Abstract:

This paper aims to present an account of the use of corpus-based activities for the acquisition of contrastive knowledge in English language teaching and teacher training. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design is adopted to collect data from higher educational institutions in Cuba. The paper summarizes the results obtained from the application of different instruments for data collection during the qualitative stage of the research, which involved classroom observations and interviews with teachers. The findings indicate that contrastive analysis based on authentic texts is still insufficiently implemented in foreign language teaching. Moreover, there is no methodological framework for the training of teacher educators to use authentic databases in English to facilitate corpus-based activities and contrastive analysis for enhancing language teaching. Thus, there are limitations in the planning, design, and implementation of a variety of activities and teaching materials integrating linguistic, technological, and pedagogical skills. In this context, this research paper offers the grounds for a more extensive exploration of the suitability to adopt a corpus-based approach for the acquisition of contrastive knowledge between Spanish as a native language and English as a foreign language. Such an approach, when applied to authentic databases, is deemed to benefit both teaching and teacher training in Cuban higher educational institutions.

Keywords:

Corpora, corpus-based activities, contrastive analysis, contrastive knowledge, language teaching.