This book does a really admirable job of bridging the gap between theory and practice in computer-aided language learning. It is unique in providing not just a wide range of practical and motivating activities, but also a clear and accessible rationale for each activity. Crucially, this means that readers are equipped with both a set of ideas they can implement immediately and a set of sound principles they can use to design their own activities. Books like this, which foster principled practice, are all too few, and I thoroughly recommend this volume for teachers and teacher educators who would like to gain practical and theoretical understanding of this field. - Prof Ivor Timmis, Leeds Beckett University.
This volume is a treasure trove of activities ready for classroom use. Corpus activities are presented in a teacher-friendly, easy to use manner, with topics ranging from General English to English for specific purposes for a variety of levels. A must have for any teacher interested in using corpus resources in their classroom. - Prof Randi Reppen, Northern Arizona University.
English language teachers have been waiting a long time for a book like this. It is a wide-ranging and practical resource book that will give teachers so many ideas for using corpora in the classroom in a step-by-step way. This book really will bring corpora into the classroom. - Dr Anne O'Keeffe, Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick.
Corpora have revolutionised research in language and linguistics over the past 50 years, but also have much to offer in practical everyday aspects of language teaching. Teachers do not need to be corpus linguists to benefit from corpus tools in preparing their own materials and activities, but a general awareness of the potential of corpora and their uses should form a substantial part of any language teacher training programme. This book fills a long-standing need for simple, accessible, relevant and inspirational activities that can be used ready-made (many with online handouts) via a step-by-step outline of procedures, or inspire similar activities on related language points.
Based on the contributors' varied experiences and designed with the teacher firmly in mind, each of the 70 chapters is short (usually 3 to 5 pages) and self-contained, and can be dipped into at any point for teaching English for general or specific purposes. And dipping into it is certainly worthwhile, as the range of activities reveals the breathtaking potential of corpora to impact so many different dimensions of language teaching and learning. It soon becomes clear that corpora can help far beyond the obvious vocabulary and lexicogrammar, extending into pragmatics, discourse and pronunciation for all the skills, as well as topic-related content, from selecting level-appropriate texts and authentic examples in different registers or disciplines, to creating stimulating activities for teaching and learning, revising and self-correcting, and so on.
I was enthusiastic about this book when I saw the title and aims, more so when I read the list of contributors and then the thoughtful introduction (a chapter in its own right to set the scene and rationale before outlining the book), and finally thrilled when I actually opened the chapters! Some classic activity types alongside so many ideas I would never have thought of, some tools that were new to me and new uses of familiar ones (all of which seem to be freely available), even subverting some non-corpus tools such as Google Scholar. If I were a literary critic, I'd be using phrases like 'staggering tour de force'; suffice to say that I'll be getting several copies ordered. - Prof Alex Boulton, ATILF - CNRS & Universite de Lorraine.
