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Using Language Corpora in Initial Teacher Education: Pedagogic Issues and Practical Applications
Author(s) -
O'KEEFFE ANNE,
FARR FIONA
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
tesol quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.737
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1545-7249
pISSN - 0039-8322
DOI - 10.2307/3588397
Subject(s) - mathematics education , linguistics , pedagogy , language teacher , sociology , computer science , psychology , language education , philosophy
The vast increase in the number of corpus‐based materials, such as dictionaries and grammars, attests to the importance of corpus linguistics to English language description. Developments are also evident in the use of corpora in the classroom in data‐driven learning (Johns, 1991). These rapid developments in the use of language‐related technology have not been matched by updated practices in teacher education. This article makes a case for the inclusion of corpus linguistics in initial language teacher education to enhance teachers' research skills and language awareness. The authors offer examples of corpus‐based tasks for increasing students' understanding of word classes, register‐related grammatical choices, and socioculturally conditioned grammatical choices. Practical considerations for the integration of language corpora in a teacher education program are outlined.