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This thesis investigates spoken verb + noun collocations in L1 and L2 English candidates undertaking a language exam. It further introduces the new Trinity Lancaster Corpus of L1 Spoken English (TLC-L1), a corpus developed to align in context to the TLC-L2 (Gablasova et al., 2019). By considering differing proficiency levels of L2 speakers, the research takes a pseudolongitudinal approach to investigate collocational development with core findings including the influence of topic and register on the use of collocations in a language exam, which are also reflected in the TLC-L1 corpus, as well as evidence of a nonlinear developmental trajectory of English language learners and their use of verb + noun collocations. Finally, the thesis brings three major contributions and implications to the field: (1) methodological with the development and application of a new corpus, (2) theoretical through the analysis of collocations in the under-investigated mode of speech and (3) pedagogical with suggestions and examples of corpus-informed language teaching materials.

Collocations, a crucial component of language competence, remain a challenge for L2 learners across all proficiency levels. While the data-driven learning (DDL) approach has shown great potential for collocation learning from a shorter-term perspective, this study investigates its effectiveness in the long term, examining both linguistic gains and changes in learners’ confidence about which words collocate. The effect of DDL was compared with learning collocations using a corpus-based collocations dictionary and non-corpus-based tools. Learners’ experience with the tools was also explored through a questionnaire. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design with 100 Chinese learners of English as participants in two experimental groups and a control group. A novel corpus tool, #LancsBox (Brezina et al., Citation2015), was used in the DDL approach to identify and visualise collocations. The results showed that the learners in the DDL group increased their collocation knowledge at the end of the treatment and retained the gains three months later. The learners also reported a significant increase in their confidence about which words collocate. Both changes were found to be more substantial than the effects of using the corpus-based collocations dictionary or other tools. As for their experience, learners reported satisfaction with using corpora in their writing and, importantly, continued with corpus consultation three months after the end of the intervention. The findings have implications for integrating corpus consultation into learning practice both inside and outside of the classroom, showing that with sufficient training, DDL can provide an effective method to learn complex linguistic features such as collocations.

Collocations, a crucial component of language competence, remain a challenge for L2 learners across all proficiency levels. While the data-driven learning (DDL) approach has shown great potential for collocation learning from a shorter-term perspective, this study investigates its effectiveness in the long term, examining both linguistic gains and changes in learners’ confidence about which words collocate. The effect of DDL was compared with learning collocations using a corpus-based collocations dictionary and non-corpus-based tools. Learners’ experience with the tools was also explored through a questionnaire. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design with 100 Chinese learners of English as participants in two experimental groups and a control group. A novel corpus tool, #LancsBox (Brezina et al., Citation2015), was used in the DDL approach to identify and visualise collocations. The results showed that the learners in the DDL group increased their collocation knowledge at the end of the treatment and retained the gains three months later. The learners also reported a significant increase in their confidence about which words collocate. Both changes were found to be more substantial than the effects of using the corpus-based collocations dictionary or other tools. As for their experience, learners reported satisfaction with using corpora in their writing and, importantly, continued with corpus consultation three months after the end of the intervention. The findings have implications for integrating corpus consultation into learning practice both inside and outside of the classroom, showing that with sufficient training, DDL can provide an effective method to learn complex linguistic features such as collocations.

Eliciting information from patients is fundamental to medical professionals' capacity to deliver good healthcare outcomes in Emergency Departments (EDs). There are different kinds of utterances that "do questioning", and health professionals can variously attend to the medical agenda and the interpersonal aspects of their interactions with those attending the ED in the way that they construct these utterances. We investigate a corpus of ED interactions to determine the prevalence and range of utterances produced by doctors and directed at patients that "do questioning." We developed a questioning utterance typology, informed by previous research on the formulation of such utterances and extended according to observations of our data. We subsequently manually coded 4,355 questioning utterances and report the variety of forms that such utterances can take, considering how these are distributed across doctors at different levels of seniority. We found that doctors at different seniority levels favored similar questioning utterance types and the most frequently used appeared to restrict the contributions of patients. We conclude that our extended typology of questioning utterances has value for understanding the ways in which doctors may encourage patients to provide more extensive responses.

Eliciting information from patients is fundamental to medical professionals’ capacity to deliver good healthcare outcomes in Emergency Departments (EDs). There are different kinds of utterances that ‘do questioning’ (Ehrlich & Freed, 2009, p. 6), and health professionals can variously attend to the medical agenda and the interpersonal aspects of their interactions with those attending the ED in the way that they construct these utterances. We investigate a corpus of ED interactions to determine the prevalence and range of utterances produced by doctors and directed at patients that ‘do questioning’. We developed a questioning utterance typology, informed by previous research on the formulation of such utterances and extended according to observations of our data. We subsequently manually coded 4,355 questioning utterances and report the variety of forms that such utterances can take, considering how these are distributed across doctors at different levels of seniority. We found that doctors at different seniority levels favoured similar questioning utterance types and the most frequently used appeared to restrict the contributions of patients. We conclude that our extended typology of questioning utterances has value for understanding the ways in which doctors may encourage patients to provide more extensive responses.

This chapter focuses on the different ways in which spoken learner corpora can contribute to language pedagogy. The chapter first offers a description of typical properties of spoken learner corpora, highlighting the challenges in the development of these resources. Next, the chapter focuses on the current trends in the integration of spoken learner corpora in language teaching, considering both the indirect use of these resources to inform curriculum design and the development of reference materials as well as the use in which learners work directly with language from these corpora. Both of these approaches are demonstrated on examples from recent practice. Finally, challenges present when integrating evidence from spoken learner corpora into language teaching are identified and possible solutions are proposed. The chapter concludes with recommendations for researchers and practitioners interested in implementing these corpora in language teaching.

This chapter describes how corpora and corpus methods can be used in the analysis of learner language and applied to language testing. The chapter first describes three types of corpora relevant for investigations of learner language: corpora of L1 and expert language, L2 (learner) corpora, and corpora representing language produced under exam conditions. Next, the chapter provides a brief overview of corpus methods most relevant for corpus-based research with application for assessment of second language ability. Finally, direct applications of corpora for development and validation of tests and research instruments in SLA are illustrated by examples from recent research.

Corpora and corpus techniques have long been an important source of knowledge about language; they have also been increasingly used for language teaching purposes. This chapter discusses the role of spoken learner corpora in language pedagogy and in development of language teaching materials. In particular, it focuses on the Trinity Lancaster Corpus (TLC) and its pedagogical applications. With over four million words, the TLC is one of the largest corpora of L2 spoken English, representing language from L2 English speakers engaged in different speaking tasks. The chapter uses data from the TLC to illustrate the use of corpus findings in teaching pragmatics in spoken language use, focusing on three case studies: expression of disagreement, ability to adjust language choice according to linguistic setting, and engaged listenership.

In this article we explore the relationship between learner corpus and second language acquisition research. We begin by considering the origins of learner corpus research, noting its roots in smaller scale studies of learner language. This development of learner corpus studies is considered in the broader context of the development of corpus linguistics. We then consider the aspirations that learner corpus researchers have had to engage with second language acquisition research and explore why, to date, the interaction between the two fields has been minimal. By exploring some of the corpus building practices of learner corpus research, and the theoretical goals of second language acquisition studies, we identify reasons for this lack of interaction and make proposals for how this situation could be fruitfully addressed.

This is a corpus of over 4.1 million words representing spoken L2 English interaction. Access to the dataset through the interface is available upon request.