This document discusses the British Academic Written English (BAWE) corpus and resources available for analyzing it. It provides an overview of the BAWE corpus, describing the genres of writing it contains and interfaces like FLAX, Sketch Engine, and Word Tree that allow searching and analyzing the corpus. It also discusses how the BAWE corpus can help understand academic genres and provide models of student academic writing for English for Academic Purposes teaching and learning.
From the blog TOETOE (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ): Technology for Open English - Toying with Open E-resources http://www.alannahfitzgerald.org/confucian-dynamism-in-the-chinese-elt-context/
Resources at the Interface of Openness for Academic EnglishAlannah Fitzgerald
Presentation given at the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) Research Track at the OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Conference 2014 in Ljubljana, Slovenia on April 24, 2014.
From the blog TOETOE (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ): Technology for Open English - Toying with Open E-resources http://www.alannahfitzgerald.org/confucian-dynamism-in-the-chinese-elt-context/
Resources at the Interface of Openness for Academic EnglishAlannah Fitzgerald
Presentation given at the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) Research Track at the OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Conference 2014 in Ljubljana, Slovenia on April 24, 2014.
FLAX Weaving with Oxford Open Educational Resources: Open Practices for Engli...Alannah Fitzgerald
Workshop delivered at the e-Learning Symposium on the 25th of January, 2013 with the Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies at the University of Southampton.
Love is a stranger in an open car to tempt you in and drive you far away... t...Alannah Fitzgerald
From the blog TOETOE (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ): Technology for Open English - Toying with Open E-resources http://www.alannahfitzgerald.org/love-is-a-stranger-in-an-open-car-who-tempts-you-in-and-drives-you-far-away/
FLAX: Flexible Language Acquisition with Open Data-Driven LearningAlannah Fitzgerald
Presented at the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) in Riva del Garda, Trentino, Italy as part of the Vici LinkedUp Challenge for tools and demos that use open data for educational purposes on October 20th, 2014.
eMargin Presentation given to Skills Funding AgencyRDUES
Presentation on the eMargin collaborative text annotation tool given to the Skills Funding Agency. Also contains description of AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship project, working with A Level English Language students.
Sharing an Open Methodology for Building Domain-specific Corpora for EAP Alannah Fitzgerald
Presented at the EAP and Corpora BALEAP Professional Issues Meeting in Coventry, UK on June 21st 2014. Research and Development Collaboration with the FLAX Language Project (University of Waikato), The Open Educational Resources Research Hub (The UK Open University) and the Language Centre at Queen Mary University of London (with Martin Barge, William Tweddle and Saima Sherazi).
Bridging Informal MOOCs & Formal English for Academic Purposes Programmes wit...Alannah Fitzgerald
Presented at the Teaching and Language Corpora (TaLC) Conference in Lancaster on July 23, 2014. Based on collaborative work with the FLAX Language Project (Shaoqun Wu and Ian Witten) and the Language Centre at Queen Mary University of London (Martin Barge, William Tweddle, Saima Sherazi).
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS ON DEVELOPING AN ARABIC SENTIMENT LEXICONijnlc
The availability of lexical resources is huge to accelerate and simplify the sentiment analysis in English. In Arabic, there are few resources and these resources are not comprehensive. Most of the current research efforts for constructing Arabic Sentiment Lexicon (ASL) depend on a large number of lexical entities. However, the coverage of all Arabic sentiment expressions can be applied using refined regular expressions rather than a large number of lexical entities. This paper presents an ASL that more comprehensive than the existing lexicons, for covering many expressions with different dialects including Franco-Arabic, and in the same time more compact. Also, this paper shows how to integrate different lexicons and to refine them. To enrich lexical entries with very robust morphological syntactical information, regular expressions, the weight of sentiment polarity and n-gram terms have been augmented to each
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS ON DEVELOPING AN ARABIC SENTIMENT LEXICONkevig
The availability of lexical resources is huge to accelerate and simplify the sentiment analysis in English. In
Arabic, there are few resources and these resources are not comprehensive. Most of the current research
efforts for constructing Arabic Sentiment Lexicon (ASL) depend on a large number of lexical entities.
However, the coverage of all Arabic sentiment expressions can be applied using refined regular
expressions rather than a large number of lexical entities. This paper presents an ASL that more
comprehensive than the existing lexicons, for covering many expressions with different dialects including
Franco-Arabic, and in the same time more compact. Also, this paper shows how to integrate different
lexicons and to refine them. To enrich lexical entries with very robust morphological syntactical
information, regular expressions, the weight of sentiment polarity and n-gram terms have been augmented
to each
Presented at the Beyond Books Conference http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/events/beyond2012/ hosted by Oxford University Computing Services on June 12, 2012.
The Role of Electronic Dictionary in Learning Processijtsrd
Dictionary is the treasure house of any language. Language learning by acquiring language skills is assuming more important in learning. If one could acquire listening skills, one could achieve other skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening skill can be developed by using technical gadgets. In this new scenario using technical gadgets such as e library, language laboratory and e dictionary to acquire knowledge in language felt easy. But learners are still frustrating in learning a language. If learners are attracted by teaching methodology, they will acquire the knowledge in language easily. Learners must be motivated to use technological gadgets to learn language and can be given opportunity to develop their vocabulary by using electronic dictionary. The Modernity in language learning depends on introducing electronic medium for the learners to get accuracy, aptness and to save their time. This paper emphasizes on using electronic dictionary to learn a language. V. Selvakumar | Dr. A. Munian "The Role of Electronic Dictionary in Learning Process" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-5 , August 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd50687.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/50687/the-role-of-electronic-dictionary-in-learning-process/v-selvakumar
FLAX Weaving with Oxford Open Educational Resources: Open Practices for Engli...Alannah Fitzgerald
Workshop delivered at the e-Learning Symposium on the 25th of January, 2013 with the Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies at the University of Southampton.
Love is a stranger in an open car to tempt you in and drive you far away... t...Alannah Fitzgerald
From the blog TOETOE (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ): Technology for Open English - Toying with Open E-resources http://www.alannahfitzgerald.org/love-is-a-stranger-in-an-open-car-who-tempts-you-in-and-drives-you-far-away/
FLAX: Flexible Language Acquisition with Open Data-Driven LearningAlannah Fitzgerald
Presented at the International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC) in Riva del Garda, Trentino, Italy as part of the Vici LinkedUp Challenge for tools and demos that use open data for educational purposes on October 20th, 2014.
eMargin Presentation given to Skills Funding AgencyRDUES
Presentation on the eMargin collaborative text annotation tool given to the Skills Funding Agency. Also contains description of AHRC Knowledge Transfer Fellowship project, working with A Level English Language students.
Sharing an Open Methodology for Building Domain-specific Corpora for EAP Alannah Fitzgerald
Presented at the EAP and Corpora BALEAP Professional Issues Meeting in Coventry, UK on June 21st 2014. Research and Development Collaboration with the FLAX Language Project (University of Waikato), The Open Educational Resources Research Hub (The UK Open University) and the Language Centre at Queen Mary University of London (with Martin Barge, William Tweddle and Saima Sherazi).
Bridging Informal MOOCs & Formal English for Academic Purposes Programmes wit...Alannah Fitzgerald
Presented at the Teaching and Language Corpora (TaLC) Conference in Lancaster on July 23, 2014. Based on collaborative work with the FLAX Language Project (Shaoqun Wu and Ian Witten) and the Language Centre at Queen Mary University of London (Martin Barge, William Tweddle, Saima Sherazi).
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS ON DEVELOPING AN ARABIC SENTIMENT LEXICONijnlc
The availability of lexical resources is huge to accelerate and simplify the sentiment analysis in English. In Arabic, there are few resources and these resources are not comprehensive. Most of the current research efforts for constructing Arabic Sentiment Lexicon (ASL) depend on a large number of lexical entities. However, the coverage of all Arabic sentiment expressions can be applied using refined regular expressions rather than a large number of lexical entities. This paper presents an ASL that more comprehensive than the existing lexicons, for covering many expressions with different dialects including Franco-Arabic, and in the same time more compact. Also, this paper shows how to integrate different lexicons and to refine them. To enrich lexical entries with very robust morphological syntactical information, regular expressions, the weight of sentiment polarity and n-gram terms have been augmented to each
FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS ON DEVELOPING AN ARABIC SENTIMENT LEXICONkevig
The availability of lexical resources is huge to accelerate and simplify the sentiment analysis in English. In
Arabic, there are few resources and these resources are not comprehensive. Most of the current research
efforts for constructing Arabic Sentiment Lexicon (ASL) depend on a large number of lexical entities.
However, the coverage of all Arabic sentiment expressions can be applied using refined regular
expressions rather than a large number of lexical entities. This paper presents an ASL that more
comprehensive than the existing lexicons, for covering many expressions with different dialects including
Franco-Arabic, and in the same time more compact. Also, this paper shows how to integrate different
lexicons and to refine them. To enrich lexical entries with very robust morphological syntactical
information, regular expressions, the weight of sentiment polarity and n-gram terms have been augmented
to each
Presented at the Beyond Books Conference http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/events/beyond2012/ hosted by Oxford University Computing Services on June 12, 2012.
The Role of Electronic Dictionary in Learning Processijtsrd
Dictionary is the treasure house of any language. Language learning by acquiring language skills is assuming more important in learning. If one could acquire listening skills, one could achieve other skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. Listening skill can be developed by using technical gadgets. In this new scenario using technical gadgets such as e library, language laboratory and e dictionary to acquire knowledge in language felt easy. But learners are still frustrating in learning a language. If learners are attracted by teaching methodology, they will acquire the knowledge in language easily. Learners must be motivated to use technological gadgets to learn language and can be given opportunity to develop their vocabulary by using electronic dictionary. The Modernity in language learning depends on introducing electronic medium for the learners to get accuracy, aptness and to save their time. This paper emphasizes on using electronic dictionary to learn a language. V. Selvakumar | Dr. A. Munian "The Role of Electronic Dictionary in Learning Process" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-6 | Issue-5 , August 2022, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd50687.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/humanities-and-the-arts/other/50687/the-role-of-electronic-dictionary-in-learning-process/v-selvakumar
EThOS for EAP: The PhD Abstracts Collections in FLAX with the British Library...Alannah Fitzgerald
Workshop presented on April 7, 2017 at the BALEAP Biennial Conference, Addressing the State of the Union: Working Together, Learning Together. Bristol, England.
Presented by Alannah Fitzgerald and Chris Mansfield at the British Library Labs Award Event on November 7, 2016 in London, UK.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/british-library-labs-symposium-2016-tickets-25666320656?utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=reminder_attendees_48hour_email&utm_term=eventname
From clarion calls to auto-complete errors: a nascent discourse on openness ...Alannah Fitzgerald
Presented by Terri Edwards and Alannah Fitzgerald at the Open Educational Resources (OER16) Conference on April 20, 2016
https://oer16.oerconf.org/sessions/from-clarion-calls-to-autocomplete-errors-a-nascent-discourse-on-openness-from-uk-universities-1176/
Converging cultures of open in language resources developmentAlannah Fitzgerald
Presented at the Open Educational Resources (OER16) Conference on 19 April, 2016 in Edinburgh, UK
https://oer16.oerconf.org/sessions/converging-cultures-of-open-in-language-resources-development-1156/
Developing Open Access Content into Academic English Resources for Data-Drive...Alannah Fitzgerald
Presented with Chris Mansfield at the IATEFL Conference in Birmingham, United Kingdom on April 15, 2016 as part of the Interactive Language Learning Fair
Presented at the Open Education Global Conference 2016 in Krakow, Poland on April 12
Abstract:
In the fall of 2015, McGill University launched its first offering of Social Learning for Social Impact (SLSI), a 12-week group-based MOOC - or GROOC - hosted by non-profit MOOC provider, edX. Drawing on connectivist MOOC, social, and experiential learning principles, SLSI attempts to translate an ambitious social mission into an online platform for sustained social learning. As course facilitators, we are uniquely positioned to explore the origins and development of SLSI’s networked learning ecosystem designed with concerned citizens in mind. We discuss the current limitations and challenges of open online education practices, particularly in relation to group-based learning, and how this first iteration, which we call GROOC 1.0, attempted to overcome these by crafting a highly adaptable, participatory curriculum that positioned learners and facilitators as co-creators who can also inform the design and delivery of GROOC 2.0.
We explore how course designers actively encouraged learners to subvert the constraints of the edX platform and even of SLSI’s formal curriculum so they might achieve their particular objectives. Similarly with the pro bono facilitators who were coached from the outset to anticipate confusion and uncertainty, trust their own judgment to resolve problems, and support one another, the call was to be subversive. The systems in place, it was acknowledged, might not be optimally suited to serve the learners.
Furthermore, we discuss the technical elements that support and constrain the online infrastructure. For example, to support SLSI’s vision of group-based learning, edX released a “Team Forum” tool that - beyond helping learners form their initial teams - proved inadequate to foster the kind of group engagement necessary for sustained social initiative-building. This shortcoming prompted many learners (along with their facilitators) to emigrate to a combination of more suitable digital platforms and connectivity apps like Facebook and Google Apps to accelerate social learning for (eventual) social impact.
We also discuss the feedback mechanisms embedded into the curriculum and the opportunities to course-correct, which, for the SLSI’s design team, was a clear priority, so that any real-time adaptations could be shared with facilitators. For example, open licensing for course content and the development of open education policy were issues raised by learners and facilitators in GROOC 1.0. Furthermore, we anticipate that McGill University will engage with the open education community to share insights about the implementation and outcomes of SLSI through conferences like Open Education Global 2016 as we plan for GROOC 2.0.
Keywords:
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs); Group-Based Learning; Learning Facilitation; Social Learning; edX; Open-Source Software
Presented at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada - An Introduction to Educational Computing with Steven Shaw (PhD supervisor) on November 11, 2013.
Presented at the BALEAP Biennial Conference (The Janus Moment in EAP: Revisiting the Past, Building the Future) http://baleap.org.uk/events/event-6/ in Nottingham on April 19, 2013.
Workshop presentation given at the BALEAP biennial conference (The Janus Moment in EAP: Revisiting the Past and Building the Future) in Nottingham on April 20, 2013 by Martin Barge, Alannah Fitzgerald and William Tweddle. http://baleap.org.uk/events/event-6/
From the blog TOETOE (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ): Technology for Open English - Toying with Open E-resources http://www.alannahfitzgerald.org/braving-oer-battles-in-brazil/
From the blog TOETOE (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ): Technology for Open English - Toying with Open E-resources http://www.alannahfitzgerald.org/emancipatory-english-in-india/
From the blog TOETOE (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ): Technology for Open English - Toying with Open E-resources http://www.alannahfitzgerald.org/vietnams-open-university-rising-dragon/
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
Macroeconomics- Movie Location
This will be used as part of your Personal Professional Portfolio once graded.
Objective:
Prepare a presentation or a paper using research, basic comparative analysis, data organization and application of economic information. You will make an informed assessment of an economic climate outside of the United States to accomplish an entertainment industry objective.
A Strategic Approach: GenAI in EducationPeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
Oh, what a BAWE! The British Academic Written English corpus
1. Articles from TOETOE Technology for
Open English Toying with Open E-
resources (ˈtɔɪtɔɪ)
Oh, what a BAWE! The British Academic Written
English corpus
2013-03-24 03:03:43 admin
This is the sixth post in a blog series based on the the TOETOE International
project with the University of Oxford, the UK Higher Education Academy (HEA) and
the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).
FLAX British Academic Written English
(BAWE) collections
The BAWE collections in FLAX, as demonstrated in the training video below, enable
you to interact with the BAWE corpus of university student writing from across the
disciplines to learn about the thirteen different genres assigned by the makers of the
corpus (Nesi, Gardner, Thompson & Wickens, 2007). For free access to the
complete manual on the making of the BAWE by Heuboeck, Holmes and Nesi,
2010) you can access it from the following link (The BAWE Corpus Manual, An
Investigation of Genres of Assessed Writing in British Higher Education). Features
from the FLAX open source software (OSS) project for understanding the BAWE,
include: word lists and keyness indicators; collocations; lexical bundles; a glossary
function with Wikipedia; along with a variety of automated functions for searching,
saving and linking within the BAWE corpus.
From its earliest inception the FLAX project has been envisioned and advanced with
the language teacher and learner in mind. Since 2008, I have been engaged with the
FLAX project to provide user feedback on the development of the language
reference collections and to devise ways to promote the project resources within
mainstream English language teaching and learning communities. A simplified and
intuitive interface has been developed for presenting language collections and
interactive learning activities based on the powerful and complex handling of search
queries from a range of linked corpora and open linguistic content.
Another open web-based interface for accessing the BAWE is located within the
commercial Sketch Engine project. This project provides the more traditional KWIC
(KeyWord In Context) concordancer interface for linguistic data presentation with
strings of search terms embedded in truncated language context snippets. The
Using Sketch Engine with BAWE manual (Nesi & Thompson, 2011) provides an in-
depth user guide for the more expert corpus user.
2. Sketch Engine open concordancer interface for the BAWE showing results for a KWIC
query for the item ‘research’.
The Word Tree corpus interface is a JISC Rapid Innovation project based at
Coventry University providing yet another open web-based interface alternative to
KWIC searches for analysing the BAWE. One of the project’s goals is for the open
sourcecode that has been developed for this rapid innovation project to be re-used
in further open corpus-based projects for analysing additional corpora which is
available from github. This project can be followed via the Word Tree project blog
and JISC final report, outlining issues encountered with managing and processing
the presentation of large amounts of linguistic data through a word tree interface that
provides click through pathways and the ability to prune and graft word tree
searches.
The Word Tree corpus interface for the BAWE showing a search query word tree for the items ‘research’ and ‘research methods’
Reference corpora versus specialist
corpora
Comparisons made between language as it is used in reference corpora, such as
the British National Corpus (BNC) which provides a snapshot of how English occurs
across a variety of contexts, and how it is used in specialist academic sub-corpora,
or in actual student-generated academic text corpora as in the case of the BAWE,
help us to identify which words and phrases occur more commonly in specific as
well as in general academic contexts of use. Not confined by the boundaries of a
printed volume, the openly available web-based BAWE collections in FLAX
(demonstrated in the video above) are arguably more powerful than the average
dictionary or coursebook for practice with academic English.
Before commencing on my journeys with the TOETOE international, I had written an
extensive project blog post on open trends within corpora and ELT materials
development in Radio Ga Ga: corpus-based resources, you’ve yet to have your
finest hour. At the Open Education conference in Vancouver in October 2012, with
my presentation on the Great Beyond with Open ELT Resources (see below) I had
outlined the development work that TOETOE and the FLAX team were going to
embark on with respects to the BAWE corpus and the evaluations on the earlier
BAWE collections in FLAX that we would be seeking from international participants
in collaboration with the project. Feedback from international stakeholders in China
(Confucian dynamism in Chinese ELT context) and Korea (the English language
skyline in South Korea) on the BAWE collections in FLAX led to further design and
development iterations while back in New Zealand with the FLAX team (Love is a
stranger in an open car to tempt you in and drive you far away…toward open
educational practice) which have been captured in the project blog posts here in
brackets.
3. The Great Beyond with Open English Language Resources from Alannah
Fitzgerald
Earlier in 2012 FLAX had developed the wikify function for matching key words and
phrases in the BAWE collections to Wikipedia entries as a glossary support feature.
This provides help with subject specific language in the BAWE which may be
daunting to learners and teachers alike who are not yet familiar with the specific
language of a given topic area but where there is an expectation that learners will
need to develop proficiencies with specific academic English if they are to engage in
English-medium higher education programmes. For example, the technical
language from a biology methodology recount text in the BAWE can be glossed for
enhanced understanding in FLAX with links to Wikipedia definitions and related
topics.
Corpus-based approaches for
understanding genre in EAP
“Unsurprisingly, the utility of the corpus is increased when it has been
annotated, making it no longer a body of text where linguistic information
is implicitly present, but one which may be considered a repository of
linguistic information.” (ICT4ELT McEnery & Wilson, 2012)
Corpus studies help with investigations into understanding more than just discrete
language items. The study of genres as different communities of practice develop
them is also central to corpus work for better understanding the different written
assessment types that students will actually encounter across the academy.
Generic EAP writing assessments, especially those found in College Composition
and Writing Across the Curriculum programmes (Freedman; Petraglia, 1995;
Russell, 2002), have been criticized for becoming genres unto themselves; with
serious doubts cast on their ability to resemble or assist with transfer in the
multitude of specific genres that students will be expected to engage with in their
different academic programmes. Generic EAP teaching resources and writing
assignments that teach general things about academic language and writing have
resulted in EAP writing that Wardle describes as conforming to ‘mutt genres’ (2009).
In response to the issue of genre in university writing, the BAWE corpus collections
in FLAX provide EAP teachers and students with a first-hand look into this student-
generated corpus of assessed undergraduate and taught postgraduate writing
collected at three UK universities: Warwick, Oxford Brookes and Reading. Thirteen
different genres were assigned by the developers of the BAWE (Nesi et al., 2004-
2007):
Case Study
Critique
Design Specficiation
Empathy Writing
Essay
Exercise
Explanation
Literature Survey
Methodology Recount
Narrative Recount
Problem Question
Proposal
Research Report
The Oxford Text Archive where the BAWE is managed by the University of Oxford IT
Services granted access to the FLAX project to develop OSS for language learning
and teaching on top of this valuable research corpus, in the same way that FLAX
have developed OSS to enable access to the BNC which is also managed and
distributed by OU IT Services. Four sub-corpora have been developed in FLAX as
they correspond to written academic assessments across the major academic
disciplines as identified by the makers of the BAWE, including: the Physical
Sciences, the Life Sciences, the Social Sciences and the Arts and Humanities
BAWE collections in FLAX. It was determined that student texts from the BAWE
would serve as an achievable model for academic writing for EAP students, and that
this corpus of student texts would serve as a starting point if linked to wider
resources, namely the BNC, Wikipedia, the Learning Collocations collection in FLAX
and the live Web, thereby providing a ‘bridge’ to more expert writing.
The developers of the BAWE corpus have a follow-on ERSC-funded project, Writing
for a Purpose, which is currently piloting EAP learning resources based on the
BAWE. These soon to be launched resources will be housed on the British
Council’s LearnEnglish website with further resources based on the BAWE for
improving the quality of students’ discipline-specific work emerging on Andy Gillet’s
UEfAP website. According to the project schedule these resources are going to be
promoted at the upcoming 2013 IATEFL and BALEAP conferences and will definitely
be something to look out for.
References
Freedman, A. “The What, Where, When, Why, and How of Classroom Genres.”
Petraglia Reconceiving. 121–44.
Heuboeck, A. Holmes, J. & Nesi, H. (2010). The BAWE corpus manual for the
project entitled, ‘An Investigation of Genres of Assessed Writing in British Higher
Education’, version 3. Retrieved from
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The Oh, what a BAWE! The British Academic Written English corpus by Alannah
Fitzgerald, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Terms and conditions beyond the
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