Using Corpus Analysis week 3

Using Corpus Analysis Software to Analyse Specialised Texts

      What is a corpus?

 In corpus linguistics, a corpus can be generally defined as… ‘a collection of naturally-occurring texts in a computer-readable format which can be retrieved and analyzed using corpus analysis software’ (Kennedy, 1998; McEnery & Wilson, 2001; O’Keeffe, A., McCarthy, M., & Carter, R. , 2007; Teubert & Cermakova, 2007)

Sources of language corpora

·                     http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/ ·  

·                     http://corpus.leeds.ac.uk/protected/query.html 

·                     http://corpus.byu.edu/

·                     http://lextutor.ca/conc/eng/ 

·                     Antconc’ (http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html)

http://www.lexically.net/wordsmith/) ‘Paraconc’ 

(http://www.athel.com/para.html) 

Designing a specialized corpus

           Corpus size

·                      There are no fixed ruled; depending on research purposes, availability of data and time.

·                         Large, general corpora may be less useful than small, focused corpora if searches are made on context-specific terms.

·                        There are limitations of ‘too small’ corpora e.g. not enough concepts, terms, or patterns under investigation.

·                          It is preferable to create a ‘monitor’ or ‘open’ corpus because specialized words/usage are dynamic.

Text extracts vs. full texts

·                          Depends on the aim of corpus compilation.

·                         Whole text offers more coverage because words or terms to be looked at may be randomly distributed throughout the text.

·                         Specific sections may be helpful if we are looking for words or phrase under particular content areas or want to create purposeful sub-corpora.

Number of texts

·                         Choices can be made between collect few texts of large size or a number of texts with smaller sizes.

·                           Choices can also be made between selecting texts written by one or two key writers or sources, or texts retrieved from different sources or written by different authors.

·                          Depends on your research focus e.g. to study overall language use or to study idiosyncrasy or linguistic choices preferred by particular writers. 

Medium

·                     Can be spoken or written texts or mixed.

·                      Depends on research questions.

·                      Some practical factors should also be considered e.g.compiling spoken corpora can be time-consuming and needs special types of tagging.

Subject and text type

·                     Should mainly focus on the specialized text under investigation, although this is less clear-cut in multidisciplinary subjects.

·                      Texts may come from different subject if the research focus is on the study of particular language features rather than term extraction.

·                      Text types within a specialized subject field may vary from‘expert-to-expert’ texts to ‘expert-to-non-expert’ texts, or in other words, from technical to popular texts.

Other considerations

·                     Authorship: Texts written by experts in a field tend to present more reliable and authentic examples of specialized language.

·                      Language: Specialized texts can be stored and retrieved in the form of monolingual, comparable, or parallel corpora.

·                      Publication date: Texts should come from recent publications unless queries are made in relation to particular periods of time.

              Sources of specialized texts

·Printed materials

· Word document

· CD-ROMs

· Texts on the Web

· Online databases

     Getting started with Antconc

       Download the latest version of Antconc watch YouTube tutorials from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/antconc_index.html

The Use of multimedia in English Teaching week 4

The Use of multimedia in English Teaching

                                                                                               The definition of Multimedia

            Multimedia: the use of computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way. Since the media can be integrated by using computer, the multimedia has close relation with CALL. Sometimes people even use CALL to stand for multimedia.

            Although the definition of multimedia is very simple, making it work is very complicated.

Components of Multimedia

            Multimedia is composed of various components: text, graphics, animation, sound, and video. These components can contribute differentially to the learning of material.

The Setting of Multimedia Classroom

            To ensure that readers can obtain a better understanding of multimedia English teaching, an illustration of a typical one-multimedia-PC classroom setting is vital and necessary

1.      MPC – multimedia personal computer;

2.      VCD/DVD player – video compound disk/digital video disk;

3.      Amplifier and Hi-Fi acoustic system;

4.      Overhead/slide projector;

5.      Screen/curtain;

6.      Projecting apparatus;

7.      The Internet access;

8.      Cassette tape recorder;

9.      Camera recorder.

The Necessity of Multimedia in English Teaching

The Necessity of Development of Modern Educational Technology

            The development of modern educational technology not only promotes the development of educational methods and means, but also promotes the development of educational thinking and model.

The Needs of Quality Education

            Multimedia English teaching provides a good educational platform and adds vigor for quality education, enabling students to change and update their thinking from the traditional teaching, thereby enhancing the quality of all aspects.

The multimedia Teaching

            Many studies have shown that many students are tied of traditional English classes, and are interested in new style learning.

Advantages

            Arousing the students, interest.

            Improving students’ self-learning ability.

            Improving students’ innovative ability.

            Cultivating students’ communication skills.

            Increasing classroom capacity.

Problems

            Confusion.

            Performance on behalf of the lead.

            Lack of special skills.

            Over-use of multimedia.

            Lack of interaction between teachers and students
Strategies for Using Multimedia

Combining Modern Teaching Methods with Traditional Teaching Methods

Viewing Multimedia as the Assistance to Teaching

Building the Ideal Relationship Between Teachers and Students

Strengthening Teacher Training

            The Principles of multimedia-Assisted Teaching

1.      Scientific principle.

2.      Subsidiary principle.

3.      Interactivity principle.

4.      Combination principle.