239765 Using Corpora in the EFL Classroom (alt. to Teaching English Language) (S) (SoSe 2014)

What is a language corpus? If you are not sure about the answer to this question, you belong to the target group of this course, which aims to provide future teachers in all levels of secondary education with some elementary knowledge about corpora and their use in language learning and teaching.

While the use of corpora in the language classroom is mainly (if not exclusively) suitable for more advanced learners (upper secondary level), a corpus is at the same time an immensely rich source of reference regarding language usage – just like a giant thesaurus – and thus also invaluable for teachers themselves, both non-native and native speakers.

You will therefore be generally introduced to different digital corpora and their search tools on the one hand and explore their potential as learning materials on the other hand. You will design classroom activities based on, or involving the use of, a corpus, and you will create a learner corpus from your own and your fellow students' writings, which you will then analyse in comparison with native speaker corpora.

All sessions will take place in a computer room, but you may be required to bring your own laptop to a few sessions (or share one with a partner).