Presentation Transcript

1. IntelliText at Leeds: achievements and challenges in fostering a culture of corpus-based language learning

   Anne Buckley & James Wilson University of Leeds
2. Structure of today’s presentation An introduction to corpora and the IntelliText interface Corpora and their role in language learning and teaching: what advantages corpora offer; how corpora can be integrated into language programmes; how you can make the most of corpora in your teaching. Demo (using IntelliText to teach EFL) Challenges in integrating corpora in L&T
3. What is a corpus? Any collection of texts Usually large, structured and machine-readable Annotated (lemmatisation, POS-tagging, metadata) Reference corpora: Russian National Corpus, British National Corpus, Czech National Corpus, etc. Specialised corpora: collections of texts on a specific topic or in a more specific domain Interface: the tool we use to access and exploit corpora
4. Learners can use corpora to … View grammar in context Display complex grammatical forms not shown in conventional bilingual dictionaries Access hundreds of authentic examples at the touch of a button View vocabulary in a broader context, extracting common and useful collocations Grasp subtle differences between words and phrases Verify their linguistic intuition Achieve a better grasp of style and register Augment their vocabulary, in particular on themed topics and in specific domains Test controversial points of grammar and compare prescribed grammar with actual language use
5. Corpora and language programmes Corpora should support and not replace existing modes of delivery Blended learning: tradition and technology Autonomous learning “Hands-on” and “Hands-off” approach (Boulton 2008) Tutors’ input is essential: prompts for independent learning Corpora are a very useful addition to the teaching toolkit: they can enhance students’ language competence and make tutors’ work easier
6. IntelliText project Run by the Centre for Translation Studies (CTS), University of Leeds, UK A one-year project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC): 2010-2011 www.corpus.leeds.ac.uk/it/ Aimed to simplify and enhance corpus use for teaching and research in the arts and humanities Needs-driven: functions suggested by users Output = a versatile and intuitive interface
7. IntelliText ... Allows access to monolingual corpora for 11 languages (there are several corpora for many of the supported languages) Allows access to several bilingual corpora Has 8 search functions (e.g. concordance, collocations, affix, keywords) Includes a “Build Your Own Corpus” function that allows users to create and annotate their own corpora Is freely available for download or for online use
8. At Leeds we use IntelliText ... On general UG language modules (English, German, Russian) In a weekly corpus class aimed at vocabulary building on themed topics (Russian) On final-year dissertation modules on which students write their dissertations in the target language (German) In LSP teaching (Business Russian, German for Professional Purposes, EAP) For bespoke PG language training
9. IntelliText beyond Leeds IntelliText training will be offered at student outward mobility events that are being planned by the HEA There are plans to introduce IntelliText as part of the Research Training Programme at the three White Rose institutions (Leeds, Sheffield, York) from next academic year IntelliText is being used in Portland (Oregon) to create and tag learner corpora (Russian) IntelliText is used at institutions across the world for language teaching and in linguistic research (esp. EFL)
10. IntelliText on funded projects KELLY (EU Lifelong Learning Project): corpus-derived multilingual flashcards ReadingCorp (ARHC Collaborative Training Award): PG language training through domain-specific keyword lists WritingCorp (UoL TESS funds): materials design to support IntelliText White Rose Skills Development Project: PG language training & creation of academic corpora for Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish

11. Demo: using IntelliText to teach EFL

12. IntelliText: uses for students To find meanings To investigate context To investigate frequency of use of synonyms To correct work To produce accurate and idiomatic writing To find collocates To investigate grammar e.g. tense used with a particular expression
13. IntelliText: uses for teachers To answer difficult questions To justify corrections To find synonyms when writing To analyse student writing For research e.g. literature analysis – look at which adjectives are used to describe certain characters
14. Possible student exercises Look at connectives in context e.g. however, moreover, nevertheless Look at hedging language in context e.g. may, could, suggest Look at tenses used with particular expressions e.g. to date, not yet Look at tenses/verbs used with particular expressions e.g. Have you ever...?

15. Challenges

16. Corpus-based language learning: where we’re at now Despite the many available corpora and corpus tools, corpus-based language teaching is practised by a small dedicated group of enthusiasts (and almost exclusively in HE) Corpora have not become established in the mainstream of language learning and teaching; outside EFL they are used very rarely Almost 80% of teachers have never heard of corpora (Mukherjee 2004) Most tutors don’t know how to use corpora, what to use them for or how they may benefit their teaching
17. Why? In the past users needed to be familiar with computer syntax to input complex string codes; many tutors still think that corpora are “too technical” There is a lack of documentation Corpus-based tools and functions have tended to reflect corpus developers’ or corpus linguists’ interests rather than users’ needs There has been insufficient collaboration between corpus developers and language tutors: i.e. between creator and user Little has been done to promote corpora and corpus tools
18. Ways forward Corpora are of little use without supporting, pedagogically relevant and needs-driven exercises or a methodology for their application: for corpora to become established corpus­-based materials, a corpus-based teaching methodology and corpus-trained tutors are essential language tutors,we need you! More training (interactive sessions, departmental seminars) IntelliText training on PGCE programmes