Corpora in Applied Linguistics: Methods, Developments, Applications
May 6th, 2009
The use of corpora for the study of language has gained a key role in linguistics in recent years as an empirical approach to ‘real-life’ language which makes use of large electronic collections of texts with the help of computer software. Corpus evidence has not only revolutionized the study of language, but has also served as an empirical basis for applications as diverse as critical linguistics or the study of ideology and culture, literary stylistics and foreign language teaching.
The aim of this lecture is twofold: on the one hand, to familiarize students with the major uses of corpora for the study of language, ideology and culture, and on the other, to introduce the indirect and direct applications of corpora in the foreign language classroom. Finally, I will try to show how students interested in corpus research can carry out their own corpus-based projects as part of their final theses.
Svetla Rogatcheva is a research assistant at the Department of English Language and Linguistics, JLU Gießen, where she is pursuing her PhD on the topic of tense and aspect in learner writing. She studied at the University of Sofia, Bulgaria and at Roehampton University of Surrey, UK, where she received a BA degree in English and American Studies. She holds an MA degree in Intercultural Anglophone Studies from the University of Bayreuth, Germany. In 2008 she joined the International Graduate Centre for the Study of Culture (GCSC).