From the Learner Corpus to Learner
Autonomy at First Certificate
Guy Brook-Hart
Cambridge University Press
Prague, 11th October 2008
In this workshop we will look at
• what the Cambridge Learner Corpus (CLC) is
• what information it can give
• how it can be used in the classroom
• how it can be used in course design
• how it can be used to encourage learner autonomy.
Examples will be taken from
Complete First Certificate (CUP 2008)
What is the Cambridge Learner Corpus
(CLC)?
More than 100,000 scripts from Cambridge ESOL Writing
Papers allowing analysis of errors according to
• level
• L1
• type of error.
Examples of real student mistakes.
What is the Cambridge Learner Corpus
(CLC)?
Exclusive to
• Cambridge ESOL
• Cambridge University Press
What information can it give?
Grammar errors
• Ana was dating Bob, that was Christine's
boyfriend…
• I am a 15 year old girl that speaks the
English language fluently…
What information can it give?
Grammar errors
•I think the better thing we have to do
is...
•Laura was more calm and a little bit
frightened.
What information can it give?
Lexical errors
• …a fiesta with typical Spanish
clothes…
• I hope your holiday was funny.
What information can it give?
Collocation errors
• I did the same mistake than you.
• I felt free to use the phone and I did
some phone calls home.
What information can it give?
Collocation errors
• It was an important day and I had to
hold a speech in front of international
visitors.
• I’ll answer all the questions that you
made me in your last letter.
What information can it give?
Spelling errors
• confortable
• belive
• preffer
• accomodation
• excelent
What information can it give?
Spelling errors
• accomodation
• confortable
• belive
• excelent
• preffer
What information can it give?
Spelling errors - confusions with other
words:
•thing – think
•exiting – exciting
Spelling errors - confusions with American
spellings:
• center – centre
• color – colour
What information can it give?
Frequency of errors
What information can it give?
Origin of error by language(s)
• I will be able to control the children when they
swim. Greek
• We needed to control all the microfons before the
performance. Spanish
• The immigration officer started controlling us.
Arabic
• I use the internet to book a holiday, to buy a book
or to control my bank account. Italian
How can the CLC influence FCE course
design?
• Corpus information can
– influence what areas of grammar we
focus on
– highlight what students really find difficult,
not what we imagine they find difficult
– supply material for corpus-based
exercises on error analysis and
correction.
How can the CLC influence FCE course
design?
• Can instead of could in conditionals (including polite
requests) and other hypothetical situations
It's a mountain bike and if you can see it, I'm sure that
you'd like it.
• Can instead of could for past situations
In contrast to this, I can swim when I was six.
• confusion between when to use could/can and was/will
be able to for past/future situations
I had a car so we could make a number of tours…
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
• By ensuring that grammar explanations cover
problem areas, not just areas we think will be
tested in the exam.
• By designing exercises which cover those areas
• By including exercises which encourage students
to think about the mistakes they make and to think
critically about their productive use of language.
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
• By making students aware of problem areas so
that they look for / avoid these particular errors in
their productive work.
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
• Examples of the language to be focused on
may be drawn from a reading or listening text.
– Students see correct use of language in an
authentic context.
– They draw conclusions from the use of
language in the context.
– They check their conclusions by studying
grammar rules.
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
• Students are told this is a problem area.
• They work on a task which contains language
used by candidates in the exam.
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
How can the CLC be used in the
classroom?
• The exercise which follows is closer to how
this language area will be directly tested in
the exam.
• There may be further opportunity for freer,
more productive practice.
How can the CLC influence FCE course
design?
• Corpus information can
– pinpoint lexical problems and determine
what lexis is worked on in the course
– focus on students’ problem areas
– provide a lexical syllabus based on
research, not supposition.
How can the CLC influence FCE course
design?
• Dish, food and meal
– …for example the beef food is really tasty and
looks very healthy
– Is there any vegetarian meal or only tradational
cooking?
– You will have free food breakfast, lunch and
dinner.
U4
How can the CLC influence FCE course
design?
Extracts from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
How can the CLC influence FCE course
design?
• Clear definitions can be used to sort out
students’ confusions.
• Students can work out for themselves
why a word is wrong / which word would
be the right choice.
How can dictionary work help?
•
•
•
•
•
using definitions
using examples
work on common learner errors
work on collocations
getting students to think about, analyse and
understand correct usage
• going from a formal explanation to an
exercise.
How can dictionary work help?
How can dictionary work help?
Extracts from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
How does error analysis and correction
help students?
• by building up systematic awareness of
errors
• by creating a error-finding and errorcorrecting habits
• by making students more self-aware and
therefore more responsible.
What else can we do in class apart from
the exercises in the book?
Work on correcting an answer to a writing task.
• Take in an answer from another class.
• Underline selected errors and indicate whether
students should look in the dictionary or Student’s
Book to correct them.
• Students note errors and corrections in their
notebooks
• Students work on rephrasing.
What else can we do in class apart from
the exercises in the book?
• students read sample answer from Teacher’s Book
• finally, students correct and revise their own
answers to the tasks based on this session before
handing them in.
Complete First Certificate (CUP 2008)
• Is Corpus-informed throughout
Complete First Certificate Student’s
Book
• has been written specifically for the new FCE exam
(December 2008)
• is aimed at students aged 16 - 18 and young adults
has 16 units containing
• skills for one part of each FCE paper (Reading,
Writing, Use of English, Listening and Speaking)
• Corpus-informed vocabulary and grammar input.
Complete First Certificate Student’s
Book has
•
•
•
•
a 16-page Grammar reference section
an 8-page Writing reference section
a 4-page Speaking reference section
a complete model exam for the new FCE
exam, supplied by Cambridge ESOL
• a CD-ROM for self-study.
Other components
• A Teacher’s Book with step-by-step
teaching notes, photocopiable activities,
progress tests, photocopiable word lists,
answer keys and recording scripts.
• 3 audio CDs including recordings for the
model Listening Paper supplied by
Cambridge ESOL.
• A Workbook with audio CD (authors
Barbara Thomas and Amanda Thomas).
Complete CAE by Guy Brook-Hart and
Simon Haines
appearing next year.
guybrookhart@gmail.com