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Accessing and interpreting corpus information in the teacher education context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2008

Michael McCarthy
Michael McCarthy*
Affiliation:
School of English Studies, University of Nottingham, UKJeannemike11@aol.com
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Abstract

As more and more teachers become aware of corpus resources and their applications, questions arise as to how best to prepare teachers in training appropriately to access and interpret corpus information. This is important as an element of materials evaluation as more and more types of materials and resources become corpus-informed. To date, relatively little attention has been given in teacher education programmes to the growing influence of corpora and the skills of evaluating and using corpora, but such skills will become increasingly important as the influence of corpora becomes more dominant in our profession. In this talk I argue that a shift is needed in the relationship between teachers, academics and publishers, from the teacher seen as consumer to the teacher as participant in the corpus revolution. I then consider the questions which need to be asked in evaluating corpora and the pedagogical resources which are based upon them. I look at the strengths and weaknesses of available corpus resources, and how corpus statistical output can be interpreted. Finally, I touch on the issue of reflective practice corpora within teacher education.

Type
Plenary Speeches
Information
Language Teaching , Volume 41 , Issue 4 , October 2008 , pp. 563 - 574
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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