AdamScott TECIndia The interface of corpus linguistics and the Lexical Approach for teaching ESL beginner learners effectively

TEC 2014 Hyderabad

The Interface of

Corpus Linguistics and

The Lexical Approach for

Teaching ESL Beginner

Learners Effectively

Adam Scott

[email protected] @teachAdam

A need for change

Some beginners making slow progress

New students joining existing classes

Traditional coursebooks failing to deliver

Frustrating for teachers and learners

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The Interface of Corpus Linguistics and the Lexical Approach for Teaching ESL Beginner Learners Effectively

A premise or two

Collocation should help learners

Corpus data can inform course content

Syntax is central to learning English

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Literature Review

Beginners, by Paul Grundy

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Teaching English to Beginners,

by LRH Chapman

Literature Review

The Lexical Syllabus,

by Dave Willis

Lexical Priming,

by Michael Hoey

From Corpus to

Classroom, OKeeffe,

McCarthy & Carter

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Post-beginner Dilemmas

Problems some higher-level learners still have:

some level of illiteracy in English

poor basic speaking skills

poor basic listening skills

poor basic syntax and verb use

poor or unnatural basic vocab and collocation

struggle badly with pronunciation

have taken forever to make progress

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Why bother?

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Brain Power

McLaughlins Attention-Processing Model Second language learning is a skill

It requires automization of component sub-skills

New learning needs our focal and controlled attention

Our capacity to manage controlled processes is limited

automization makes our language processing skills

more efficient

Structured practice of linguistic patterns supports

integration and automization

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Welcome to English!

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Neradova, M. (2013). Summer in the mountains. Retrieved 15/11/13 from: http://www.marianeradova.org/?month=6

Undirected focus

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Too many foci

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Typical coursebook

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Interface CL and LA

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Corpus tools 1

Frequency Lists UCREL Lancaster University http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/

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Top 30 English Words

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1 2 3 4 5

1 2 3 5 4

are is

on

by

it

at

the

was

have

of

I

for

not

this

but

's

had

with to

be in

and

a you

he

that

... they

this is a ...

she

his

from

she is from ...

I have a ...

Data from Lancaster University. Companion website for word frequencies in written and spoken English based on the British National Corpus. (2001).

Retrieved 15/09/12 from: http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/flists.html

are you from ...

Your turn to play!

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Practise and personalise

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Corpus tools 2

Online Concordancer BYU BNC http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/

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Online concordancer

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Building collocation

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have

see use

get go to

play

a taxi

Lexical grammar

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have

see use

get go to

play

a taxi

/j-uh/ ? (=every day) Yes, I do. No, I dont.

/d-i-j-uh/ yesterday? Yes, I did. No, I didnt.

/j-uh/ Do you?

/d-i-j-uh/ Did you?

Key practical features

Collocating lexis into grammar

Presentation light, production heavy

Careful staging one thing at a time

Chunking up structural elements

A focus on accuracy

Achieves real communication

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Building collocation

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Top 10 adjectives Top 10 nouns



Building collocations

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time

way

year work government

thing day man

people year

Top Verbs

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Building associations

Collocating the highest-frequency words

Builds associations across lexis

Chunking creates better pronunciation

Synthetic phonics to represent sounds

Develops understanding of primings

Supports receptive skills

Increases ability to listen, read and anticipate

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Pronunciation

/w-air d-i-j-uh g-oh/

/h-ue d-i-j-uh g-oh w-i-th/

/w-e-n d-i-j-uh g-oh/

/w-o w-uh-z th-uh w-e-th-uh l-igh-k/

/w-o d-i-j-uh d-ue th-air/

/w-o w-uh-z-i-t l-igh-k/

/w-air d-i-j-uh s-t-ey/

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Doff, A. (2010). English unlimited starter coursebook. Cambridge: CUP. p.67

Adjacency Pairs Adam Scott


Doff, A. (2010). English unlimited starter coursebook. Cambridge: CUP. p.67

Pronunciation maps Adam Scott


New value in resources Adam Scott


play

run

n

walk

catch

(lie)

ly

sail throw

feed (ride) rid

sit

t

fly

swim

m

kick

Associative activities

Using memory maps

Collocating adjectives with landmarks

Matching words with people

Matching sounds in different words

Teaching new lexis with strong collocates

Meaning is built through association

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Statistical indicators

Beginners reaching pre-int or higher (Beginner and elementary levels counted as one level)

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[VALUE] weeks

[VALUE] weeks

0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

14.00

Num

ber

of

weeks p

er

level

(avera

ged)

COURSE TYPE

Median progress in student weeks

Traditional New


Qualitative Feedback

Students fit capably into elementary level

Surprising levels of fluency and accuracy

Able to say a lot with relatively little

Learners are engaged and questioning

Good ability to collocate lexis

Students are happy and motivated

Good study skills

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Some closing ideas

Stage lessons for focal, controlled attention: one thing at a time!

Well-staged, integrated lesson content fosters Demand High

learning and meaningful production

Chunk up cumbersome/discreet discrete grammar points

Collocate new lexis to minimise learner confusion

Collocation differences are easy to recognise and remember

Simple, explicit pronunciation teaches sound-spelling relations

Priming learners for listenings and readings practises sub-skills

Learning is a skill - strategies are at least as important as content

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Thank you

Download slides at: http://teachadam.wordpress.com

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AdamScott TECIndia The interface of corpus linguistics and the Lexical Approach for teaching ESL beginner learners effectively