English corpus linguistics: Methods and applications

Teacher(s)

Gilquin Gaëtanelle;

Language

English

Main themes

The course introduces the main tenets of corpus linguistics from the perspective of the study of English. It deals with the tools and methods used to compile and analyse English spoken or written corpora, as well as the possible applications of English corpus linguistics. 
It covers the following topics:  

• definition and typology of  corpora: spoken and written; monolingual and multilingual; native and learner; diachronic and synchronic; etc. 
• evolution of corpora and major English corpora: BNC, COCA, ICLE, LINDSEI, etc. 
• corpus compilation: data collection, markup, annotation 
• corpus techniques: concordances, frequency lists, collocations, n-grams, etc. 
• corpus approaches (corpus-based/corpus-driven, qualitative/quantitative) and research domains (lexis, grammar, discourse, etc.) 
• applications: English as a foreign language learning and teaching, corpus stylistics, forensic linguistics, etc.  

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	Master the English terminology and the concepts introduced in class.
2	Use certain tools and techniques to analyse spoken and written English corpus data
3	Apply the acquired knowledge to different fields and domains of English language studies
4	Read scientific literature in corpus linguistics applied to English
This learning unit contributes to the development and command of the following skills and learning outcomes of the ELAL programmes (ELAL learning outcomes): 1.1, 1.4, 2.1, 2.6, 3.1, 4.5, 5.2, 5.3, 6.1

Content

The course provides an introduction to corpus linguistics. It presents the main concepts related to corpus linguistics, as well as some of its possible applications in different fields. It places special emphasis on the practical aspects of corpus linguistics.

Teaching methods

Lectures and exercise sessions taking place in a computer lab. Several assignments will be organized to familiarize students with corpus analysis software and techniques.

Evaluation methods

In this course, students' learning outcomes will be evaluated by means of continuous assessment. Assignments to be completed during the term will account for 20% of the final grade. The last part of the evaluation, representing 80% of the final grade, will take place at the end of the term, before the actual exam session. It will consist of an open-book corpus analysis taking place in a computer lab. Students will have two hours to carry out a corpus analysis based on the data and instructions provided. Students with specific profiles (PEPS) will be granted accommodations in accordance with their status.
In the August/September exam session, the open-book corpus analysis will account for 100% of the final grade. It will take place in a computer lab during the exam session.
As we are aiming to train language specialists, particular attention will be paid to language accuracy in the evaluation of students' learning outcomes. For the same reason, the use of generative artificial intelligence is not allowed for any parts of the evaluation. Their use by the student will be considered as cheating.

Online resources

Moodle

Teaching materials

• Documents sur Moodle
• Notes de cours de l'étudiant·e

Faculty or entity

> ELAL