Corpora in grammar teaching - towards higher motivation, deeper understanding and more solid proficiency in English grammar

Abstract

The principal aims of this project were to increase student motivation and encourage learner autonomy in a university course on English grammar by introducing the use of language corpora (large databases of authentic text). The students worked with problem-solving assignments which involved formulating their own grammatical rules based on examples found in the corpus. They also explained rules to each other in small groups (peer teaching). The methodology was evaluated by means of questionnaires and interviews, primarily focusing on experiences and attitudes. The most important conclusion is that corpus work requires a large amount of introduction and continuous support in order to make students become independent corpus users who know how to formulate relevant corpus queries and interpret the results.