Corpus-Based Language Pedagogy: A Research-Informed Pedagogy for Language Teaching

Starting from this chapter, the focus shifts to discussing and demonstrating how teachers could incorporate web concordancers and the other corpus tools discussed so far into the language classroom. Section 5.2 details the establishment of CBLP as an indispensable component for language teaching, distinctive from corpus literacy (CL). It elucidates its crucial role in empowering teachers to actually teach with corpora in language classrooms. Section 5.2.3 explains in detail the rationale behind the CBLP framework. We exemplify the two-step training model we embedded in language courses for pre-service TESOL teachers in Hong Kong facilitating their development of CBLP. We also suggest how online collaboration among pre- and in-service teachers can mediate and facilitate teachers’ learning of this innovative pedagogy in real classroom contexts. Lastly, an empirical case study is presented to delineate how two practicing teachers developed their competence in CBLP following two different pathways, providing insights into the sources and knowledge domains that shape or conceptualize their competence in CBLP. Implications of these research studies for language teaching will be discussed in detail. At the end of this section, based on the theoretical, research-informed CBLP framework, we detail four fundamental lesson design principles teachers can follow to design practical CBLP lesson.