Corpus analysis for language studies at the university level
ENResearch object. The research object is the meaning of using corpus analysis and building tools for data extraction and annotation in teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels in university studies. The research investigates the phenomenon of corpus design and annotation use in teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels in university studies with the particular focus on the meaning of the “lived experience” of the research participants. Research aim and objectives. This investigation belongs to the qualitative research paradigm, which contributes to the broad research field with multiple approaches to the use of corpora in university studies. The aim of the present research is to investigate the phenomenon of the use of corpus analysis and building tools for corpus annotation in teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels in university studies based on its participants’ lived experience. The meaning is revealed through exploration of teachers’ and students’ personal stories of the use of corpus analysis and building tools for corpus annotation in teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels in university studies. Pursuing the research aim, the following research objectives have been set: 1. To present the discourse on the use of corpus analysis and building tools for corpus annotation in teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels in university studies. 2. To describe in a structural way the lived experience of the research participants—teachers and students—while using corpus analysis and building tools for corpus annotation in teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels in university studies. 3. To disclose the recommendations for the use of corpus analysis and building tools for corpus annotation in teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels in university studies. [...].The structure of the monograph. The monograph is organized into three chapters. Chapter One provides a brief review of teaching foreign languages in the settings of non-linguistic departments. It presents generic attributes, the importance of communication and social skills, teaching and learning foreign languages for employability, and the relevance of translation and corpus linguistics for learning material design in the discussed settings. Chapter Two focuses on the application of corpus analysis and building tools in teaching English at university level for corpus compilation, data extraction, and further contrastive and linguistic (especially lexical) analysis. It provides a detailed case study of analyzing terminology of constitutional law in English and Lithuanian as an example to illustrate the possibility of integrating corpus analysis tools into the process of teaching and learning languages at more advanced levels. Chapter Three provides a brief theoretical background focusing on corpora application in language studies, followed by a discussion of certain issues in discourse management and organization, and closes with insights on principles of teaching and learning with technology and the role of the initial knowledge. The authors also explain the methodological approach of the research by providing the grounds for the methodological choices of the qualitative research and describing the research procedures. Finally, the results of the research are presented and the authors provide recommendations for teaching and learning a foreign language at more advanced levels while applying corpus analysis and building tools. [From the Introduction]
