Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Language Learning at Your Fingertips: Deploying Corpora in Mobile Teaching Apps

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Creating and Digitizing Language Corpora

Abstract

In this chapter we discuss novel ways of teaching English using new technology. The chapter begins with a brief history of language pedagogy and why current practice, especially in the area of grammar teaching, has not always been satisfactory. We then describe the creation of a number of apps for the teaching of the English language, specifically the interactive Grammar of English (iGE), Academic Writing in English (AWE) and English Spelling and Punctuation (ESP). These apps use corpora to source example sentences dynamically and to populate exercises.

AWE and ESP were funded by a UCL Teaching Innovation Grant, and iGE was developed as a spin-off from the AHRC-funded projects Creating a Web-Based Platform for English Language Teaching and Learning (AH/H015787/1) and Extending the Englicious Platform for Primary English (AH/L004550/1). We gratefully acknowledge this support.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    The three apps can be accessed online via the Survey of English Usage: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/apps. A fourth app, Grammar Practice for KS2 (GP-KS2), is also available.

  2. 2.

    The British comic group Monty Python made fun of the drill-based approach in a sketch in which a foreigner walks into a shop holding a Hungarian phrase book, and says to the shopkeeper: ‘I will not buy this record; it is scratched’. The shopkeeper replies: ‘No, no, no, this is a tobacconist’s’. The visitor, experiencing an aha-Erlebnis, then says: ‘Ahh, I will not buy this tobacconist’s; it is scratched’.

  3. 3.

    See http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar. IGE was funded by JISC JTAP-49.

  4. 4.

    This method is commonly used to rank items by user-ratings on websites.

  5. 5.

    See http://www.webcorp.org.uk.

  6. 6.

    However, see also iGE in the classroom, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/english-usage/apps/ige/classroom.htm.

  7. 7.

    For child learning apps it may be appropriate to employ frequency statistics from age-appropriate corpora and also pre-screen the vocabulary in other ways.

  8. 8.

    This was further complicated after the first 100 words, as from this point on frequency differences between test words are rather smaller and less reliable. We therefore chose to additionally classify these words into four 25-word groups by their expected context (‘Academic’, ‘Business’ and so on).

References

  • Aarts, Bas, Daniel Clayton, and Sean Wallis. 2012. Bridging the Grammar Gap: teaching English to the iPhone generation. English Today 28(1): 3–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aarts, Bas, and Sean Wallis. 2011. interactive Grammar of English. iOS and Android app. London: Survey of English Usage/UCL Business.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bax, Stephen. 2003. The end of CLT: a context approach to language teaching. ELT Journal 57(3): 278–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bloom, Benjamin, Max Engelhart, Edward Furst, Walter Hill, and David Krathwohl. 1956. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gass, Susan. 2003. Input and interaction. In The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, eds. Catherine Doughty, and Michael Long, 224–255. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gass, Susan, and Maria José Alvarez Torres. 2005. Attention when? An investigation of the ordering effect of input and interaction. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 27: 1–31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore, Alex. 2007. Authentic materials and authenticity in foreign language learning. Language Teaching 40(2): 97–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grabe, William. 2009. Reading in a Second Language: Moving from Theory to Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodman, Kenneth, and David Freeman. 1993. What’s simple in simplified language? In Simplification: Theory and Application, ed. Makhan Tickoo, 69–76. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunderson, Lee. 2009. ESL (ELL) Literacy Instruction: A Guidebook to Theory and Practice. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hudson, Richard, and John Walmsley. 2005. The English patient: English grammar and teaching in the twentieth century. Journal of Linguistics 41: 593–622.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johns, Tim and Philip King (eds). 1991. Classroom concordancing. English Language Research Journal 4 (New Series). Birmingham University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaltenböck, Gunther, and Barbara Mehlmauer-Larcher. 2005. Computer corpora and the language classroom: on the potential and limitations of computer corpora in language teaching. ReCALL 17(1): 65–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen-Freeman, Diane. 2000. Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCaul, Mae. 1973. Drills in language teaching. TESL Reporter 6(2): 6–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLaughlin, G. Harry. 1969. SMOG grading—A new readability formula. Journal of Reading 12(8): 639–646.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mehl, Seth, Sean Wallis, and Bas Aarts. 2013. Academic Writing in English. iOS and Android app. London: Survey of English Usage/UCL Business.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, Rosamond. 1994. The communicative approach to language teaching: an introduction. In Teaching Modern Languages, ed. Ann Swarbrick, 33–42. London: Routledge/The Open University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, Gerald, Sean Wallis, and Bas Aarts. 2002. Exploring Natural Language: Working with the British Component of the International Corpus of English. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Nesi, Hilary, and Sheena Gardner. 2012. Genres across the Disciplines: Student Writing in Higher Education. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prodromou, Luke. 1996. Correspondence. ELT Journal 50(4): 371–373.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, and Jan Svartvik. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Royer, James, John A. Bates, and Christopher Konold. 1984. Learning from Text: methods of Affecting Reader Intent. In Reading in a Foreign Language, eds. Charles J. Alderson, and Alexander Urquhart, 65–81. London: Longman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Swan, Michael. 1985. A critical look at the Communicative Approach (1). ELT Journal 39(1): 2–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallis, Sean. 2013. Binomial confidence intervals and contingency tests: mathematical fundamentals and the evaluation of alternative methods. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 20(3): 178–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallis, Sean, Seth Mehl, and Bas Aarts. 2014. English Spelling and Punctuation. iOS app. London: Survey of English Usage/UCL Business.

    Google Scholar 

  • Widdowson, Henry G. 1979. Explorations in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ——— 1985. Against dogma: a reply to Michael Swan. ELT Journal 39(3): 158–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ——— 1998. Context, community, and authentic language. TESOL Quarterly 32(4): 705–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willis, Dave. 1990. The Lexical Syllabus: A New Approach to Language Teaching. London: Collins.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University College London, London, UK

    Seth Mehl, Sean Wallis & Bas Aarts

Authors
  1. Seth Mehl
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sean Wallis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Bas Aarts
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of English Literature, Language & Linguistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

    Karen P. Corrigan

  2. School of English Literature, Language & Linguistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

    Adam Mearns

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Mehl, S., Wallis, S., Aarts, B. (2016). Language Learning at Your Fingertips: Deploying Corpora in Mobile Teaching Apps. In: Corrigan, K., Mearns, A. (eds) Creating and Digitizing Language Corpora. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-38645-8_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-38645-8_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-38644-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-38645-8

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation