Exploring Culture-Related Content in the COCA with Task-Based Activities in the EFL Classroom

Autor/in	Lopes, António
Titel	Exploring Culture-Related Content in the COCA with Task-Based Activities in the EFL Classroom
Quelle	(2013), (6 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; Second Language Instruction; Cultural Awareness; Computational Linguistics; North American English; Writing Skills; Skill Development; Undergraduate Students; Humanities; Social Sciences; Writing Assignments; Questionnaires; Student Attitudes; Grammar; Accuracy; Learning Strategies; Teaching Methods + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? English as second language; English; Second Language; Englisch als Zweitsprache; Zweitsprachenerwerb; Fremdsprachenunterricht; Cultural identity; Kulturelle Identität; Linguistics; Computerlinguistik; Amerikanisches Englisch; Writing skill; Schreibfertigkeit; Kompetenzentwicklung; Qualifikationsentwicklung; Geisteswissenschaften; Humanwissenschaften; Social science; Sozialwissenschaften; Gesellschaftswissenschaften; Fragebogen; Schülerverhalten; Grammatik; Learning methode; Learning techniques; Lernmethode; Lernstrategie; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode
Abstract	The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) at the Brigham Young University website has been used in the English as a Foreign language (EFL) classroom to help learners better understand how language works at different levels of analysis and also to develop their writing skills. However, it also allows learners to explore culture-related content by giving them access to invaluable information about the social, ideological, political and historical contexts. Moreover, it provides the means to examine the ways in which such aspects intersect with language and condition its use. The understanding of this cultural and discursive dimension of language is pivotal in the training of undergraduate students in the areas of humanities and social sciences. To determine how far the COCA can contribute to increase this awareness, a series of task-based activities involving writing was drawn up and carried out in an EFL class of undergraduate students. They were first introduced to this corpus analysis tool and encouraged to explore it further. Later on, in order to complete a writing task, they were prompted to resort to a series of strategies to collect information about relevant events, personalities and social or cultural phenomena, to analyse and interpret data, and to draw conclusions about the modes in which culture and language can interact. This paper provides (a) the rationale and a brief literature review on this topic, (b) a description of the task-based activities, the implementation process, the students' strategies and the evaluation procedures, and (c) a critical reflection on this study that may open the path for further developments in this area. [For full proceedings, see ED565044.] (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01