Abstract

The present study explores the attitudes of novice teachers towards corpus-aided language learning and teaching in an undergraduate writing course for multilingual students at a large US public university. The participating instructors facilitated approximately 75 minutes of corpus training for their students and implemented 4-6 corpus activities over the course of the 16-week term. Participating instructors completed an initial survey documenting existing knowledge of, experiences with, and attitudes towards corpus-aided language learning and teaching, a second open-ended questionnaire at the mid-point of the academic term exploring their experiences, and a final instrument assessing how their attitudes had potentially evolved, either positively or negatively, and their likelihood for continued implementation of corpus-aided pedagogy in their classrooms. To offer a balanced perspective, data was also collected from three teachers who chose not to implement corpus activities in their courses. Findings display generally positive attitudes towards corpus study but also reveal emergent tensions regarding the use of ready-made corpus activities and the key affordances of discovery, authenticity, and autonomy often forwarded in support of corpus pedagogy.

摘要

本研究探讨了美国一所大型公立大学的多语种本科生写作课程中新手教师对语料库辅助语言学习和教学的态度。参与的讲师为他们的学生提供了大约 75 分钟的语料库培训，并在 16 周的学期中实施了 4-6 次语料库活动。参与的教师完成了一项初步调查，记录了对语料库辅助语言学习和教学的现有知识、经验和态度，在学期中期进行的第二份开放式问卷调查他们的经验，以及评估如何他们的态度可能已经演变，无论是积极的还是消极的，以及他们在课堂上继续实施语料库辅助教学法的可能性。为了提供一个平衡的视角，还从三位选择不在课程中实施语料库活动的教师那里收集了数据。调查结果显示了对语料库研究的普遍积极态度，但也揭示了在使用现成的语料库活动和发现、真实性和自主性的关键可供性方面出现的紧张局势，这些因素经常被转发以支持语料库教学法。