Corpus Linguistics for Curriculum Design explores how corpora can be employed in the design of language curricula, both for English as a Foreign/Second Language and for other languages.
This book provides an overview of established approaches to curriculum design and guides the reader towards an understanding of how corpora can be used to inform such processes, providing them with the skills needed to use corpora to inform the design of their own curricula. This is the first book to systematically and comprehensively set out what corpus-informed curriculum design can look like, providing in-depth coverage of both General English and English for Specific Purposes. It considers a number of different language areas such as grammar, vocabulary and pragmatics, showing how both item selection and ordering within a curriculum can be informed by corpora.
This accessible guide is essential reading for students and researchers in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Applied Linguistics, English Language Teaching (ELT), materials design as well as language teachers and curriculum designers.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Graham Burton
Corpus basics
Corpora and corpus software
Basic corpus searches
Tagging and meta-data
More advanced searches
Book structure
References
Chapter 2: Curriculum and corpus: building blocks
Graham Burton
Introduction
Curriculum: General principles
Why use a corpus?
Syllabus types
Synthetic and analytic syllabuses
Product and process-based syllabuses
Linear, cyclical and spiral syllabuses
Lexical syllabuses
Register variation
Corpus-based and corpus-informed teaching materials
Example corpus-based/informed teaching materials
References
Chapter 3: Lexis in the curriculum
Graham Burton
What is a word?
The three dimensions of vocabulary development
Choosing vocabulary to teach
Word lists
Frequency: problems and limitations
Multiword units
Summary of vocabulary selection
Lexis in the General English curriculum
Single-word lists
Multi-word lists
Lexis in the ESP curriculum
EAP word lists
Other ESP word lists
Conclusions
References
Chapter 4: Grammar
Graham Burton
Introduction
Choosing grammar to teach
Lexicogrammar
Register
Learner corpora and learner errors
Grammar in the General English curriculum
Register
Spoken grammar
Frequency and accuracy in description
Studies on ‘non-standard’ English
Grammar in the ESP curriculum
Conclusions
References
Chapter 5: Pragmatics and discourse
Graham Burton
Introduction
Pragmatic and discourse competence
Pragmatic competence
Discourse competence
Investigating pragmatics and discourse with a corpus
Form-to-function approaches
Function-to-form approaches
Investigating discourse
Bringing things together: informing the curriculum
Conversation structure and conventions
Discourse and stance markers
Speech acts
Politeness and hedging
Pragmatics and discourse in the general English curriculum
Pragmatics and discourse in the ESP curriculum
Hedging
Imperatives
Stance
Spoken EAP
Workplace discourse
Medical interaction
Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: Sequencing
Graham Burton
Introduction
Sequencing: basic concepts
Corpora and sequencing
Longitudinal corpora
The English Vocabulary Profile
Other resources for vocabulary sequencing
The English Grammar Profile
From corpus to curriculum: Burton’s (2022) study on conditionals
Pragmatics and discourse
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Graham Burton
Recap
Evaluation
Final thought
References
Index
Biography
Graham Burton is Assistant Professor at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy. His main research interests are applications of corpus linguistics to language teaching, materials development, pedagogic grammar, academic writing and multilingualism. He is the author of numerous books, book chapters, peer-reviewed journals and teaching publications.
“This is an excellent introduction to how corpus research can inform curriculum development. It covers key elements of theory and practice in an accessible and engaging way. The hands-on tasks and links to key resources enable readers to develop their understanding and skills and to access a vast array of useful tools and information. Corpus Linguistics for Curriculum Design will interest any practitioners involved in developing, adapting, evaluating, or even just using, language curricula, as well as to students of corpus linguistics seeking to understand how their work can inform teaching practice.”
Phil Durrant, University of Exeter, UK
