, Flexibility and Usability in a Corpus Analysis Tool. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics,
17
(3), 380–409.
Hoey, M.
(2005) Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language. London: Routledge.
Jeaco, S.
(2017a) Concordancing Lexical Primings: The rationale and design of a user-friendly corpus tool for English language teaching and self-tutoring based on the Lexical Priming theory of language. In M. Pace-Sigge & K. J. Patterson (Eds.), Lexical Priming: Applications and Advances (pp. 273–296). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
(2017b) Helping Language Learners Put Concordance Data in Context: Concordance Cards in The Prime Machine. International Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching,
7
(2), 22–39.
(2020a) Calculating and Displaying Key Labels: The texts, sections, authors and neighbourhoods where words and collocations are likely to be prominent. Corpora,
15
(2).
(2020b) DIY needs analysis and specific text types: Using The Prime Machine to explore vocabulary in readymade and homemade English corpora. In M. Dodigovic & M. P. Agustín-Llach (Eds.), Vocabulary in Curriculum Planning: Needs, Strategies and Tools: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johns, T.
(1991) Should you be persuaded: Two samples of data-driven learning materials. In T. Johns & P. King (Eds.), Classroom Concordancing (Vol. 41, pp. 1–13). Birmingham: Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham.
Kilgarriff, A., Rychly, P., Smrz, P., & Tugwell, D.
(2004) The Sketch Engine. Paper presented at the 2003 International Conference on Natural Language Processing and Knowledge Engineering, Beijing.
Kreyer, R.
(2008) Corpora in the classroom and beyond. In B. Barber & F. Zhang (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Computer-Enhanced Language Acquisition and Learning (pp. 422–437).
Lee, D. Y. W.
(2001) Genres, registers, text types, domains, and styles: Clarifying the concepts and navigating a path through the BNC jungle. Language Learning and Technology,
5
(3), 37–72.
Mair, C.
(2002) Empowering non-native speakers: the hidden surplus value of corpora in Continental English departments. In B. Kettemann, G. Marko & T. McEnery (Eds.), Teaching and Learning by Doing Corpus Analysis (pp. 119–130). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Nini, A.
(2019) The Multi-Dimensional Analysis Tagger. In T. Berber Sardinha & M. Veirano Pinto (Eds.), Multi-Dimensional Analysis: Research Methods and Current Issues (pp. 67–94). London; New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Scott, M.
(2008) Developing WordSmith. International Journal of English Studies,
8
(1), 95–106.
(2020) WordSmith Tools (Version 8). Oxford: Oxford University Press.