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TEACHING ENGLISH GRAMMAR AS A SECOND LANGUAGE
USING CORPUS-BASED EXAMPLES FOR INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Alokhon Khaitova
Head teacher of English of Andijan Machine-building
Institute Academic Lyceum
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16353080
Abstract.
The article covers various information about the necessity of
teaching intermediate level students corpus-based examples as well as the ways
of how to teach them using COCA. Apart from that, the efficiency of corpus-based
examples will be given throughout the article.
Key words:
language skills, corpus-based pedagogy, corpora, COCA,
language atmosphere, higher outcomes, grammar of the register, ELLs, L1.
Introduction.
Teaching grammar to intermediate level students is
considered to be one of the most vital aspects of language skills to be improved.
Normally, intermediate learners have the conception on basic rules of parts of
speech, articles, prepositions, the main idea of smaller passages. Besides, they
are able to comprehend the instructions given due to their level of language
proficiency. To achieve success in terms of levelling up and achieving higher
outcomes they need grammar rules. Obviously, not similar to children, adults
have grammatical conception of using functions correctly, what is appropriate
and what is not appropriate (Moskowitz, 1978, p. 92). Apart from that, Folse
(2009) noted that grammar plays basic role in learning the language (p. 1).
Discussion.
A number of teachers of English use various methods in order
to teach grammar. Green (2018) pointed out that corpus-based pedagogy
maintains the learners’ awareness on differentiating the language structure in
the context. Teachers who are using corpus approach and implementing it into
language atmosphere must have the conception of effectively using the corpora
(Green, 2018). Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) is regarded as
free online corpora including language samples used to develop classroom
lessons.
I have chosen the topic
Indefinite pronuons
in order to present corpus-based
examples while teaching. Mostly Intermediate learners partially know about
indefinite pronouns, particularly
some, any, no
and their compounds. Morley
(2000) defined indefinite pronouns as “an entity whose identity is not specific”.
However, Folse (2009) noted that ELLs have some confusion on using indefinite
pronouns (p. 53). Among those pronouns the most commonly used one is
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some
and its compounds. The graphs and screenshots below depict a number of
examples with
some
and its compounds in the context. With the help of the
examples a learner will have understanding on how to use this type of pronoun
owing to his or her level. To focus on intermediate level students’ grammatical
awareness of indefinite pronouns, the Corpus of Contemporary American
English (COCA) can be used. Once I have registered COCA, I logged in with my e-
mail address as well as password. Following this, I wrote the word
“SOME”
with
capital letters.
When I clicked on
“Find matching strings”
the frequency of the word appeared
displaying 1685783.
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In order to collect the data about in which sphere this pronoun is used more
frequently, I clicked on the button “
Chart”
and it showed that
SPOKEN
ENGLISH
is dominant with the usage of this pronoun.
With the help of “WORD” search we can get very detailed information about the
pronoun “
SOME
”. As above-mentioned this pronoun is mostly used in spoken
English whereas academic field shows its rather less usage. Being aware of the
frequency of this pronoun in spoken context, students will have the confidence
in using it in spoken English.
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We can see clusters, related words, concordance lines as well as being
distributed into parts of speech with various colours by means of COCA.
Green – adjectives, blue – nouns, yellow – verbs, pink – adverbs. Using either
related words or synonyms helps ELLs to be provided with expanded
vocabulary and it maintains to deal with the word searching problems while
writing and speaking.
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https://www.english-corpora.org/help/changeCorpus.asp
Apart from that, there are a great many examples available with the pronoun
“SOME”
in the top of the screen in “
CONTEXT
”. For example, “
He soon died. I had
lost
some
others, but that was a great friendship and I thought about it a lot”.
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https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/help/download.asp
In the following table there are some examples which have been taken from
COCA:
№ Pronoun Related
words
Example
The
source
of
examples
1 Some
some
I discuss
some
of them
https://www.english-
corpora.org
2 Some
some
Some
entrepreneurs are
ready to press “SEND”
https://www.english-
corpora.org
3 Some
somewhere
Jupiter is
somewhere
between two and twelve
Earth masses
https://www.english-
corpora.org
4 Some
somediv
We must fight! Let
somediv
else fight.
https://www.english-
corpora.org
5 Some
somediv
Let me see the purse.
Somediv
got the jumbo
pack.
https://www.english-
corpora.org
6 Some
somediv
Somediv
is now saying
it’s not just me.
https://www.english-
corpora.org
7 Some
somewhere
Have I seen this shirt
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somewhere
before?
8 Some
somewhere
Knowledge came from
somewhere
and could
influence belief
https://www.english-
corpora.org
9 Some
some
Some
companies are now
offering
refunds
to
customers
https://www.english-
corpora.org
10 Some
some
And we need
some
more
explaining
https://www.english-
corpora.org
https://www.english-corpora.org/help/changeCorpus.asp
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https://www.english-corpora.org/help/changeCorpus.asp
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https://www.english-corpora.org/help/changeCorpus.asp
Conclusion.
Teaching English grammar for those whose L1 is not English has
been a challenging practice. Particularly, providing ELLs with learned language
patterns while teaching requires to have an understanding of grammar of the
register. As it was previously stated, since indefinite pronouns are considered to
be confusing, students should be taught dicrepancies between the types of
pronouns as well as the usage of them by giving them more examples in the
context. By emphasizing indefinite pronouns students whose L1 is not English
enhance their writing and speaking skills as it is the requirement for obtaining a
language proficiency certificate. Thus, with the help of corpus-based examples,
specifically, COCA teachers can effectively teach the topic and provide the
students with an authentic texts and articles as well. Or more preciesly, COCA is
advantageous in terms of increasing students’ awareness of any kind of language
structure as well as comprehending the discrepancies between and observing
various situations coming in the context.
References:
1.
Folse, K. (2009). Keys to teaching grammar to English language learners: A
practical handbook. University of Michigan Press.
2.
Green, B. A. (2018). Corpora in Language Learning. In Liontas, (Ed.),
3.
The TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching. Wiley.
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118784235.eelt0397
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4.
Morley, G. D. (2000). Syntax in functional grammar: An introduction to
lexicogrammar in systemic linguistics. A&C Black.
5.
Moskowitz, B. A. (1978). The acquisition of language. Scientific American,
239(5), 92-109.
6.
https://www.english-corpora.org
7.
https://www.english-corpora.org/help/changeCorpus.asp
8.
https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/help/download.asp
