Corpus Linguistics and ESP
- is there a link?
Mike Scott
University of Liverpool
10 October 2005
XIX Seminário Nacional de Inglês
Instrumental
PUC-SP
Theme
• The rapidly-developing field of Corpus
Linguistics (CL) and its potential for
informing ESP teachers, researchers and
students.
Issues and Questions
• What is available now in CL?
• Is the traffic one-way or can ESP inform
CL too? “Atuação recíproca” (Celani
10.10.2005, 10:30)
• Does CL only help us understand the
characteristics of genres or can it help us
get at topics such as how learners might
cope with it, e.g. via key words?
Structure for Today
• Characteristics of CL
• Characteristics of ESP
• Linkages
• Studies involving both
• Directions for us to advance in
Characteristics of CL
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Data-driven
Empirical
… scornful of intuition
Generating theory
… but not driven by theory
Discovery-oriented
Software/Tool-oriented
Dependent on the corpora
Characteristics of CL (2)
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European, especially Scandinavia, UK
Bolsões e.g. in Brazil, Japan, USA
… but hardly widespread!
Middle-class middle-aged white males
Technology & gadgets
Anoraks and nerds
Uncertain status as a discipline
Innovative in methodology
Focus on “the language”
Characteristics of ESP
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Forced upon us not by theory …
…but by globalisation
Backs to the wall …
… untrained teachers told to do it …
so an origin of desperation
Students unhappy with “Mary gave the
elephant a bun” …
• …and the Jones family picnic in Yosemite.
Characteristics of ESP (2)
• Still uncertain status as a profession
• Challenging established practice
–
–
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use of L1
mono-skill approach
no textbook
ELT methods (audio-lingualism, PPP, TBL etc.) not
necessarily appropriate
– student knows more than teacher
– authentic text
• Innovative in methodology
Common factors
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•
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innovative methodology
interest in learning
by examining data
which is unfiltered
Studies
• Not many existing papers
Paper 1
• Lynne Flowerdew, 1998, “Corpus
Linguistic Techniques applied to
Textlinguistics”. System 26, 541-552
• Exploration v. exploitation of corpora
• Argues for systemics, genre- and
discourse-analysis, instead of the corpus
as evidence for “the language”
Paper 2
• ESP World
(2003)
• Maria José Pereira de Oliveira (Agrarian
School in Santarém, Portugal), “Corpus
Linguistics in the teaching of ESP and
Literary Studies”
• General enthusiasm for corpus methods
Paper 3
• Alejandro Curado Fuentes
Patricia Edwards Rokowski
University of Extremadura ,“Using Corpus
Resources as Complementary Task
Material in ESP” (2003)
• Advice on corpus construction
• Some exercise-types & examples
Paper 3 cont. Exercise-types
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•
GUESS THE COLLOCATE(S):____________________
+ LAW /
+ IMAGE
+ GOVERNANCE
+ REPORT
+ SECTOR
•
MATCH CONSTRUCTIONS WITH THE TEXT TYPES IN WHICH YOU SEE
THEY ARE COMMON:
In the current example
I think it's gonna be …-This paper describes-It is used to + infinitive
REPORT
TEXTBOOK
REVIEW
E-DISCUSSION
•
Paper 4
• Pascual Pérez-Paredes, Universidad de Murcia,
Spain (2003), “Small corpora as assisting tools
in the teaching of English news language: A
preliminary tokens-based examination of
Michael Swan’s Practical English Usage news
language wordlist”
• Finds that Swan’s word list contains words not
common in corpora
• Concludes that students need access to various
corpora.
Paper 5
• Pernilla Danielsson & Michaela Mahlberg,
2003, “There is more to knowing a
language than knowing its words:
Using parallel corpora in the bilingual
classroom”
• Discusses discovery learning using
parallel corpora (English & Swedish)
• Ways of identifying translation/meaning
alternatives using ParaConc’s “hotwords”
Paper 6
• Lynne Flowerdew, 2005, “An integration of corpus-based
and genre-based approaches to text aanalysis in
EAP/ESP: countering criticisms against corpus-based
methodologies. English for Specific Purposes, Vol. 24,
321-332.
• Shows how ESP-originated rhetorical structures
(Swalesian moves) can be identified using corpora
• Resists the attack that CL methods are too “bottom-up”
• Reviews studies showing that some structures/MWUs
are over-used by students & relates this to their ESP
classes.
Paper 7
• Olga Mudraya (2005 in press) “Engineering
English: A lexical frequency instructional model”.
English for Specific Purposes.
• Considers technical and especially sub-technical
vocabulary
• Builds 9,000 type list of use to Thai Engineering
students
• Considers consistency (range)
• Concordance activities to identify
collocational/colligational patterns
Keywords as a link?
• Text focus
• Aboutness
• Gist
Activities (1)
• supply KWs and predict/guess at the
text
 rationale: boosts confidence & reduces
tension of reading the text; variant on old
un-pedagogical supplying of a glossary
prior to reading
Activities (2)
• sort KWs into categories (people, places,
processes etc.)
 rationale: leads to Critical Reading: what was
said and what was downplayed and what
omitted
Activities (3)
• Predict which other text-types would
typically contain those KWs
 rationale: focus on notion of the colony, texttypes, intertextuality
Activities (4)
• KWs as a basis for writing tasks
 rationale: students start from their own
KWs and generate a text; reduces tension
of writing a well-formed text, provides a
basis for brain-storming
Activities (5)
• KWs and pronunciation
 rationale: helps focus the ESP student’s
mind on the essential as opposed to hoping
s/he’ll pronounce everything correctly
Activities (6)
• KWs as a basis for oral presentations
 rationale: helps prepare the audience, prior to or
immediately following outline summary of the
presentation; helps focus the presenter’s mind
towards the audience (away from the teacher) and
increase likelihood of awareness of difficulties
audience might face, as well as focus on the
essential as opposed to incidental
Activities (6)
• Read/listen and note down the KWs
 rationale: preparation for note-taking but
less stressful
Conclusions
• CL and ESP have some common aspects
–
–
–
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innovative methodology
interest in learning
by examining data
which is unfiltered
• Keywords may represent a means of focussing
on the text and what it is about.
• Although KWs can be found and worked on in
ESP without using CL, CL does offer a useful
way of finding & handling KWs.
Corpus Linguistics
English for Specific
Purposes
Keywords