Using Corpora for English Language Teacher Education (ELTE)

Abstract

The article seeks to explore the use of corpora in the training and professional development of English language teachers. It will be argued that in ELTE (English Language Teacher Education), the use of corpus-based approaches offers a wide range of possibilities which enable and promote reflection, encourage the sharing of best practice and foster data-driven practice procedures. The analytical core of the paper focuses on two examples of integrating corpora into ELTE—CLCA, an amalgamation of corpus linguistics and conversational analysis, and SETTVEO, a combination of the SETT (Self-Evaluation of Teacher Talk) framework and the VEO (Video Enhanced Observation) app. The former provides insights into enhanced understandings of spoken interaction and its relationship with learning. The latter aids teachers in developing their classroom interactional competence by collecting reflective and interactional data so as to establish and evaluate a dialogic and collaborative approach to reflective practice.