Using British National Corpus in teaching vocabulary to upper-intermediate university students (ID:481514)

INTRODUCTION The advent of digital technology and development of analytical software has marked a new stage in linguistic studies where millions of texts can be stored in one place and processed automatically. The collection of these text is called a corpus. Since the second half of the past century linguists have conducted research into language corpora to detect some of the most typical tendencies in how language units are used with regard to their linguistic environment. The number of applications of corpora has grown over the years and now it includes lexicographical studies, search engine optimization, sociolinguistics, stylistic analysis and forensic linguists. But most importantly, language corpora started to be used in corpus-aided language pedagogy and, in particular, it is applied in ESL teaching. Even though application of corpora in ESL classroom holds great potential in effectively delivering the main peculiarities of how language units operate within certain contexts and how they are y used by native speakers, the system of language education in Ukraine and in many other countries have failed to exploit this potential. This presents the topicality of this paper which deals with the necessity of analyzing and systematizing the peculiarities of applying corpora in teaching English vocabulary units. Even though corpora-based language teaching have become a subject of many academic papers very few of them focus on the specific features of teaching vocabulary units to Upper-Intermediate university students, therefore, it constitutes the novelty of the present thesis. The objective of the work is studying the application of the British National Corpus in teaching vocabulary to university students with Upper-Intermediate level. The object under study is language corpora used in ESL teaching, and the subject of the present thesis can be defined as the peculiarities of applying the British National Corpus in teaching vocabulary units to Upper-Intermediate university students. To achieve the aim of our research we should fulfill the following tasks: 1) to characterize the application of corpora in foreign language teaching; 2) to identify specific peculiarities of teaching vocabulary with the help of corpora; 3) to design our own speaking activities for teaching vocabulary units to Upper-Intermediate university students; 4) to compile a number of writing activities based on the BNC for teaching vocabulary to the same target group of ESL students. In the course paper the following methods were used: the method of analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, the descriptive, comparative, and structural approaches. The scientific novelty of the paper deals with the systematization of the researches on the corpora-based language learning and its application in teaching vocabulary to Upper-Intermediate university students. The practical importance of the paper: its results can be used for the lectures and seminars on teaching vocabulary and also for compiling curricular activities for Upper-Intermediate ESL students in universities. The course paper consists of the introduction, two chapters, conclusion and the bibliography. The total number of pages is 53; the list of literature embraces 36 sources.