From the Learner Corpus to Learner Autonomy at First Certificate

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From the Learner Corpus to Learner Autonomy at
First Certificate

• Guy Brook-Hart
• Cambridge University Press
• Prague, 11th October 2008

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In this workshop we will look at

• what the Cambridge Learner Corpus (CLC) is
• what information it can give
• how it can be used in the classroom
• how it can be used in course design
• how it can be used to encourage learner autonomy.

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• Examples will be taken from
• Complete First Certificate (CUP 2008)

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What is the Cambridge Learner Corpus (CLC)?

• More than 100,000 scripts from Cambridge ESOL
  Writing Papers allowing analysis of errors
  according to
• level
• L1
• type of error.
• Examples of real student mistakes.

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What is the Cambridge Learner Corpus (CLC)?

• Exclusive to
• Cambridge ESOL
• Cambridge University Press

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What information can it give?

• Grammar errors
• Ana was dating Bob, that was Christine's
  boyfriend
• I am a 15 year old girl that speaks the English
  language fluently

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What information can it give?

• Grammar errors
• I think the better thing we have to do is...
• Laura was more calm and a little bit frightened.

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What information can it give?

• Lexical errors
• a fiesta with typical Spanish clothes
• I hope your holiday was funny.

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What information can it give?

• Collocation errors
• I did the same mistake than you.
• I felt free to use the phone and I did some phone
  calls home.

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What information can it give?

• Collocation errors
• It was an important day and I had to hold a
  speech in front of international visitors.
• Ill answer all the questions that you made me in
  your last letter.

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What information can it give?

• Spelling errors
• confortable
• belive
• preffer
• accomodation
• excelent

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What information can it give?

• Spelling errors
• accomodation
• confortable
• belive
• excelent
• preffer

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What information can it give?

• Spelling errors - confusions with other words
• thing think
• exiting exciting
• Spelling errors - confusions with American
  spellings
• center centre
• color colour

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What information can it give?

• Frequency of errors

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What information can it give?

• Origin of error by language(s)
• I will be able to control the children when they
  swim. Greek
• We needed to control all the microfons before the
  performance. Spanish
• The immigration officer started controlling us.
  Arabic
• I use the internet to book a holiday, to buy a
  book or to control my bank account. Italian

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How can the CLC influence FCE course design?

• Corpus information can
• influence what areas of grammar we focus on
• highlight what students really find difficult,
  not what we imagine they find difficult
• supply material for corpus-based exercises on
  error analysis and correction.

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How can the CLC influence FCE course design?

• Can instead of could in conditionals (including
  polite requests) and other hypothetical
  situations
• It's a mountain bike and if you can see it, I'm
  sure that you'd like it.
• Can instead of could for past situations
• In contrast to this, I can swim when I was six.
• confusion between when to use could/can and
  was/will be able to for past/future situations
• I had a car so we could make a number of tours

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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?

• By ensuring that grammar explanations cover
  problem areas, not just areas we think will be
  tested in the exam.
• By designing exercises which cover those areas
• By including exercises which encourage students
  to think about the mistakes they make and to
  think critically about their productive use of
  language.

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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?

• By making students aware of problem areas so that
  they look for / avoid these particular errors in
  their productive work.

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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?
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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?

• Examples of the language to be focused on may be
  drawn from a reading or listening text.
• Students see correct use of language in an
  authentic context.
• They draw conclusions from the use of language in
  the context.
• They check their conclusions by studying grammar
  rules.

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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?
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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?

• Students are told this is a problem area.
• They work on a task which contains language used
  by candidates in the exam.

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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?
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How can the CLC be used in the classroom?

• The exercise which follows is closer to how this
  language area will be directly tested in the
  exam.
• There may be further opportunity for freer, more
  productive practice.

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How can the CLC influence FCE course design?

• Corpus information can
• pinpoint lexical problems and determine what
  lexis is worked on in the course
• focus on students problem areas
• provide a lexical syllabus based on research, not
  supposition.

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How can the CLC influence FCE course design?

• Dish, food and meal
• for example the beef food is really tasty and
  looks very healthy
• Is there any vegetarian meal or only tradational
  cooking?
• You will have free food breakfast, lunch and
  dinner.

U4
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How can the CLC influence FCE course design?
Extracts from the Cambridge Advanced Learners
Dictionary
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How can the CLC influence FCE course design?

• Clear definitions can be used to sort out
  students confusions.
• Students can work out for themselves why a word
  is wrong / which word would be the right choice.

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How can dictionary work help?

• using definitions
• using examples
• work on common learner errors
• work on collocations
• getting students to think about, analyse and
  understand correct usage
• going from a formal explanation to an exercise.

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How can dictionary work help?
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How can dictionary work help?
Extracts from the Cambridge Advanced Learners
Dictionary
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How does error analysis and correction help
students?

• by building up systematic awareness of errors
• by creating a error-finding and error-correcting
  habits
• by making students more self-aware and therefore
  more responsible.

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What else can we do in class apart from the
exercises in the book?

• Work on correcting an answer to a writing task.
• Take in an answer from another class.
• Underline selected errors and indicate whether
  students should look in the dictionary or
  Students Book to correct them.
• Students note errors and corrections in their
  notebooks
• Students work on rephrasing.

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What else can we do in class apart from the
exercises in the book?

• students read sample answer from Teachers Book
• finally, students correct and revise their own
  answers to the tasks based on this session before
  handing them in.

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Complete First Certificate (CUP 2008)

• Is Corpus-informed throughout

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Complete First Certificate Students Book

• has been written specifically for the new FCE
  exam (December 2008)
• is aimed at students aged 16 - 18 and young
  adults
• has 16 units containing
• skills for one part of each FCE paper (Reading,
  Writing, Use of English, Listening and Speaking)
• Corpus-informed vocabulary and grammar input.

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Complete First Certificate Students Book has

• a 16-page Grammar reference section
• an 8-page Writing reference section
• a 4-page Speaking reference section
• a complete model exam for the new FCE exam,
  supplied by Cambridge ESOL
• a CD-ROM for self-study.

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Other components

• A Teachers Book with step-by-step teaching
  notes, photocopiable activities, progress tests,
  photocopiable word lists, answer keys and
  recording scripts.
• 3 audio CDs including recordings for the model
  Listening Paper supplied by Cambridge ESOL.
• A Workbook with audio CD (authors Barbara Thomas
  and Amanda Thomas).

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Complete CAE by Guy Brook-Hart and Simon Haines

• appearing next year.

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guybrookhart_at_gmail.com