Abstract:

The study explores various applications of authentic corpus language data in professional language classroom at university level. According to past research, the majority of L2 learners entirely rely on the output of computer-assisted translation, which in a few instances leads to ambiguity on lexical and grammatical levels [Marello 2014]. One of key aspects of ESP pedagogies is giving the learners tools to master contextualization patterns and genre-specific features of the professional target language, which, in its turn, would ensure acceptability and appropriateness of their linguistic choices. Specialized monolingual and bilingual dictionaries as well as automatic translation tools do not always provide sufficient information on specific lexical and grammatical features, i.e. nuances in synonymic words, and in this case specialized corpora have proven to be especially useful [Leech 1997], [Bernardini 2004].

The authors intend to report on the application of a freely available EcoLexicon online corpus in specific language classes at Environmental studies faculty of RUDN University, Russia. Although corpus tools are traditionally used by linguists, we intend to demonstrate how they can be used by non-linguist students to facilitate better understanding of inherent semantics, depart from generic surface understanding of professional texts and delve deep into structures and meanings, enhancing overall linguistic competence of learners and instructors alike. The authors will share students’ reflections upon using an online corpus tool in English for specific purposes classes.

The main result of the study is that despite numerous benefits, corpus-based tools can present certain challenges as well. The incomplete sentences containing key words in the concordance output might be challenging for the students. Besides, the large number of concordances can be perceived as overwhelming by non-linguistic students who are not accustomed to inductive language learning procedures. These deficiencies, however, may be remedied by careful design of teaching materials and assignments, which we would like to present in more detail at the conference.

Keywords:

ESP, online corpus, specialized corpus.