Comparing the Language Teaching Methods

The Direct Method gives the student the ability to communicate quickly because she is encouraged to
be creative during practice. It gives, by far, the widest range of capability to understand what another
person says to you and in developing your capability to speak. This is the method of choice for
instruction with a live trainer and where speaking and listening are most important.

The Grammar-Translation method requires the learner to spend a lot of time understanding the
language structure. Listening and speaking suffer because of this. Understanding the structure is helpful
in reading and particularly in writing. Grammar and vocabulary are emphasized throughout. This is the
method of choice when the student’s goal is to achieve a high level of writing and reading ability in a
foreign language, versus speaking and listening.

The Audio-Lingual Method also allows the learner to communicate quickly but within the limited range
that the repetition allows. It improves comprehension only if the speaker uses phrases that the learner
has studied. Reading is limited, and an understanding of how to use the language is very limited. This is
the method that is used when a live trainer is not available.

Teaching Methods

The term teaching method refers to the general principles, pedagogy and management strategies used
for classroom instruction. Your choice of teaching method depends on what fits you — your educational
philosophy, classroom demographic, subject area(s) and school mission statement. Teaching theories
can be organized into four categories based on two major parameters: a teacher-centered approach
versus a student-centered approach, and high-tech material use versus low-tech material use.

1 Teacher-Centered Approach to Learning

Taken to its most extreme interpretation, teachers are the main authority figure in a teacher-centered
instruction model. Students are viewed as “empty vessels” External link who passively receive
knowledge from their teachers through lectures and direct instruction, with an end goal of positive
results from testing and assessment. In this style, teaching and assessment are viewed as two separate
entities; student learning is measured through objectively scored tests and assessments.

2 Student-Centered Approach to Learning

While teachers are still an authority figure in a student-centered teaching model, teachers and students
play an equally active role in the learning process. The teacher’s primary role is to coach and facilitate
student learning and overall comprehension of material, and to measure student learning through both
formal and informal forms of assessment, like group projects, student portfolios, and class participation.
In the student-centered classroom, teaching and assessment are connected because student learning is
continuously measured during teacher instruction.

3 High Tech Approach to Learning

Advancements in technology have propelled the education sector in the last few decades. As the name
suggests, the high tech approach to learning utilizes different technology to aid students in their
classroom learning. Many educators use computers and tablets in the classroom, and others may use
the internet to assign homework. The internet is also beneficial in a classroom setting as it provides
unlimited resources. Teachers may also use the internet in order to connect their students with people
from around the world.

Below are some tech tools used in classrooms today:

1 G Suite External link (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Classroom, Drive, and Calendar)

2 Tablets/laptops

3 Gamification software (such as 3DGameLab External link and Classcraft External link )

4 Education-focused social media platforms (such as schoology External link and seesaw External link )

5 Technology accessibility External link for students with disabilities.

4 Low Tech Approach to Learning

While technology undoubtedly has changed education, many educators opt to use a more traditional,
low tech approach to learning. Some learning styles require a physical presence and interaction between
the educator and the student. Additionally, some research has shown that low-tech classrooms may
boost learning. For example, students who take handwritten notes have better recall than students who
take typed notes External link. Another downside of technology in the classroom may be that students
exposed to spell check and autocorrect features at an earlier age may be weaker in spelling and writing
skills External link. Ultimately, tailoring the learning experience to different types of learners is incredibly
important, and sometimes students work better with a low-tech approach.

Examples

Here are some examples of low technology usage in different teaching methodologies:

Kinesthetic learners have a need for movement when learning. Teachers should allow students to move
around, speak with hands and gestures.

Expeditionary learning involves “learning by doing” and participating in a hands-on experience. Students
may participate in fieldwork, learning expeditions, projects or case studies to be able to apply
knowledge learned in the classroom to the real world, rather than learning through the virtual world.

Many types of vocational or practical training cannot be learned virtually, whether it be a laboratory
experiment or woodworking.
Sociolinguistics: Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study of language
in relation to society. Language and society both are interrelated as language can't exist without society.
Sociolinguistics can throw much light on both on the nature of language and on the nature of society.
Sociolinguistics is concerned with the relationship between language and the context in which it is used.

Example Hari; Good afternoon, Sir

Boss; There is a meeting at 7 O'clock, I want you to be around.

Hari; Yes sir, I will surely be there.

This response reflects Hari's awareness of the social factors which influence the choice of appropriate
ways of speaking in different social contexts.

Sociolinguists study the relationship between language and society. They also explore the social function
of the language and the way it is used to convey the meaning. Sociolinguists also explain why we speak
differently in different social contexts.

According to Fishman, Sociolinguists are interested in knowing' 'Who speaks, which language to
whom and when'' To elaborate what Fishman has said , it matters to sociolinguists

1 Who the speaker is, What his role in society is

2 Which language he/she is using, whether it is formal or informal,dialect or standard.

3 Who the listener is,whether he/she is a boss, a peer or a subordinate, a father, a mother, sibling, or a
child.

4 When people are speaking, what the situation is, whether it is outside the office on in the office, at
home, outside the home, In a meeting or at a party

Salesperson; May I help you?

Karan; Yes, Do you have these shoes in size seven?

Salesperson; I'm not sure. If you can't find them on the rack, thay may be out of stock.But let me check
in the stockroom.

This is a conversation between costumer and salesperson. There is a difference in the way we speak to
different people in different contexts. We speak differently with our friends, relatives or other
professional status.

Sociolinguistics and linguistics

Linguistics makes us aware of the structure of language whereas sociolinguistics tells us how we interact
with each other using that structure in everyday situation.

Dell Hymes 1974 has drawn a distinction between that structural and functional approaches to the
study of language.

The structural approach focuses more on the structure of language(Code)

The functional approach focuses on the functional aspect of language.(i.e) its use in society

The analysis of language use is given primary importance and the analysis of code is secondary. The
linguists analyze the language out of the context whereas sociolinguists analyze the language as is used
in the social context.

Linguistics is the study of language, primarily the structure of language. Sociolinguistics is the study of
the use of language at different levels and for different purposes and different functions.

Sociolinguistics deals with the inter relationship between language and society. It has strong connections
to anthropology through the investigation of language and culture. Sociolinguistics is also connected to
Sociology through the crucial role that language plays in the organization of social groups and
institutions. It is also connected to social psychology. How the attitude and perception are expressed
and how in-group and out-group behaviours are identified. In order to see all these connections we
must get the concept of social dialects.

Social Dialect

In sociolinguistics, social dialect is a variety of speech associated with particular social class or
occupational groups within society. Social dialects are varieties of language used by groups defined
according to class, education, age, sex and number of other social parameters.

Social dialect is also known as sociolect, group dialect and class dialect.

Douglas Biber distinguished two kinds of dialects in linguistics

Geographic dialects are varieties associated with speakers living in a particular location.

Social dialect are varieties associated with speaker belongings to given demographic group. i.e women
versus women or other social classes.

Social dialects are varieties of language used by groups defined according to class, education, age, sex
and number of other social parameters. By exploring these factors in detail the most important thing is
interaction between social values and language use.

Social class and education These two factors are important in the investigation of social dialect. In some
dialect surveys, it has been found that people who leave/ left educational institutes/systems at an early
age, they use more forms which are relatively infrequent in the speech as compared to one who go to
schools/ colleges.

Them boys throwed somethin.

This type of expressions/sentences are very common in the speech who left schools/educational
institutes at an early age. A person who spends a long time going through college or university will have
more spoken language features which drive from a lot of time spent working with the written language.
They use a lot of written language that’s why they have more developed spoken language features.

Sometimes people complain that some people like professors/ teachers ''talk like a book'' because of
their more use of written language. they have well developed spoken language features. they spend
more time working with/on written language.
Social class: Social class also sounds different

Labov 1972 combined elements from place of occupation and socio-economic status by looking at
the pronunciation differences among salesperson in three New York city departmental stores.

1 Saks(High status)

2 Macy's (Middle class)

3 Kelin's place(Low status)

Higher versus Lowah

Labov asked salespeople questions that elicited the expression' 'fourth floor''. He was interested in the
pronunciation of the r sound after vowels. Then he noticed a regular pattern. The higher the socio-
economic status the more r sounds and the lower the socio-economic status the fewer the r sound was
produced. So the difference in the a single consonant could mark a difference. This was the difference in
New York

Higher versus Lowah

In England Trudgill 1974 Found that the same variable r after a vowel had the opposite social value.
Upper middle class speakers in the area (England) tend to pronounce fewer r sounds than lower working
class speakers.

''Isn't that mahvellous dahling'' no r sound in it

''Isn't that marvelous darling!''

This shows more stable variation indication of lower class and less education throughout the English
speaking world.

n sound at the end of words like walking and going 'sitting' and drinking ''Sittin'' and ''drinkin''

h dropping sound House and hello ''ouse'' and ''ello''

Age and gender

Even within the group of social class there are some differences on the basis of age (child, young person
or an old person) and gender (male and female)

Age: Age difference/ Generation gap

This is a difference in valued and attitudes between one generation and another, especially between
young people and their parents. Young and old people do not understand each other because of their
differences in experience, opinions, habits and behavior. According to some social dialect surveys many
young people claim that their grand parents use some terms/words in conversation that they do not
use.
Example: Grandfather may still talk about some old things like an icebox and wireless (any other thing
that they used alot) and he talks more because they know each and everything about these things but
younger people do not talk about icebox and wireless because these are not available or not in use.

Grandparents/old people do not use more reported speech but younger people use alot. We're getting
ready and he's like let's go, and he splits anyway creep.

Variation according to gender

Social dialect variations according to the gender of speaker. male/female. A general conclusion from
dialect survey is that female speakers use more prestigious forms than male speakers even if they
belong to same social class. This include I done it, it growed and he ain't is found in male speech. I did it,
it grew and he isn't in female speech

In some cultures there are some differences between male and female speech. It could be a difference
in pronunciation of certain words and even different sexes use different language. In english there are
many differences between male and female speech.

In most conversations female/women discuss their personal feelings and experiences more than
men/male. Male/men mostly talk about non-personal topics such as sports and news. Men/male give
more expressions of solutions and advise. Men give more solutions and advise for any problem while
women share their personal experience for the specific problem.

Women use more expressions associated with tentativeness such as ''Hedges'' (sort of, kind of) ''Tags''
(isn't it, don't you ) Women use some words/expressions in their speech (well, em, Ithink golf is kind of
boring, don't you?)

Sometimes there are some other differences in male and female speech. Male uses more slang and
vulgar words/expressions and also use harsh words/ speak more harshly and in more aggressive tone.
While females speak in more polite and in good manner and even they use selective and good
words/expressions in their speech.

''The concept of prestige''

In sociolinguistics Prestige describes the level of respect accorded to a language or dialects as compared
to other languages or dialects in speech community. The concept of ''prestige'' in sociolinguistics is
closely related to that of prestige or class within society.

Positive prestige associated with the language or dialect of upper class in the society

Negative prestige Associated with the language or dialect of lower class in the society.

Overt prestige: Generally recognized ''better'' or positively valued ways of speaking in social
communities

Covert prestige: This is attached to non-standard forms and expressions by certain subgroups.

Example: School boys everywhere seem to attach covet prestige to form ''bad'' language (swearing and
tough talk) that are not similar valued in the larger communities
Register

Variation according to use in specific situations is also studied in terms of register. Register is a variety of
language which we is used in particular social setting or it is used for a particular purpose. It is used for
greater and lesser formality in terms of socially organized events.

Types of register

Religious register Example Ya shall be blessed by him in times of turbulance.

Legal register Example The plaintiff is ready to take the witness stand.

Linguistic register Example The morphology of this dialect contains fewer inflectional suffixes.

One of the key factor of register is the use of Jargon.

Jargon is defined as technical vocabulary associated with a special activity or group.

Jargon includes Baby talk/language, Trade language, Surfing language, Religious talk/language

Baby talk is simple a speech of babies

Trade language Those people who travel from one country to another country for trade and they use a
language. This language contains all words/expressions associated to trade and materials they trade
from one country to another country.

Surfing talk Example Would you ride a bodyboard if a shark bit off your legs?

Hey, if you cant get tubed, nobody's bamming.

Even when dictionaries are created for certain activities the entries often explain jargon with other
jargons. The New Hacker's Dictionary (Raymond 1991) Compiled from the expressions used by those
who spend more time with computers.

Diglossia is a situation in which two very different varieties of langauge are spoken within the same
speech community.

Bilingual Diglossia is a type of diglossia in which one language variety is used for writing and another for
speech.

When people are bidialectal, they can use two dialects of the same language, based on their
surrounding or different contexts where they use one or the other language variety.

Every language has two forms

1 High form

2 Low form.

There is normally a high variety for formal or serious matters and a low form is a variety for conversation
and other informal uses. A form of Diglossia exists in Arabic speaking countries where the ''high'' or
classical variety is used in lectures, Religious speech and formal political talk. While the low variety is the
local dialect of colloquial Arabic.

Language and culture

Many of the factors which give rise to linguistic variation are sometimes discussed in terms of cultural
differences. Culture is a system that has power over human interaction, while language is a system with
its function a mean of carrying continuity from the interaction.

Culture ''Socially acquired knowledge'' and linguistic variation is connected/tied with the existence of
different cultures. In the study of the World’s cultures, it has become clear that different groups not only
have different languages, they also have different world views which are reflected in their languages.

Ethnic Background: Ethnic is a grouping of human beings on basis of colour, tribe and cast. Ethnic is
related to large group of people classes according to common racial, national, tribal or cultural origin.
Within any society differences in speech may come about because of different ethnic backgrounds. The
speech of immigrants and their children contains identifying features especially in the areas where there
is strong interaction/loyalty to the original language of the group,a large number of features are carried
over into the new language.

BEV: The speech of African-Americans Black English Vernacular. BEV is a wide spread social dialect.
When any group within society undergoes some social isolation, such as discrimination or segregation
experienced by AfricanAmericans. Then there will be more social dialect differences and the variety of
speech will be called ''bad speech''

Example: A form of verb called ''copula'' a form of verb ''to be'' (is, am, are) Frequent absence of copula
is not used by ethnic group/African-Americans. In Black English vernacular BEV used expressions like
''they mine'' ''You crazy''. According to standard english the verb form''are'' should be used in these
expressions.

Many other English dialects and some other languages like Arabic and French do not use copula in such
expressions.

Double negatives

Another aspect of BEV has been criticized by educators for a long time is the use of double negatives.

He don't know nothing.

I ain't afraid of no ghosts.

These structures/expressions are considered illogical. But the use of double negatives is not considered
in some other languages. This type of structure provides a very effective means of emphasizing the
negative part of a message in this dialect.

It is a dialect feature sometimes present in one social dialect or in other dialect but is not in standard
English language.

Idiolect
Term idiolect is used for the personal dialect of each individual speaker of language. Idiolect is an
individual's distinctive and unique use of language including speech. Idiolect is the dialect of an
individual person at one time. This term implies an awareness the no two persons speak in exactly the
same way and that each person dialect is constantly undergoing changes.(By the introduction of new
words)

Two factors play an important role in identifying features of an individual's speech these factors include
Voice quality and Physical state of an individual.

Style A style is a set of linguistic variants with specific social meaning.

Spoken language

1 Formal: Going for a job interview a person uses a formal style of speech. E.g. Excuse me. Is the
manager in his office. I have an appointment.

2 Informal style: Speaking/talking about another friend e.g. Hey,Is that lazy dog still in the bed? I gotta
see him about something.

Style can also be found in written language

Formal style of writing: Business letter I am writing to inform you...

Informal style of writing: Letter to a friend Just wanted to let you know

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis This hypothesis is also called Whorfianism

We understand the world through language. We think in words. Sapir- whorf hypothesis is also known
as linguistic relativity. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis consists of two associated principles

1 Linguistic Determinism: Language may determine our thinking patterns. the way we view and think
about the world.

2 Linguistiv relativity: The less similar the languages more diverse the conceptualization of the world;
Different languages view the world differently.

Edward Sapir and Benjamin Whorf produced arguments in 1930 that the language of American
Indians led them to view the world differently from those who spoke European languages. A Tribe Hopi
Indians of Arizona perceived the world differently from other tribes (English speaking tribes)

According to Hopi grammar there is a distinction between ''animate and inanimate'' Whorf concluded
that According to Hopi grammar the ''clouds'' and stones were animate objects. But according to English
speaking tribes ''stones and ''clouds'' are inanimate objects. English speakers do not see the world in the
same way as the Hopi Community.

Another example by Sampson 1980. He concluded that A french tribe has a different concept of male
and female markings. According to that tribe ''stones'' and ''door'' are female markings

La feme Women
La pierre stone

Language universals/ Linguistic universals

Langauge universals are statements that are true/same to all languages. For Example All languages has
consonants and vowels nouns and verbs. Many linguists have recognized the extent to which languages
are subject to variations, They have also noted the extent to which all languages have certain common
properties these common properties are called language universals. Some languages have more
consonants and some have more vowels.

Linguistic Determinism Related to thought

Language determinism is the idea that language and its structure limit and determine human knowledge
or thought. ''Language determines thought'' You can only think in the categories which your language
allows you to think. Every culture has its own language, grammar, everyday expressions and even
different concepts. Concept of animate and inanimate Concept of male and female

We think in words and our thinking is captured by language. If we see an object around us, the concept
comes in our mind. Is it living or nonliving? Its female or male. What colour it has. Your language gives
you a ready-made system of categorizing what you perceive, and as a consequence you will be led to
perceive the world around you only in those categories.

Example A word snow in english language and in Eskimo language.

Eskimo consists of two divisions: Yupik, spoken in Siberia and southwestern Alaska, and Inuit, spoken in
northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.

English Atmospheric water vapor in frozen form

Qanuk '' Snow flake''

Natquik ''drifting snow''

Qanuir ''to snow''

Kaneq ''Frost''

English does not have a large number of single term for different kinds of snow. However English
speakers can create expressions like wet snow, powerdry snow, Spring snow

The average English speaker does have a very different view of ''Snow'' from the average Eskimo
speaker that is a reflection of their different experiences in different cultural environments. The
languages they have learned reflect the different cultures
Pragmatics
The use of language in practical situation. It is not predictive meaning of a word but it is an intended
meaning of word that is apart from dictionary. The study of intended speaker meaning is called
pragmatics. study of invisible meaning of words or language.

Invisible meaning: As pragmatics is the study of invisible meaning or how we recognize what is meant
even when it isnt said or written. In order to understand the meaning of words a speaker or writer must
be able to depend on shared assumptions and expectations (Background information)

Baby Toddler Sale: In this example invisible meaning is a sale of baby clothes, shoes and some other
accessories

Meaning according to context

Linguistic context or Co text

Bank A money saving place and An edge of the river

He has to go to the bank to cash a cheque

He was standing near the bank of the river. Edge of the river

Physical context

Physical appearance of something or any place that determines the meaning of specific word. Bank A
money

Deixis

The use of words to refer to something or any place. Pointing someone using language. This , that, now,
then, there

You will have to bring that back tomorrow, because they are not here.

These expressions depend on context (physical context) for interpretation of meaning and these are
called deictic expressions. Deictic is a Greek word Dexis which means pointing via language.

Person Deixis: Me, I, him, them

Time Deixis: Now, then,when, tonight, last week, last year

Place Deixis: There , here, where

Reference: An act which is being used by speaker to enable listener to identify something or
someone.

Child is naughty.

A child is very intelligent

Inference: We can use different names and these names associated with different people.
Where is the fresh salad sitting? (Names of people for things)

He is sitting beside the door. (names of things for people)

Speech act
Type of an ''act'' performed by speaker in uttering a sentence. The use of term speech act covers actions
like requesting, commanding, questions and informing.

Did he ............?

Are thay coming?

Can you see?

When a speaker doesnt know anything and asks questions to hearer to provide some information.
Speaker questions about things that he/she doesnt know. This is called direct speech act

Can you ride a bicycle? Direct speech act in the form of question.

Can you pass the salt. Indirect speech act request

In this example its not only a question but it is also a request This request has been presented in the
syntactic form that is usually associated with a question.

You left the door open. Indirect speech act

In this example someone just entered in the room as it is pretty cold outside (Background information,
Context, physical context) and you are indirectly asking someone to close the door.

Visitor: Excuse me, do you know where the ambassador hotel is?

Passer by: Oh sure, I know where it is( and walks away)

In this case the visitor uses a form which is normally associated with question (Do you know?) The
passer by answers the question literally (I know) in this case instead of responding to the request the
passer by replies the question. In this case this is indirect speech act and is used as an direct speech act.
Usually in our society indirect speech , request, commands are considered more gentle and polite.

Politeness showing awareness of another person’s face. In the study of linguistics politeness the
relevant concept is ''Face''. In Pragnmatics it is '' your face''. This is the emotional and social sense of self
that every person has and expects everyone to recognize.

Face threatening act when you say something that represents a threat to another person's self image
this is called face threatening act.

Give me that paper. direct speech act

in this example you act like you have more social power than other person.

Face saving act When you do something that lessens the possible threat to another's face is called face-
saving act. Face saving act is an indirect speech act in the form of question and request.
e.g. Could you pass me that paper, please? indirect speech act

in this example it removes the assumption of social power. this makes your request less threatening to
other person's sense of self

Both these face threatening act and face saving acts are important. your negative face is the need to be
independent and have freedom for imposition.

Anaphora Defined as subsequent reference to an already mentioned or used entity. Object,

body/person, concept

Example Can I borrow your book? Antecedent

Yes it is on the table Anaphora/anaphoric word

The connection between referent and anaphora is direct in this case. Referring expression is called
anaphora. First mentioned expression is called antecedent We use anaphora in texts to maintain
reference.

e.g. I was waiting for the bus (antecedent), but he(Anaphoric expression) just drove by without stopping.
Indirect connection between referent and anaphora

Normally we use or expect it to be used for a bus but inference is involved here

Inference: names of people to things and names of things to people. someone is talking about bus in
motion. Assume that there is a driver. That assumed driver is the inferred referent for he.

Presupposition When we talk about an assumption made by the speaker/ Writer. Presupposition is a
relation to situational context.(Background information/knowledge)

Example Your brother is waiting outside for you.

Supposition is that you have a brother

Presupposition is what a speaker assumes to be true or what is already heard by the listener

Example When did you stop smoking cigar?

Supposition is that he was smoking in the past but he has stopped smoking.

He already stopped smoking.

Concept of negation to check presupposition

Sometimes we use positive and negative sentence. Example My car is a wreck. My car is not a wreck.
These two sentences are opposite but the underlying presupposition is the same'' I have a car'' This
presupposition remains same in these two cases this is called constancy under negation test for
presupposition.
Corpus linguistics
Corpus: Corpus is a body if text. Corpus is a collection of text. Text could be written or spoken. A text
which is complete, self contained and authentic. no more explanation, complete on its own true, based
on facts, genuine.

Corpus is a collection of linguistic data, either compiled as written texts or as a transcription of recorded
speech. The main purpose of a corpus is to verify a hypothesis about language - for example, to
determine how the usage of a particular sound, word, or syntactic construction varies. Another
definition by John Sinclair. 1991 Corpus is a collection of naturally occurring language text, chosen to
characterize a state or variety of a language.

Corpora: Corpora are a large and structured set of texts. Now These texts are electronically stored and
processed.

Corpus linguistics deals with the principles and practice of using corpora in language study. Corpus
linguistics is the study of language ''on the basis of text corpora''. The focus of corpus linguistics is not
only on the text of a language but it also focuses on the context of the text. Corpus linguistics is a
methodology to obtain and analyze the language data either quantitatively or qualitatively. It can be
applied almost in any area of language studies. Corpus linguistics is not a separate branch of linguistics
(like e.g. sociolinguistics) or a theory of language but a set of tools or methodology and it supports
linguistic investigation upon all branches of subjects.

What is a corpus? A text corpus is a very large collection of text (often many billion words)
produced by real users of the language and used to analyse how words, phrases and language in general
are used.

Use of corpus

It is used by linguists, lexicographers, social scientists, humanities, experts in natural language

processing and in many other fields. A corpus is also be used for generating various language databases
used in software development such as predictive keyboards, spell check, grammar correction,
text/speech understanding systems, text-to-speech modules and many others.

Corpora

Corpora are a large and structured set of texts. Now These texts are electronically stored and processed.
A collection of texts, especially if complete and self-contained.

Types of text corpora

A text corpus can be classified into various categories by the source of the content, metadata (Metadata
is data that describes other data), the presence of multimedia or its relation to other corpora. The same
corpus can fall into more than one category if it fulfills the criteria for more categories.

1 Monolingual corpus: A monolingual corpus is the most frequent type of corpus. It contains texts in one
language only. The corpus is usually tagged for parts of speech and is used by a wide range of users for
various tasks from highly practical ones, e.g. checking the correct usage of a word or looking up the most
natural word combinations, to scientific use, e.g. identifying frequent patterns or new trends in
language. Sketch Engine contains hundreds of monolingual corpora in dozens of languages.

2 Parallel corpus: A parallel corpus consists of two monolingual corpora. One corpus is the translation of
the other. For example, a novel and its translation or a translation memory of a CAT (Computer-assisted
translation) tool could be used to build a parallel corpus. Both languages need to be aligned, i.e.
corresponding segments, usually sentences or paragraphs, need to be matched. The user can then
search for all examples of a word or phrase in one language and the results will be displayed together
with the corresponding sentences in the other language. The user can then observe how the search
word or phrase is translated.

3 Multilingual corpus: A multilingual corpus is very similar to a parallel corpus. The two terms are often
used interchangeably. A multilingual corpus contains texts in several languages which are all translations
of the same text and are aligned in the same way as parallel corpora. Sketch Engine allows the user to
select more than two aligned corpora and the search will display the translation into all the languages
simultaneously. When only two languages are selected, a multilingual corpus behaves as a parallel
corpus. The user can also decide to work with one language to use it as a monolingual corpus. The terms
parallel and multilingual are sometimes used interchangeably.

4 Comparable corpus: A comparable corpus is a set of two or more monolingual corpora, typically each
in a different language, built according to the same principles. The content is therefore similar and
results can be compared between the corpora even though they are not translations of each other (and
therefore, there are not aligned). When users search these corpora they can use the fact, that the
corpora also have the same metadata. An example of comparable corpora in Sketch Engine is CHILDES
corpora or various corpora made from Wikipedia. Araneum corpora are comparable too.

5 Learner corpus: A learner corpus is a corpus of texts produced by learners of a language. The corpus is
used to study the mistakes and problems learners have when learning a foreign language. Sketch Engine
allows for learner corpora to be annotated for the type of error and provides a special interface to
search either for the error itself, for the error correction, for the error type or for a combination of the
three options.

6 Diachronic corpus : A diachronic corpus is a corpus containing texts from different periods and is used
to study the development or change in language. Sketch Engine allows searching the corpus as a whole
or only include selected time intervals into the search. In addition, there is a specialized diachronic
feature called Trends, which identifies words whose usage changes the most of the selected period of
time.

7 Specialized: A specialized corpus contains texts limited to one or more subject areas, domains, topics
etc. Such corpus is used to study how the specialized language is used. The user can create specialized
subcorpora from the general corpora in Sketch Engine.

8 Multimedia: A multimedia corpus contains texts which are enhanced with audio or visual materials or
other type of multimedia content. For example, the spoken part of British National Corpus in Sketch
Engine has links to the corresponding recordings which can be played from the Sketch Engine interface.

The use of Corpus and Dictionary for language teaching and learning
Corpus: A corpus is a collection of texts. We call it a corpus (plural: corpora) when we use it for language
research

Dictionary: a book or electronic resource that lists the words of a language (typically in alphabetical
order) and gives their meaning, or gives the equivalent words in a different language, often also
providing information about pronunciation, origin, and usage

Both, dictionaries and corpora are valuable source for language teaching and combining them in the
classroom can help learners to develop their communication skills, to build their self-confidence, builds
their language ego, teaches them to take risks and this can have a positive influence on their language
(and social) competence.

In Dictionary we can find the meaning, synonyms and pronunciation of any word. Words in context:
Finding out how words are used in a language.

Using corpora allows learners to see the word in different contexts, study collocations at the same place
and it does not give a direct answer but rather force students to think linguistically and deduce the
meaning of the word what may help them to overcome linguistic barriers.

Lexicographers (the people who write dictionaries) have known for a long time that the best way to
avoid missing things is to have a big corpus, and a computer. The computer can then find all the words
(ordered by frequency) so a lexicographer can check the list to make sure that words are not missed.

Corpus can also show them all the examples of a word in context. This is called a concordance. By
running their eye over the concordance, lexicographers can find all the meanings of the word, and
phrases it is in.

If it is a big corpus, or a common word (or both), there might be thousands of examples of the word.
Then, the computer can go one step further, and prepare a 'word sketch', a summary of the contexts,
collocations and phraseology for the word.

Corpus Linguistics for language Teaching

A corpus consists of a databank of natural texts, compiled from writing and/or a transcription of
recorded speech. The main focus of corpus linguistics is to discover patterns of authentic language use
through analysis of actual usage.

According to Barlow (2002), three realms in which corpus linguistics can be applied to teaching are
syllabus design, materials development, and classroom activities.

Syllabus Design: The syllabus organizes the teacher's decisions regarding the focus of a class with
respect to the students needs or requirements. Frequency and register information could be quite
helpful in course planning choices. By conducting an analysis of a corpus which is relevant to the
purpose a particular class, the teacher can determine what language items are linked to the target
register.

Materials Development: The development of materials often relies on a developer's intuitive sense of
what students need to learn. With the help of a corpus, a materials developer could create exercises
based on real examples which provide students with an opportunity to discover features of language
use.

Classroom Activities: These can consist of hands on student-conducted language analyses in which the
students use a concordance program and a deliberately chosen corpus to make their own discoveries
about language use. The teacher can guide a predetermined investigation which will lead to predictable
results or can have the students do it on their own, leading to less predictable findings. This exemplifies
data driven learning, which encourages learner to draw their own conclusions about language use.

A concordancer is a software program which analyzes corpora and lists the results.

Register: Register consists of varieties of language which are used for different situations. Language can
be divided into many registers, which range from the general to the highly specific, depending upon the
degree of specificity that is sought. A general register could include fiction, academic prose,
newspapers, or casual conversation, whereas a specific register would be sub-registers within academic
prose, such as scientific texts, literary criticism, and linguistics studies, each with their own field specific
characteristics.

Teacher/Student Roles and Benefits from corpus linguistics

The teacher would act as a research facilitator rather than the more traditional imparter of knowledge.
The benefit of such student-centered discovery learning is that the students are given access to the facts
of authentic language use, which comes from real contexts rather than being constructed for
pedagogical purposes, and are challenged to construct generalizations and note patterns of language
behavior.

According to Willis (1998), students may be able to determine:

1 The potential different meanings and uses of common words.

2 Useful phrases and typical collocations they might use themselves.

3 The structure and nature of both written and spoken discourse.

4 That certain language features are more typical of some kinds of text than others.

Barlow (1992) suggests that a corpus and concordancer can be used to:
1 compare language use--student/native speaker, standard English/scientific English, written/spoken

2 Analyze the language in books, readers, and course books

3 Generate exercises and student activities

4 Analyze usage--when is it appropriate to use obtain rather than get

5 Examine word order

6 Compare similar words--ask vs. request

Problematic Issues of corpus linguistics for teaching

Several challenges are involved in implementing the use of a corpus for the purpose of teaching.

1 The first is that of corpus selection. For some teaching purposes, any large corpus will serve. Some
corpora are available on-line for free or on disk. But the teacher needs to make sure that the corpus is
useful for the particular teaching context and is representative of the target register. Another option is
to construct a corpus, especially when the target register is highly specific. This can be done by using a
textbook, course reader, or a bunch of articles which the students have to read or are representative of
what they have to read.

2 A corpus does not need to be large in order to be effective. The primary consideration is that of
relevance to the students--it ought to be selected with the learning objectives of the class in mind,
matching the purpose for learning with the corpus.

3 Related to the issue of corpus selection is that of corpus bias, which can cause frustration for the
teacher and student. This is because the data can be misleading; if one uses a very large general corpus,
it may obscure the register variation which reveals important contextual information about language
use. The pitfall is that a corpus may tell us more about itself than about language use.

4 comprehensibility issue: if you use concordancing in a class, it can be quite difficult for the students
(or even the teacher) to understand the data that it provides.

5 Lastly, the issue of learning style differences--for some students, discovery learning is simply not the
optimal approach.

All of these points reinforce the caveat that careful consideration is required before a new technology is
introduced in the classroom, especially one which has not been thoroughly explored and streamlined.