Using the Corpus: Books from Routledge

A Corpus of Formal British English Speech

The Lancaster/IBM Spoken English Corpus

By Gerald Knowles

This work provides 50,000 words of prosodically-transcribed text from a variety of sources. The introduction explains fully the transcription conventions, the structure of the corpus and its relationship to other computer corpora, and provides examples of different versions of texts.

Successful Spoken English. Findings from Learner Corpora

by Christian Jones, Shelley Byrne, Nicola Halenko

Successful Spoken English demonstrates how spoken learner corpora can be used to define and explore the constituents of successful spoken English. Taking the approach that language learners can speak effectively whilst still using some non-standard forms, this book:

• Examines databases of transcribed speech from learners at each different CEFR level to analyse what makes a successful speaker of English;
• Discusses features of communicative competence, including the use of linguistic strategies, organisation of extended stretches of speech, and sensitivity to context;
• Demonstrates quantitative and qualitative data analysis using corpus tools, looking at areas such as word frequency;
• Helps to reassess the goals of language learners and teachers, and provides recommendations for teaching practice and for further research.

Successful Spoken English is key reading for postgraduate students of TESOL and Applied Linguistics, as well as for pre- and in-service English language teachers.

Studies in Corpus-Based Sociolinguistics

edited by Eric Friginal

Studies in Corpus-Based Sociolinguistics illustrates how sociolinguistic approaches and linguistic distributions from corpora can be effectively combined to produce meaningful studies of language use and language variation. Three major parts comprise the volume focusing on: (1) Corpora and the Study of Languages and Dialects, in particular, varieties of global Englishes; (2) Corpora and Social Demographics; and (3) Corpora and Register Characteristics. The 14 peer-reviewed, new, and original chapters explore language variation related to regional dialectology, gender, sexuality, age, race, ‘nation,’ workplace discourse, diachronic change, and social media and web registers. Invited contributors made use of systematically-designed general and specialized corpora, sound research questions, methodologies (e.g., keyword analysis, multi-dimensional analysis, clusters, and collocations), and logical/credible interpretive techniques. Studies in Corpus-Based Sociolinguistics is an important resource for researchers and graduate students in the fields of sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, and applied linguistics.

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