Corpus Linguistics Pedagogy for Native Speakers: Using Corpora to Develop Advanced Writers

Abstract:Corpus study is a method that is very common in the fields of ESOL and applied linguistics. It is widely used and has a variety of functions, including discovering common collocates (words that often appear together, revealing typical usage and phrases). However, while corpus study is well-known and well-studied, it has remained largely the purview of ESOL, rarely if ever being used in research and in courses intended for writers working in their primary language. The course I taught during the Fall Semester 2019 emphasized genre study and corpus study as ways for the students to understand better a particular genre of writing and to apply this new information to their own work. This relatively novel approach to teaching writing using tools borrowed from applied linguistics opens new possibilities for learning, a fresh intervention into both pedagogy and composition studies.