An overview of the importance of corpora and the lexical approach to current English teaching.

2. What is a Corpus?
“A collection of texts, written
or spoken, usually stored in a
computer database.”
(“From Corpus to Course Book”, Michael McCarthy, Cambridge
University Press)

3. Some of the Most Famous Corpora

4. Written Language in Corpora:
•Books
•Newspapers
•Websites
•Correspondence
•Signs
•Magazines
Spoken Language in Corpora:
Transcripts of:
•Ordinary conversations
•Phone Calls
•Business Meetings
•Radio Broadcasts
•TV shows
•Movies
•Speeches
•Meetings
•Lectures

5. Corpora Help us to Answer these
Questions:
• What are the most frequent words and phrases in English?
• What are the differences between spoken and written
English?
• What tenses do people use most frequently?
• What prepositions follow particular verbs?
• Which words are used in formal and informal situations?
• How often do people use idiomatic expressions and why?

6. Grammar Usage
• What is the principal use of MUST?

7. Conversational English

8. The Mechanics of Language

9. The Mechanics of Language

10. English for Specific Purposes
• Cambridge Business English Corpus
• Cambridge Legal English Corpus
• Cambridge Financial English Corpus
• Cambridge Academic English Corpus
• CANCODE (Cambridge and Nottingham
Corpus of Discourse in English)

11. Cambridge Learner’s Corpus
• The CLC contains scripts from over 180,000
students
• from around 200 countries
• speaking 138 different first languages

12. Sources of Exam Scripts

14. What specific language do we need to teach at
each CEFR level to help students perform ‘can-
do' statements?
What grammar and vocabulary do students
typically know at each CEFR level?

16. Benefits of Corpus Informed Materials
•Based on actual language usage
•The syllabus is informed by frequency
•The differences between spoken and written
language is emphasized.
•Specialized corpora can be used to address the
needs of special groups of students.
•Errors can be anticipated by making reference to
learner corpora.
•Students are exposed to authentic language without
having to live in the target language environment.

17. Can Teachers Refer to
Corpora??
What about Students?

18. “the meaning of a word is as
much a matter of how the
word combines in context
with another word rather than
any inherent meaning it has
itself.”
“You shall know a word
by the company it
keeps.”

19. The Lexical Approach places
communication of meaning at
the heart of language and
language learning.
This leads to emphasis on the
main carrier of meaning:
vocabulary.
Fluency is based on the
acquisition of a large store of
fixed and semi-fixed
prefabricated items.

20. “Chunks”
•Collocations
•Phrasal Verbs
•Idioms, Catchphrases, Sayings
•Sentence Frames
•Social formulas
•Discourse markers
•Responses or Backchannel Devices
•Monitoring Expressions
•Vague expressions
•Hedging Expressions
•Expressions of Stance

21. Chunking is a natural process, Learners
do it in their native language and so, with
a bit of awareness raising in class, we
can get them to transfer this skill to the
target language. If they concentrate on
learning chunks rather than words –
especially if they are accustomed to
doing this from beginners’ level – they will
become more efficient learners.
“The Company Words Keep” by Paul Davis & Hanna
Kryszewska

22. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching by Jack C Richards
Cambridge University Press

23. “Teacher! What does “way” mean?
“Summer’s still a long way off.”
“No way!”
“Get out of the way!”
“I looked the other way.”
“He didn’t go out of his way to help me.”