Korpusy v jazykovém vyučování

Abstract

Publikace Korpusy v jazykovém vyučování je určena učitelům, studentům učitelství i dalším zájemcům o vyučování jazyka. V první části se čtenář seznámí s teoriemi osvojování jazyka a jazykovým výzkumem, jsou mu představeny nejznámější a největší korpusy angličtiny, češtiny a výběrově i dalších jazyků s důrazem na korpusy akviziční, zejména na projekt AKCES. Pozornost je zaměřena také na typy korpusů a jejich parametry, tedy velikost, vyváženost, autentičnost, strukturní a poziční atributy. V druhé části publikace je představena práce s korpusy Českého národního korpusu, vyhledávání pomocí rozhraní KonText a pomocí aplikací SyD, Morfio, KWords, Treq a ukázka zapojení frekvenční analýzy do jazykového vyučování. Poslední část publikace tvoří pracovní listy věnované využití korpusových dat v jazykovém vyučování. Součástí pracovních listů je i podrobný popis metodického postupu a řešení zadaných cvičení.

The present monograph is written in the belief that corpus linguistics offers a wide array of tools which are useful and directly useable by L1 and L2 language teachers. It invites them to explore language using basic exploratory corpus linguistics methods and to use these as tools both for learning about language and for designing materials and activities which will guide students to learn about language and increase their linguistic competence. The specific target group for this publication is those teachers whose classes include students with mother tongues different from the class majority (Czech) and thus often with a lower-than-native command of that language. It is especially these students who need careful language work, as the improvement of their linguistic skills in the language of school instruction has a direct bearing on their success at school. Acknowledging the fact that corpus linguistics is a field with which Czech teachers may still be largely unfamiliar, the book, first of all, provides a concise introduction to corpus linguistics. Starting, in Chapter 1, by describing and defining what language corpora are and outlining what types of corpora exist and how they have contributed to language teaching, it then explores the area of corpus research and its relevance to language pedagogy. In Chapter 2 it discusses acquisitional corpora and the link between learner corpus research and such fields as second language acquisition, language testing and assessment and language for specific and academic purposes. It further describes how corpus linguistics can contribute to learner-language analysis especially with regard to grammar, vocabulary, phraseology, discourse, pragmatics, fluency and accuracy and discusses its impact on language teaching. Chapter 3 furthers our understanding of the field by focussing on such key parameters of language corpora as their size, the authenticity of the recorded language they contain, their structural and positional attributes, and methods and implications of corpus annotation. The latter half of the publication aims to introduce teachers to concrete techniques of exploiting language corpora. It does so by introducing the teachers to the Czech National Corpus and the tools which are available through its related web pages, and progresses methodically from the basics of formulating queries and setting various attributes and filters to working with the concordance listing and accompanying web apps, which are directly exploitable in work with students with different L1s, such as SyD, Morfio, KWords, and Treq. One of the book’s most interesting and useful aspects is the inclusion of sample practical worksheets. The authors have designed these to illustrate how corpus tools can be used for the development of teaching materials whilst bearing in mind the characteristic needs of the target group of students, i.e. the need of many of them to improve their knowledge of Czech in order to be able to succeed in the Czech educational system. The exercises include a variety of didactic approaches, and each worksheet is accompanied by a key which includes both the instructions for carrying out the task using one of the corpus tools and a possible solution. The book thus also offers highly practical concrete solutions for teachers who need to prepare language exercises to aid students’ progress in Czech as a second language.