This document discusses the use of corpora in English teaching. It defines corpus as a collection of written texts, especially works by a particular author or on a particular subject. Corpora is the plural form. It explains that corpora can be used for quantitative and qualitative analysis, such as determining how frequently a word appears or is used. The document then discusses how corpora can be used in the classroom for activities related to language variation over time/space/genre, grammar, translation, and second language studies. It provides examples of vertical analysis of word frequencies and concordances and horizontal analysis of syntax. Finally, it concludes that corpora have benefits for language awareness but also limitations and should be used as a complementary resource along with traditional

1. CORPUS/ CORPORA
IN
ENGLISH TEACHING
Bruno de Oliveira
Natália Morais
Sarah Oliveira

2. INTRODUCTION
Corpus: A collection of written texts, especially the entire works of
a particular author or a body of writing on a particular subject.
(Oxford Dictionary)
Corpora: plural form of “corpus”.

3. What is it used for?
Quantitative and qualitative analysis.
How many times
does a word appear
in a certain corpus?
How a word appear
in a certain corpus?
How is it used?

4. What is it used for?
- Lexicography
- Grammar
- Stylistics
- Translation
- Forensic linguistics

5. PRACTICE:
How to use corpora for classroom activities?
• Language variation
- Time
- Space
- Genre
• Grammar
• Translation
• Second Language Studies

6. Reading the results
• Vertical analysis: RECURRENCES
• Horizontal analysis: SYNTAX

7. Vertical Analysis

8. It is possible to explore context, concordances,
genre, prepositions according to the results below.
How does the term appears and in which context?
Does this research reaffirms the word cloud?

9. Horizontal Analysis
• Analyses of digital corpora provide syntax comprehension considering not
only established grammar rules, but mainly dynamic and multiple
references.
• Semantics differences according to the word’s reference and position.

10. SHOUT ABOUT
SHOUT FOR
SHOUT TO
SHOUT AT

11. Corpora: efficient tool for second language
works and learning
Second Language Learning:
Practical Exercises
fill the gap; guess the word + dispose
Eg.:
? + fees
? + framework
? + proceedings
? + rights
? + profession
? + services
? + system
? + advice
? + action

12. CPE EXAM

13. Translations: KEY WORD IN CONTEXT
WORD < CONCEPT
CONCEPTS < WORD

14. CONCLUSION
PROS:
- understanding a range of situations and language usage;
- Corpora can inform deductive and inductive approaches to English teaching;
- Corpora --> language awareness;
- helps creating an environment less teacher-centred;
- helps understanding the structure and nature of both written and spoken discourse.
CONS:
- undue prominence to what is simply frequent at the expense of rarer but more
effective or salient expressions;
- need for re-contextualizing examples;
- authenticity may be a problem depending on the way corpora is presented in
the classroom.

15. Corpus as a complementary resource:
Corpus-teacher and corpus-learner interaction do not substitute learner-learner and
teacher-learner interaction.
Multi-modal interactions: Traditional teaching + corpora usage