Learner Corpus Research and Language Teaching

Course name

Learner Corpus Research and Language Teaching

University

Radboud

EC

5/6 EC

Course date

semester 2 (2022 - 2023)

Registration open until

24/10/2022 - 08/01/2023

Location

Radboud and online

Instructor(s)

Sanne van Vuuren (Radboud) en Gea Dreschler (VU)

Course objectives

Upon completion of this course, students:

• will have a comprehensive overview of the domain of learner corpus research, its contributions to L2 acquisition research and its applications in language teaching;

• will be able to evaluate corpus design criteria, annotation and analysis and interpret the significance of corpus studies of vocabulary, phraseology, grammar, pragmatics and (dis)fluency for language teaching;

• will be able to design their own corpus study, selecting appropriate corpus resources and corpus linguistic techniques.

Course content

The overarching question addressed by this course is how corpus research can inform L2 acquisition research and language teaching. It covers the origins and applications of learner corpus research as well as the basics of corpus compilation, annotation and analysis.

Each week will be devoted to a detailed study of one major area of LCR research. We analyse and discuss learner corpus data from a number of case studies, and interpret their significance with respect to the seminar topic, ranging from vocabulary and phraseology to grammar and pragmatics.

Course requirements / Language proficiency

Assessment

Exam
Presentation 30%  15-minute presentation of case-study

Paper 70%  2000-2500 word research proposal

Studyload
5EC (= 140 hours)
Seminars: 14 hrs
Literature study (approx. 10 pages/hour): 80 hrs
Assignments and presentation: 6 hrs
Term paper: 40 hrs

VU/UvA:

Students who need 6 ECTS may elect to do an extra assignment. This must be determined with your lecturer in week 1.

Background literature and course materials

Selected articles

Further information

Schedule
Fridays 10:30-12:30

Dates
seminars on campus at Radboud university, Nijmegen:
03-02-2023 Erasmusgebouw 2.61
17-03-2023 Erasmusgebouw 2.61

online seminars:
10-02-2023;
17-02-2023;
24-02-2023;
03-03-2023;
10-03-2023