Corpus consultation for ESP

A review of empirical research

Alex Boulton | Crapel, ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine

Corpus linguistics is commonly concerned with language description, but the tools and techniques can also be used by language learners themselves in what has come to be known as data-driven learning or DDL (Johns & King 1991). This paper reviews 20 studies representing empirical evaluations of corpus use by second or foreign language users within the context of ESP. The wide variety of tools, corpora, course objectives, experiment designs and research questions makes a thorough meta-analysis impossible. However, analysis of the individual papers shows that students can use corpora successfully for ESP and are generally favourable to the approach, whether as a learning tool (especially for vocabulary and lexico-grammar) or as a reference resource (especially for writing). Keywords: data-driven learning; corpus consultation; language learning; empirical evidence; learning outcomes

Published online: 15 May 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.52.11bou

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Cited by 12 other publications

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Chen, Meilin & John Flowerdew

2018. A critical review of research and practice in data-driven learning (DDL) in the academic writing classroom. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 23:3 ► pp. 335 ff.

Flowerdew, Lynne

2015. In Multiple Affordances of Language Corpora for Data-driven Learning [Studies in Corpus Linguistics, 69], ► pp. 15 ff.

Gilmore, Alex

2015. Research into practice: The influence of discourse studies on language descriptions and task design in published ELT materials. Language Teaching 48:4 ► pp. 506 ff.

Hirata, Yoko

2020. In Innovating Education in Technology-Supported Environments [Education Innovation Series, ], ► pp. 151 ff.

Johnson, Jane Helen

2017. In New developments in ESP teaching and learning research, ► pp. 133 ff.

Marín, María José & Piedad Fernández

2015. The Influence of Cognates on the Acquisition of Legal Terminology: Help or Hindrance? A Corpus-based Study. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 198 ► pp. 320 ff.

O'Keeffe, Anne

2021. Data-driven learning – a call for a broader research gaze. Language Teaching 54:2 ► pp. 259 ff.

Tono, Yukio, Yoshiho Satake & Aika Miura

2014. The effects of using corpora on revision tasks in L2 writing with coded error feedback. ReCALL 26:2 ► pp. 147 ff.

Yunus, Kamariah

2017. Corpus Linguistics: Pedagogic Application in the 21st Century. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development 6:3

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