Computer corpora and the language classroom: on the potential and limitations of computer corpora in language teaching
Computer corpora and the language classroom: on the potential and limitations of computer corpora in language teaching
复制标题
计算机语料库和语言课堂：论计算机语料库在语言教学中的潜力和局限性
DOI：
10.1017/s0958344005000613
复制
发表时间：
2005
期刊：
影响因子：
4.5
通讯作者：
Barbara Mehlmauer
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Gunther Kaltenböck;Barbara Mehlmauer
随着计算机语料库作为语言学研究工具的地位牢固确立，计算机语料库在语言教学中的应用也越来越受到推崇，甚至被认为是语言教学的新革命（cf. Sinclair, 2004b）。本文从国际英语语料库的英国部分提供了一些实际的例子，从一个更批判性的观点出发，探讨了计算机语料库在语言课堂上的一些潜力和局限性。本文认为，只有平衡地看待计算机语料库在语言教学中的优势和劣势，才能确保计算机语料库成功地融入语言课堂。讨论首先集中在语料库数据的局限性上，语料库数据被确定为“外部化”语言，而不是“内部化”语言，缺乏上下文信息，而不是共文信息。另一方面，计算机语料库提供了不易从其他来源获得的信息，即各种文本类型中出现频率的信息，以及共现模式（如搭配、组合、语义韵律）。然而，这一信息也必须根据更普遍的问题来看待，即语料库结果的代表性如何以及它们在多大程度上是可推广的。文章最后讨论了使用计算机语料库的教学意义，特别是将其作为探索性/发现性学习的工具和促进学习者自主的手段。
With computer corpora firmly established as research tools in linguistics, their application for language teaching purposes is also increasingly advocated to the extent that corpus-based language teaching has even been praised as the new revolution in language teaching (cf. Sinclair, 2004b). This article takes a more critical view and examines some of the potential as well as the limitations of computer corpora in the language classroom, providing practical examples from the British Component of the International Corpus of English. It is argued that only a balanced view, which takes into account both the strengths and weaknesses of computer corpora for language teaching, can ensure their successful integration into the language classroom. The discussion first focuses on the limitations of corpus data, which are identified as ‘externalized’, as opposed to ‘internalized’ language, lacking contextual, as opposed to co-textual, information. On the other hand, computer corpora provide access to information not easily available from other sources, viz. information on frequency of occurrence in various text types, and co-occurrence patterns, e.g. collocation, colligation, semantic prosody). This information, however, also has to be seen in the light of the more general questions of how representative corpus results are and to what extent they are generalisable. The article concludes with a discussion of pedagogical implications of the use of computer corpora, especially with regard to their application as tools for exploratory/discovery learning and as means for promoting learner autonomy.