European International Journal of Pedagogics
73
https://eipublication.com/index.php/eijp
TYPE
Original Research
PAGE NO.
73-77
DOI
3
OPEN ACCESS
SUBMITED
31 May 2025
ACCEPTED
27 June 2025
PUBLISHED
29 July 2025
VOLUME
Vol.05 Issue07 2025
COPYRIGHT
© 2025 Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the creative commons attributes 4.0 License.
Improving the
Methodology for
Developing Students’ Oral
Discourse Competence
Using Corpus Technologies
Gapporov Zayniddin Abdusalom ugli
Independent Researcher at the Department of Uzbek Language and
Literature, Samarkand State Pedagogical Institute, Uzbekistan
Abstract:
The integration of corpus into English
language teaching and learning has marked a major shift
in both methodology and pedagogy. Before corpus
technology, linguistic descriptions relied on what native
speakers knew about the language or how they
perceived it, rather than on how the language was
practically used. By analyzing language data in corpora,
teachers can develop the methodology that focus on
specific language skills, such as grammar, vocabulary,
speaking, listening, reading, and writing. This helps
students improve their language skills in a more
targeted and effective way. This article studies
improving the methodology for the development of
students’ oral discourse competence through a corpus
-
based approach by developing educational materials,
exercises and tasks.
Keywords:
Didactic tool, task-based learning, project-
based learning, shadowing, Content and Language
Integrated-Learning, Cooperative learning.
Introduction:
Modern pedagogy and linguistics require
future personnel to develop tools that allow processing
large amounts of data as quickly as possible. On the
other hand, this requires minimizing the subjective
influence of an individual researcher on the results
obtained, making it possible to identify and analyze
previously unnoticed linguistic phenomena.
In linguistics, a corpus is a modern technology that can
perfectly solve the indicated problem, since it opens up
wide possibilities for practical and theoretical research
and at the same time is a didactic tool that performs
European International Journal of Pedagogics
74
https://eipublication.com/index.php/eijp
European International Journal of Pedagogics
purely didactic, cognitive, informational, formative and
verification functions [7]. Therefore, the use of corpus
technology in linguistics can be considered from two
perspectives - studying the use of a corpus to improve
aspects of language and studying the improvement of
oral speech using a corpus. The use of corpus
technology can increase the objectivity and reliability
of the results obtained by researchers in processing
language data. The use of a corpus approach by
students allows them to study any language units of
various speech genres in different types of speech, as
well as in different contexts in the corpus, without
being hindered by the specificity of the language unit
under study [8]. Students can search for discrete
lexical/grammatical units based on concordances that
indicate their functioning in different styles and areas
of use.
On the other hand, didactic approaches and activities
for developing discourse competence include a focus
on original texts, task-based learning, discourse
analysis activities, and using digital resources. These
methods help students understand how language is
used in context and develop the skills to create
coherent and coherent communication. According to
Ye.I.Passov, exercises are divided into communicative,
linguistic
and
psychological
characteristics.
Communicative exercises are divided into types of
communicative
exercises,
real
communicative
exercises and communicative exercises. In her
scientific work, K. Muradkasimova noted that there are
several approaches to the system of exercises, namely,
they are divided into psychological (receptive,
reproductive
and
productive
exercises),
linguopsychological (language and speech exercises),
didactic (informative, preparatory and speech). The
American methodologist G. Bennett gave several
recommendations on the issue of creating corpus-based
exercises from corpus data [10]. By incorporating these
didactic opportunities, teachers can effectively help
students develop discourse competence both oral and
written by applying effective communication skills in a
variety of contexts. And corpus technology offers
effective methods for enhancing language skills by
providing authentic language data and tools for analysis.
By leveraging corpora, learners can access real-world
examples of language use, improve their vocabulary and
grammar, and gain insights into discourse patterns,
ultimately boosting their fluency and confidence in
speaking. In this article, here we offer some methods
and approaches that teachers could use to motivate
students to improve their oral discourse competence:
Task-based learning (TBL).
It enables students to work
on assignments while honing their speaking abilities.
Facilitators must use corpus tools like Sketch Engine,
AntConc, and WordSmith Tools to enhance abilities and
concentrate on their growth, resulting in an engaging
and creative approach to English language learning [1].
Figure 1. Procedure of Task based learning
From another perspective, the Task-Based Language
teaching approach focuses on the development of the
language through situations that are performed as if
students were outside the classroom; on the contrary,
in classrooms students use the language to
communicate achievements. Albino shows in his
research that students felt confident to speak, believed
in their strengths to use the target language, and
increased their vocabulary, concluding that the use of
this approach was relevant. In the same way, Hassan
agrees that task-
based learning enhances pupils’
English-speaking achievement significantly because this
European International Journal of Pedagogics
75
https://eipublication.com/index.php/eijp
European International Journal of Pedagogics
method supplies students get the advantage of
interacting with their classmates and teachers to
promote self-confidence to acquire English language
skills [2]. Students can use corpus tools to search for
specific words and identify common collocations. For
example, searching for "important" might reveal that
it frequently collocates with "very," "essential," or
"crucial," providing them with a richer vocabulary and
more natural-sounding phrases. Using corpus-based
materials (texts and transcripts) and tools in speaking
practice activities can make the learning process more
engaging and effective.
Project-Based Learning
. It is a method that allow
students to produce and show results about projects
that need to be designed, planned, and gotten results.
Figure 2. The six step process of PBL
Moreover, through this technique, students learn by
actively engaging in real-world and personal
meaningful projects using language skills of English as
a second language. Dewi concluded that after applying
this technique, students were more motivated, happy,
and confident to speak English [6].
Content and Language Integrated-Learning (CLIL).
It is
a method that guides and supports the language
learning process, in which students acquire skills and
abilities of the target language [4]. Students use the
communication to convey information and apply
cognition, which encourages students to increase their
linguistic competence and culture, that has a near
relationship with the mother tongue language and the
target language.
European International Journal of Pedagogics
76
https://eipublication.com/index.php/eijp
European International Journal of Pedagogics
Figure 3. Gamification of Content and Language Integrated-Learning (CLIL)
Improving oral discourse competence is a big
responsibility in the teacher's hands because they are
the means to teach and engage students' attention.
That is why they need to reinvent and motivate how
they can boost speaking skill.
Cooperative Learning
. Vellayan states that is a method
where students developed their activities in a
cooperative way among their classmates, creating an
enjoyable and collaborative environment of the class
to achieve the teachers' proposal.[9] It is essential in
the SLA (Second Language Acquisition) communicative
skill because students feel comfortable and self-
confident to interact with others, and it is a good
strategy to engage students to speak confidently and
in a participative way. Namaziandost mention that
Cooperative Learning (CL) is centered on the learners.
Thus, this approach motivates and develops speaking
skill in students. Also, they show evidence that this
method has a high impact on the communication
process in a positive way, and researchers have
suggested implementing Cooperative Learning in the
classrooms to improve English speaking skill getting on
motivated students.
Manurung and Izar argued that the lack of interaction
with others comes from internal and external factors
that lower production and cause the wrong application
of techniques to speak. Some techniques for improving
the oral discourse competence through Corpus
technologies include:
Role plays
. This technique helps students to gain self-
confidence to diminish shyness, using real activities
developed in class as Derakhshan [5]. Students can role-
play scenarios based on authentic dialogues from a
corpus.
Interview techniques
. They help to improve speaking
skill. Sihotang suggest a good way to get better through
describing pictures, giving opinions, and retelling
stories. In their research, they propose the naturally
speaking guidebook as a good technique to develop
speaking, where students can find real examples for
communicate and an assessment is provided to check
their progress.
Debate
. It is a technique in which students develop their
speaking abilities by defending opinions and giving their
arguments of a specific topic. Through this technique,
students participate actively and speak more with their
classmates in the classrooms as are shown in results.
Students can prepare for debates or discussions by
analyzing arguments and language used in corpus-based
materials.
Storytelling
. It is a technique in which pupils show their
expressions and create an external sense of the world.
It fosters a good environment because students get
relaxed inside of class. Moreover, in storytelling
students experiment with a set of stories, which create
European International Journal of Pedagogics
77
https://eipublication.com/index.php/eijp
European International Journal of Pedagogics
a sense of humor in the classroom through their own
opinions and words, increasing the students'
knowledge about other cultures, places, heritages, and
beliefs. Through this technique, teachers conduct their
pupils to listen, concentrate, and follow their
arguments based on a logical sequence. Integrating
storytelling allows learners to practice pronunciation
and receive immediate feedback.
Questioning
. It is a technique to trigger students to be
active and to keep them speaking along the teaching
process because they participate and involve in the
learning activities. Also, it enhances students to listen
and understand the questions thus, achieves good
fluency and accuracy of speech in English.
One of the main elements of discourse competence is
discourse markers (however, therefore, actually, in
other words). They create a logical connection
between thoughts during communication, create
semantic connections such as contrast, cause-and-
effect, explanation [3]. With the help of these markers,
the reader or speaker ensures the integrity and
consistency of his speech, which is an important
condition for effective communication.
In short, discourse competence is not only the correct
use of language grammatically, but also its functional,
communicative and contextual use. This competence
is an integral part of communicative competence,
preparing students to express their thoughts
independently and effectively in a real language
environment. Therefore, paying special attention to
the development of discourse competence in language
teaching has become a necessity in today's education.
Students' oral discourse competence can only be
developed by understanding the most important
factor, namely sufficient preparation and time. In this
case, teachers should be able to connect different
teaching methods, tools and organizational structures,
that is, develop logically modified appropriate stages
that not only cover learning theory, but also stimulate
students and open up the possibility of their
independent learning.
REFERENCES
Anil, B. (2016) A study on developing speaking skills
through techno-driven tasks. Brazilian English
Language Teaching Journal, 7(1), 80-93.
Albino, G. (2017) Improving Speaking Fluency in a Task-
Based Language Teaching Approach: The Case of efl
Learners at puniv-Cazenga. sage Open, 2017, 1 -11.
Arung, F. (2016). Improving the Students’ Speaking Skill
through Debate Technique. Journal of English
Education, 1(1), 70-76.
Barre-Parrales, P., & Villafuerte-Holguín, J. (2021).
English as a foreign language instruction in Ecuador:
Implementation of the Content and Language
Integrated-Learning
during
2019-2021.
English
Language Teaching Educational Journal, 4(2), 99-112
Derakhshan, A., Khalili, A. N., & Beheshti, F. (2016).
Developing efl Learner’s Speaking Ability, Accuracy and
Fluency. English Language and Literature Studies, 6(2),
177-186.
Dewi, H. (2016). Project based learning techniques to
improve speaking skills. English Education Journal, 7(3),
341-359.
Francis, W.N. (1992). Language Corpus. J. Swartwick,
Directions in Corpus Linguistics (pp. 17-34), New York:
Mouton de Gruyter.
Hunston, S. (2002). Corpus Technologies in Applied
Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Namaziandost, E., Neisi, L., & Kheryadi. (2019).
Enhancing oral proficiency through cooperative learning
among intermediate efl learners: English learning
motivation in focus. Cogent Education, 6(1), 1683933.
Reppen, R. (2011). Using Corpus Technology in English
Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Sihotang, A. M., Sitanggang, F., Hasugian, N., & Saragih,
E. (2021). The Effective Way to Develop Speaking Skills.
Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, Linguistics
and Literature, 9(1), 188-196.
