EESL 545

Howard
YOUR NAME: Reem Alzakan
Study Guide
Conrad
1. Full reference listing for the chapter (APA Style).

Conrad, S. (2008). Myth: Corpus-based research is too complicated to be useful for

writing teachers. In J. Reid (Ed.), Writing Myths: Applying second language

research to classroom teaching. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

2. Chapter Summary (if you choose to summarize this chapter for this module- only
summarize one chapter/reading per module).

3. What is corpus-based research and what does it investigate that is relevant to

Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics?

It is a research study that used a corpus linguistics approach this approach

involves using computers to analyze large collections of transcribed spoken or
written texts. The strength of using a large corpus is that we can see what language
choices typically occur in certain contexts when we consider many different writers
(or speakers) (Conrad, 2008, p. 115). It investigated and described how grammar
and vocabulary are used differently in texts.

4. Identify three findings from corpus-based research (preferably findings that were
surprising or unexpected for you). Give an example. How will this finding change the
way you write, or change the way you teach writing?

Finding from corpus- Example How your writing or

based research
Formulaic language
chunks (also called lexical
bundles) are very useful in
academic writing.
The language needed to
argue or persuade in
academic writing is very
different from the
language used in everyday
arguments, such as in
Phrases such as: in other
words, on the other hand
Using first-person
pronoun+ verb showing
thought or belief. For
example: I believe there
must be…
teaching might address
this finding
These phrases will help in
flowing of ideas and help
reader to follow thoughts
easily.
Writing for academic
purpose differ from writing
in newspaper or everyday
conversations in
vocabulary choices and
using grammar. Teachers
newspaper editorials or should explicit explain that
conversations. differences to ESL.
In any discipline, the In history class, using past “The type of questions that
patterns of language tense for global statement a discipline addresses, the
features reflect not only about study and present methods that are used to
the subject area, but the tense with the methods and gather and analyze
methods for building evidence. While in biology information, and even the
knowledge. class it is the opposite. type of information that is
considered appropriate all
affect language choices”
(Conrad, 2008, p. 121).

5. Identify the two most important ways that the information in this article might
impact how you teach grammar for writing in your target teaching context. In
identifying these ways, think about the author’s suggestions or implications that
seem relevant to your teaching context, the author’s suggestions or implications that
you could adapt in some way to better fit your target context (since many of the
points are primarily about higher-level academic writing), or different ways- not
explicitly mentioned here- that corpus-based research could enlighten you about
your target teaching level.

1. When choosing academic textbooks, look for books that have samples of real
writing from disciplinary sources not just popular magazines and not
examples written (or highly modified) for the ESL textbook. For my target
level which is kindergarten, I think it is important to pay attention to choose
textbook that fit their need to learn writing. For example, books that have
tracing of writing at the first stage, then students move to parts where they
write by their own. Moreover, books that explain how write certain letters by
having pictures for each step of writing this letter.

2. To help students develop their awareness of how to adapt language for

different academic contexts, give assignments that have students analyze
writing in different disciplines and for different audiences. When teaching
certain kind of genres, assign a writing task that will help students to apply
what they learned. In this way, teachers will know if students get the idea
and students with the application, the information will be clearer for them.