Why Corpus Linguistics Matters to L2 Teaching and Learning

Corpus linguistics involves compiling and examining authentic samples of everyday communication. Chapter 11, written by Phoebe Lin, explores its significance for L2 teaching and learning. It provides an overview of its goals and methods, and presents recent advances in corpus linguistics for the L2 classroom. This chapter demonstrates new and user-friendly online corpus tools for various L2 teaching and learning contexts, including vocabulary analysis, error correction, and writing idea suggestions. It also summarises findings about data-driven learning (DDL), a specialisation in corpus linguistics that explores best practices when incorporating corpus use inside and outside the classroom. A number of essential and practical questions are addressed, including the class time required for teaching concordancing, the types of learners who will particularly benefit from concordancing training, how to select concordancers based on learner needs, factors to consider when planning lessons involving concordancing, and so on. The chapter concludes by discussing the role of teachers in implementing corpus and concordancing training in the classroom.