Hostname: page-component-6bf8c574d5-956mj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-16T17:45:45.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Corpus-based research and pedagogy in EAP: From lexis to genre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2013

Lynne Flowerdew
Lynne Flowerdew*
Affiliation:
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong KongSAR, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This plenary paper showcases current corpus-based research on written academic English, illustrating the tight links that exist between corpus research and pedagogic applications. I first explicate Sinclair's concept of the ‘lexical approach’, which underpins much corpus research and pedagogy. I then discuss studies which focus on individual lexical items, phraseology (including lexical bundles) and rhetorical functions. Finally, I examine studies that combine Swalesian move structure analysis with corpus analysis. Throughout the paper, I highlight the importance attached to lexis in both corpus research and pedagogic applications of corpus findings in the realm of written discourse in English for Academic Purposes (EAP), covering both general and more specific purposes.

Type
Plenary Speeches
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 99 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anthony, L. (2010). AntConc 3.2.1W. www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.htmlGoogle Scholar
Bhatia, V. K., Langton, N. & Lung, J. (2004). Legal discourse: Opportunities and threats for corpus linguistics. In Connor, U. & Upton, T. (eds.), 203–231.Google Scholar
Bianchi, F. & Pazzaglia, R. (2007). Student writing of research articles in a foreign language: Metacognition and corpora. In Facchinetti, R. (ed.), Corpus linguistics 25 years on. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 259–287.Google Scholar
Biber, D. (1988). Variation across speech and writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Biber, D. (2006). University language: A corpus-based study of spoken and written registers. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Biber, D., Conrad, S. & Cortes, V. (2004). If you look at. . ..: Lexical bundles in university teaching and textbooks. Applied Linguistics 25.3, 371–405.Google Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. & Finegan, E. (1999). The Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bloch, J. (2008). Technologies in the second language composition class. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Bloch, J. (2009). The design of an online concordancing program for teaching about reporting verbs. Language Learning & Technology 13.1, 59–78.Google Scholar
Bloch, J. (2010). A concordance-based study of the use of reporting verbs as rhetorical devices in academic papers. Journal of Writing Research 2.2, 219–244.Google Scholar
Byrd, P. (2007). Collocations and recurrent phrases in the Academic Word List. Paper presented at 41st Annual TESOL Convention, Seattle, Washington, 23 March.Google Scholar
Byrd, P. & Coxhead, A. (2010). ‘On the other hand’: Lexical bundles in academic writing and in the teaching of EAP. University of Sydney Papers in TESOL 5, 31–64.Google Scholar
Chang, C.-F. & Kuo, C.-H. (2011). A corpus-based approach to online materials development for writing research articles. English for Specific Purposes 30, 222–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charles, M. (2007). Reconciling top-down and bottom-up approaches to graduate writing: Using a corpus to teach rhetorical functions. Journal of English for Academic Purposes 6.4, 289–302.Google Scholar
Charles, M. (2011). Using hands-on concordancing to teach rhetorical functions: Evaluation and implications for EAP writing classes. In Frankenberg-Garcia, A., Flowerdew, L. & Aston, G. (eds.), 26–43.Google Scholar
Chen, Q. & Ge, C. (2007). A corpus-based lexical study on frequency and distribution of Coxhead's AWL word families in medical research articles. English for Specific Purposes 26.4, 502–514.Google Scholar
Cheng, W., Greaves, C. & Warren, M. (2006). From n-gram to skipgram to concgram. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 11.4, 411–433.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connor, U. & Upton, T. (eds.) (2005). Discourse in the professions: Perspectives from corpus linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Cortes, V. (2004). Lexical bundles in published and student disciplinary writing: Examples from history and biology. English for Specific Purposes 23, 397–423.Google Scholar
Cortes, V. (2006). Teaching lexical bundles in the disciplines: An example from a writing intensive history class. Linguistics and Education 17, 391–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cotos, E., Huffman, S., Link, S., Paben, T. & Saricaoglu, A. (2012). Cross-disciplinary move schema for research article methods sections. Paper presented at AAAL Conference, Boston, MA, 27 March 2012.Google Scholar
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic wordlist. TESOL Quarterly 34.2, 213–238.Google Scholar
Coxhead, A. (2008). Phraseology and English for academic purposes. Challenges and opportunities. In Meunier, F. & Granger, S. (eds.), 149–161.Google Scholar
Coxhead, A. (2011). The academic word list 10 years on: Research and teaching implications. TESOL Quarterly 45.2, 355–362.Google Scholar
Coxhead, A. & Nation, P. (2001). The specialised vocabulary of English for academic purposes. In Flowerdew, J. & Peacock, M. (eds.), Research perspectives on English for academic purposes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 252–267.Google Scholar
Durrant, P. & Matthews-Aydinli, J. (2011). A function-first approach to identifying formulaic language in academic writing. English for Specific Purposes 30.1, 58–72.Google Scholar
Ellis, N., Simpson-Vlach, R. & Maynard, C. (2008). Formulaic language in native and second language speakers: Psycholinguistics, corpus linguistics and TESOL. TESOL Quarterly 42.3, 375–396.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eriksson, A. (2012). Pedagogical perspectives on bundles: Teaching bundles to doctoral students of biochemistry. In Thomas, J. & Boulton, A. (eds.), Input, process and product: Developments in teaching and language corpora. Brno, Czech Rep.: Masaryk University Press, 195–211.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, J. (2009). Corpora in language teaching. In Long, M. & Doughty, C. (eds.), The handbook of language teaching. London: Wiley-Blackwell, 327–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flowerdew, J. & Forest, R. (2009). Schematic structure and lexico-grammatical realization in corpus-based genre analysis. In Charles, M., Pecorari, D. & Hunston, S. (eds.), Academic writing: At the interface of corpus and discourse. London: Continuum, 15–36.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, L. (2004). The argument for using specialised corpora to understand academic and professional language. In Connor, U. & Upton, T. (eds.), 11–33.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, L. (2005). An integration of corpus-based and genre-based approaches to text analysis in EAP/ESP: Countering criticisms against corpus-based methodologies. English for Specific Purposes 24, 321–332.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, L. (2010). Using corpora for writing instruction. In O'Keeffe, A. & McCarthy, M. (eds.), 444–457.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, L. (2012a). Corpora and language education. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, L. (2012b). Corpus-based discourse analysis. In Gee, J. P. & Handford, M. (eds.), The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis. London: Routledge, 174–187.Google Scholar
Flowerdew, L. (2012c). English for academic purposes. In Chapelle, C. (ed.) The encyclopedia of applied linguistics. Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Frankenberg-Garcia, A. (2012). Raising teachers’ awareness of corpora. Language Teaching 45.4, 475–489.Google Scholar
Frankenberg-Garcia, A., Flowerdew, L. & Aston, G. (eds.) (2011). New trends in corpora and language learning. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Granger, S. (2011). From phraseology to pedagogy: Challenges and prospects. In Herbst, T., Faulhaber, S. & Uhrig, P. (eds.), The phraseological view of language: A tribute to John Sinclair. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 123–146.Google Scholar
Greaves, C. (2009). ConcGram 1.0: A phraseological search engine. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (1991). Corpus studies and probabilistic grammars. In Aijmer, K. & Altenberg, B. (eds.), Advances in corpus linguistics. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 30–43.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. (2004). The spoken language corpus: A foundation for grammatical theory. In Aijmer, K. & Altenberg, B. (eds.), Advances in corpus linguistics. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 11–38.Google Scholar
Handford, M. (2010). What can a corpus tell us about specialist genres? In O'Keeffe, A. & McCarthy, M. (eds.), The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics. London: Routledge, 255–269.Google Scholar
Hong Kong PolyU Corpus of Research Articles (CRA). http://rcpce.engl.polyu.edu.hk/RACorpus/default.htmGoogle Scholar
Hunston, S. & Francis, G. (2000). Pattern grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hyland, K. (2008). As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English for Specific Purposes 27.1, 4–21.Google Scholar
Hyland, K. & Tse, P. (2007). Is there an ‘academic vocabulary’? TESOL Quarterly 41, 235–253.Google Scholar
Jones, M. & Haywood, S. (2004). Facilitating the acquisition of formulaic sequences: An exploratory study in an EAP context. In Schmitt, N. (ed.), Formulaic sequences. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 269–292.Google Scholar
Jones, M. & Schmitt, N. (2010). Developing materials for discipline-specific vocabulary and phrases in academic seminars. In Harwood, N. (ed.), English language teaching materials: Theory and practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 225–250.Google Scholar
Kanoksilapathan, B. (2005). Rhetorical structure of biochemistry research articles. English for Specific Purposes 24.3, 269–292.Google Scholar
Kanoksilapathan, B. (2007). Rhetorical moves in biochemistry research articles. In Biber, D., Connor, U. & Upton, T. (eds.), Discourse on the move. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 73–119.Google Scholar
Lee, D. & Swales, J. (2006). A corpus-based EAP course for NNS doctoral students: Moving from available specialised corpora to self-compiled corpora. English for Specific Purposes 25, 56–75.Google Scholar
Lin, L. & Evans, S. (2012). Structural patterns in empirical research articles. English for Specific Purposes 31, 150–160.Google Scholar
Martinez, R. & Schmitt, N. (2012). A phrasal expression list. Applied Linguistics 33.3, 299–320.Google Scholar
Meunier, F., De Cock, S., Gilquin, G. & Paquot, M. (eds.) (2011). A taste for corpora. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Meunier, F. & Granger, S. (eds.) (2008). Phraseology in foreign language learning and teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Mudraya, O. (2006). Engineering English: A lexical frequency instructional model. English for Specific Purposes 25.2, 235–256.Google Scholar
Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nesi, H. (2011). BAWE: An introduction to a new resource. In Frankenberg-Garcia, A., Flowerdew, L. & Aston, G. (eds.), 213–228.Google Scholar
Nesi, H. & Gardner, S. (2012). Genres across the disciplines. Student writing in higher education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oakey, D. (2005). Academic vocabulary in academic discourse: The phraseological behaviour of EVALUATION in economics research articles. In Tognini Bonelli, E. & Lungo Camiciotti, G. Del (eds.), Strategies in academic discourse. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 169–183.Google Scholar
Paquot, M. (2010). Academic vocabulary in learner writing. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Römer, U. & Brook O'Donnell, M. (2011). From student hard drive to web corpus (part 1): The design, compilation and genre classification of the Michigan Corpus of Upper Student Papers (MICUSP). Corpora 6.2, 159–177.Google Scholar
Simpson-Vlach, R. & Ellis, N. (2010). An academic formulas list: New methods in phraseological research. Applied Linguistics 31.4, 487–512.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sinclair, J. McH. (1991). Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J. McH. (1999). The lexical item. In Weigand, E. (ed.), Contrastive lexical semantics, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1–24.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J. McH. (2004). New evidence, new priorities, new attitudes. In Sinclair, J. (ed.), How to use corpora in language teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 271–299.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J. McH. (2005). Corpus and text: Basic principles. In Wynne, M. (ed.), Developing linguistic corpora: A guide to good practice. Oxford Text Archive. Available at http://ahds.ac.uk/linguistic-corpora/, 1–21.Google Scholar
Sinclair, J. McH. & Renouf, A. (1988). A lexical syllabus for language learning. In Carter, R. & McCarthy, M. (eds.), Vocabulary and language teaching. London: Longman, 140–160.Google Scholar
Stubbs, M. (2004). Language corpora. In Davies, A. & Elder, C. (eds.), The handbook of applied linguistics. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 106–132.Google Scholar
Swales, J. (1990). Genre analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Swales, J. (2004). Research genres. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, P. & Tribble, C. (2001). Looking at citations: Using corpora in English for academic purposes. Language Learning & Technology 5.3, 91–105.Google Scholar
Thurstun, J. & Candlin, C. (1998a). Exploring academic English. Macquarie University: NCELTR.Google Scholar
Thurstun, J. & Candlin, C. (1998b). Concordancing and the teaching of vocabulary of academic English. English for Specific Purposes 17.3, 267–280.Google Scholar
Ward, J. (2009). A basic engineering word list for less proficient foundation engineering undergraduates. English for Specific Purposes 28, 170–182.Google Scholar
Weber, J.-J. (2001). A concordance- and genre-informed approach to ESP essay writing. ELT Journal 55.1, 14–20.Google Scholar
Wible, D. & Tsao, N.-L. (2011). Towards a new generation of corpus-derived lexical resources for language learning. In Meunier, F.et al. (eds.), 237–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Widdowson, H. G. (1991). The description and prescription of language. Linguistics and language pedagogy: The state of the art. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 11–24.Google Scholar
Widdowson, H. G. (2003). Defining issues in English language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Willis, D. (1990). The lexical syllabus: A new approach to language teaching. London: HarperCollins.Google Scholar
Willis, D. (2003). Rules, patterns and words: Grammar and lexis in English language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar