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Integrating a corpus of classroom discourse in language teacher education: the case of discourse markers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 May 2006

CAROLINA P. AMADOR MORENO
Affiliation:
Departamento de Filologías Inglesa y Alemana, Universidad de Extremadura, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Avda. Universidad s/n 10071 Cáceres, Spain. camador@unex.es
STÉPHANIE O’RIORDAN
Affiliation:
Centre for Applied Language Studies, Department of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland. angela.chambers@ul.ie
ANGELA CHAMBERS
Affiliation:
IRCHSS Government of Ireland Scholar, Centre for Applied Language Studies, Department of Languages and Cultural Studies, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland. stephanie.oriordan@ul.ie

Abstract

While language teacher education programmes and language syllabi in secondary education encourage the use of the target language in the classroom, resources to support teachers in this endeavour, such as books with useful phrases, do not state that the examples they provide are corpus-based, i.e. drawn from actual language use rather than invented phrases. This paper investigates whether consultation of a corpus of classroom discourse can be of benefit in language teacher education. The paper describes a project involving the creation of corpora of classroom discourse in French and Spanish, and the use of these corpora with student teachers. After setting the research in the context of corpora and classroom interaction, it examines issues such as the content of the corpora, the type of consultation (direct or mediated by the teacher), and the student teachers’ evaluation of the activity. Special attention is paid to one particular aspect of classroom interaction, discourse markers.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

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