CORPUS

From the Learner Corpus to Learner Autonomy at First Certificate

Guy Brook-Hart

XIII NATIONAL FENAPIUPE CONGRESS

24th September 2009

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 125,000 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…


Grammar errors

•I think the better thing we have to do

is...

•Laura was more calm and a little bit

frightened.


Lexical errors

• …a fiesta with typical Spanish

clothes…

A fiesta with typical Spanish clothes?

A fiesta with traditional Spanish clothes.


Lexical errors

• …a fiesta with typical Spanish

clothes…

• I hope your holiday was funny.


Collocation errors

• I felt free to use the phone and I did

some phone calls home.

• It was an important day and I had

to hold a speech in front of

international visitors.


Spelling errors

• confortable

• belive

• preffer

• accomodation

• excelent


Spelling errors

• accomodation

• confortable

• belive

• excelent

• preffer


Spelling errors - confusions with other words:

•thing – think

•exiting – exciting

Spelling errors - confusions with American spellings:

• center – centre

• color – colour


Frequency of errors

What information can it give?Origin of error by language(s)

Which of these sentences was written by a Spanish speaker?

• I will be able to control the children when they swim.

• We needed to control all the microfons before the performance.

• The immigration officer started controlling us.

• I use the internet to book a holiday, to buy a book or to control my bank account

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 have problems with, 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 exams.

• 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.


• By making students aware of problem areas so

that they look for / avoid these particular errors in

their productive work.



• 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.



• Students are told this is a problem area.

• They work on a task which contains language

used by candidates in the exam.


• 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.


• Dish, food and meal

– …for example the beef food is really tasty and

looks very healthy

– Is there any vegetarian meal or only traditional

cooking?

– You will have free food breakfast, lunch and

dinner.

U4


Extracts from the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary


• 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?

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 error-

correcting habit

• by making students more self-aware and

therefore more responsible.

../IATEFL 2008/Grammar - Common mistakes.doc

Mistake Details Correction

cancelling Should use the noun when it

exists, not verb +-ing

cancellation

The first bad

impression our guests

had…

The collocation is ‘make a

bad impression on sby’.

The first bad

impression made on

our guests was…

to host Host means ‘to introduce

guests or performers on a

radio or television show or

programme´.

invite

kids ‘Kids’ is informal children

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.

../IATEFL 2008/You have had a class discussion on things you can do to protect the environment.doc

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

published in April 2009.

www.cambridge.org/elt/

[email protected]

Documents

CORPUS