During my 30-minute slot, I tried to portion a few basic ideas for how ELT writers tin forcefulness out utilisation a corpus to assist them inwards their everyday writing lives. It was a fighting of a quick whizz through in addition to I promised to flesh out a few to a greater extent than details of materials that I mentioned at the end. So here’s an annotated version of my finally slide:
Corpora:
There are lots of corpora out at that spot in addition to this is simply a really little choice intended equally examples.
The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA): http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/
- This is maybe i of the largest in addition to most easily accessible opened upward corpora. It has a overnice interface in addition to lots of actually useful tools. It’s primary drawback from an ELT viewpoint is that it exclusively includes American English. Linked to the same corpus is wordandphrase.info which has to a greater extent than actually interesting tools.
Sketch Engine for Language Learning (SkELL): http://skell.sketchengine.co.uk/
- Sketch Engine make corpus software that’s used past times many of the large publishers. They also concur their ain corpora which tin forcefulness out live on accessed inwards diverse ways (see below). SkELL is a complimentary alternative which gives you lot access to a actually overnice large corpus. It doesn’t, however, offering their sum attain of corpus tools. From what I’ve seen, it’s actually skilful for collocation searches, but less useful for to a greater extent than detailed query because it exclusively shows a express attain of examples.
British Academic Written/Spoken English (BAWE/BASE): https://the.sketchengine.co.uk/open/
- This is simply i instance of the many to a greater extent than specialist corpora out there. These 2 corpora are made upward of writing/speaking collected from students at a issue of U.K. universities. As person working a lot inwards EAP, I honour it actually useful for finding examples that supply a realistic model for students (i.e. what native speaker peers write inwards their essays rather than what high-flying academics acquire published inwards academic journals).
Sketch Engine (subscription): http://www.sketchengine.co.uk/
- For a little subscription (I paid £14 for three months), you lot tin forcefulness out sign upward to utilisation a much wider attain of corpus tools in addition to convey access to a issue of large corpora.
NOTE: Make certain you lot read the little impress of whatever corpus you lot determine to use. Most convey clear weather condition nigh usage, which frequently include non using their information for commercial purposes.
Other tools:
Vocab Kitchen (text checker): http://vocabkitchen.com/
- Textcheckers allow you lot to input a text in addition to volition in addition to thence analyse the vocab. Some of them (like this one) volition grade it upward according to a special wordlist, such equally the EVP* (CEFR levels) or the Academic Word List. Others volition categorise words according to frequency (in a special corpus). Of course, how you lot conduct to utilisation these volition live on really much dependant on how you lot persuasion these give-and-take lists …
*Note that the English linguistic communication Vocab Profile site also contains weather condition of utilisation that are worth noting!!
Ngram viewer: https://books.google.com/ngrams
- This is a fun picayune tool which volition exhibit you lot a word’s changing usage over a menses of fourth dimension (based on usage inwards Google books). It also allows you lot to compare the usage of 2 words (or phrases) over time.
- This also includes picayune usage tendency graphs – a fighting to a greater extent than up-to-date than Ngram, but express to words that look inwards the dictionary.
Dictionary tools:
You don’t ever postulate to reinvent the bike – there’s loads of useful materials to depict on inwards published learner’s dictionaries too.
Thesaurus: Many of the major dictionaries convey to a greater extent than or less form of thesaurus tool or might to browse words past times topic, either online or equally role of their CD-ROM/DVD version. I utilisation these loads for ideas when I’m working on vocab exercises. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Thesaurus is nifty for teasing out the subtle differences betwixt synonyms.
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary: The CD-ROM version of CALD has a actually useful advanced search facility that allows you lot to search using whatever of the labels inwards the dictionary, thence for example, all nouns followed past times –ing forms.
Hope you lot convey fun exploring these tools in addition to finding what plant best for you.
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