SURFING AN ENGLISH CORPUS WITH OTHER LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Abstract

The paper describes some experiences of surfing an English corpus, the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA for short) with other learners of English. The challenges expressed by other learners inform us of the problems other users may have that we may not be aware of. Several examples of word-form searches, lemma searches, or part-of speech (POS) searches in both word/phrase queries and collocate queries are shown and explained. We can also limit our word/lemma searches to certain parts-of-speech, although the part-of-speech tagging is not always accurate. On top of that, there are wild-card symbols that we can use in our queries. The word/phrase query window in COCA enables us to search for just a word-form or a lemma, or a succession of word-forms, lemmas, and parts-of-speech as well as the wildcards, within limits. When we make a collocate query, we look for the co-occurrences of one item (a word, a lemma, a POS or a wildcard) that we put in the collocate window, and the item[s] we put in the word/phrase window. We also specify the distance of the ‘collocate’ and the word/phrase and the direction, to the right or to the left, or both to the right and left. Unless we change the default, it will search for the ‘collocate’ within the space of four words to the left and four words to the right of what we put in the word/phrase window. Searching a corpus together can reveal the misperceptions and difficulties that some learners may have, which if properly handled, can lead us to valuable insight as we learn from each other. We learn from other learners, for instance, that some of them are not aware that even though the frequency result of a collocate query shows just a word or the word-forms of a lemma, it is actually capturing the co-occurrences of that one word or that lemma with the item in the word/phrase window that we can see in the concordance lines. It is therefore advisable to give a reminder to always check the concordance lines. By checking the concordance lines we can judge whether or not the co-occurrences are indeed a case of collocation or just co-occurrences within the specified distance where actually the so-called ‘collocate’ does not relate to the item in the word/phrase window. While scrutinizing the concordance lines we can also check whether certain expressions are used in the meanings we have in mind. Whereas the ability, speed and accuracy in making these judgments, as can be expected, vary among corpus users, it is worth noting that the lemma-word form concept, POS codes, even some POS themselves are still a challenge for some learners. Examining the concordance lines can also reveal how speakers use the same expression in various ways. The paper ends with a discussion of the potential usefulness of the concordance lines as raw material that can be selected and edited to give learners additional exposure to what is obtained from other means of learning, hopefully leading to better language acquisition.