Spoken Language Learned from Textbooks and Evidenced in CANCODE

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Spoken Language Learned from Textbooks and
Evidenced in CANCODE

• Gao Li Ji Jianli
• Northwest University

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Learners unrealistic goal

• How native are you like?

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Realistic goal

• How successful can you use English?

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Real language vs textbook language

• Spoken corpora reveal how native English speakers
  speak is not always consistent with what
  textbooks are teaching in terms of grammatical
  choices

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Learners dilemma

• Does he/she want to construct his/her utterances
  according to spoken corpora or what textbooks and
  grammar tell?

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My teaching context

• Most of them instrumentally oriented
• Work hard on spoken English

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Tradition of use of corpora

• A long tradition (Ajmer and Altenberg, 1991)
• In 1975 that Jan Svartvik and his colleagues
• Kettemann (2003) using concordance in vocabulary
  teaching
• In grammar teaching and in stylistic and
  literature teaching (Kettemann, 2003 Adolphs,
  2003 Stubbs,1996)

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Benefits of corpus-based learning

• Encouraging students active thinking about texts
  and recognizing language patters (Adolphs,2003)
• Motivate students more (Johns, 1991)
• Whetting students appetite (Dornyei, 2001)
• Help build up learner autonomy

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Native English speakers

• Corpora have the advantage of being able to
  provide them with authentic language in use
• Carter and McCarthy (2003) how a native speaker
  speaks language is different from what he/she
  knows about the language

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Double negative

• Corpora data
• 1. It should fit there, cos its not that big I
  dont think
• 2. So you cant think of nothing?

• Textbook example
• It should fit there, cos I dont think its that
  big
• So you cant think of anything

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Why different?

• Textbooks and grammar teach the grammar which is
  based on written language at sentence level,
  while at discourse level language is produced in
  time and for a face-to-face listener (Hughes and
  McCarthy, 1998).
• Transactional situation vs interactional one

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CANCODE

• Cambridge and Nottingham Corpus of Discourse in
  English

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Special feature of CANCODE

• Conversations are categorized according to
  speaker relationship

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In a travel agency

• 1 and 2 ask 3 about the accommodation prices
  in Barcelona

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Part 1

• lt1gt we were ,we were wondering about erm going
  to er Barcelona. We were wanting to stay in like
  in tents or in a caravan or in a bed and
  breakfast to sort of see what the different
  prices were. lt2gt Yeah. lt1gt And the cheapest
  way lt2gt In Barcelona. lt1gt to get over
  there. lt2gt End of August beginning of September
  by any chance.

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• lt3gt I have to enter it before I can go in just
  to give me an idea which one's which dates and
  things before you book. lt1gt So at the end of
  August I think. lt3gt Is there any specific date?
  Or lt1gt Erm actually probably if we could do it
  from the third of September. lt3gt The third of
  September. Erm how long would you be going for?
  lt1gt A week.

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• lt3gt A week. So you're looking for What we have
  on our city breaks which are like hotels. And
  basically er lt1gt Right. What's the basic
  price? lt3gt Erm I'll go and get the brochures
  for you. Have a look at the brochures. I mean if
  you're looking for something more on the lines of
  erm camping or tents lt1gt Mm.
• lt3gt your best bet would be to contact the
  tourist board to see what erm camp sites they
  have lt1gt Right. lt3gt round Barcelona and
  what would be suitable for you. lt1gt It's a
  price thing really because if we could get lt3gt
  Yeah.

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• lt1gt low price hotels we would be lt2gt Yeah.
  lt1gt quite happy with that. lt2gt Yeah. lt3gt
  I'll go get brochures then lt2gt Okay. Cheers.
  lt3gt you can do it yourself. lt2gt Cheers.

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Part 2

• lt1gt Mm. I don't know that's going to be more
  expensive that though isn't it. lt2gt What what
  hotels? lt1gt Mm. lt2gt Well I don't wanna have
  to fork out two hundred pounds for the week.
  lt1gt Mm. lt2gt And we're talking about high
  summer so it's gonna thirty quid a night. lt1gt
  What if we get our tents nicked. (laughs) lt2gt
  (laughs) lt1gt Well it happens in Glastonbury
  doesn't it. People come back and their tent's
  gone. So

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• lt2gt(silence) lt1gt We don't wanna have to pack
  them up every time we go out. lt2gt We could stay
  in a like hotel. lt1gt Mm. Caravan I'd go with.
  But would we have two caravans then? lt2gtMm.
  lt1gt(laughs) lt2gt(laughs)

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• lt1gt Or a two bedroom caravan. lt2gt Yeah. You
  haven't got anything lined up for the week?
  lt1gt Dunno about that. lt2gt ( laughs) Anyway I
  don't wanna be woken up by you. lt1gt ( laughs)
• (CANCODE)

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• There are ellipsis, back-channel,discourse
• markers , hedges , vague language and
• supposedly ungrammatical forms.

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Examples from textbook

• Dialogue 1
• A Doctor, Im very illplease help me. I have a
  bad headache, a high temperature, Im bounged up
  and Im tired all the time.
• B This is obviously your first visit to Britain.
• A Why do you say that?
• B Because if you had been here before youd know
  that all you have is a British cold.

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Dialogue 2

• A Stanley didnt sunbathe during the whole
  holiday. He said he had forgotten his swimming
  trunks but that was just an excuse.
• B What was the real reason?
• A Hes a little overweight and he didnt want
  anyone to see his spare tyre!
• (Applebee and Rush, Help with Idioms) (1992)

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Tag question

• She is a lovely girl, isnt she?
• She isnt a lovely girl, is she?

• Shes a lovely girl she is

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• It is assumed that the way of people conducting
  conversation is very dependent on their degree of
  familiarity. The more familiar they are, the more
  ellipsis they may use.

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• the corpus data appears to be much messier
  (Hughes and McCarthy, 1998) than that found in a
  textbook.

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Differences between dialogue of corpora and of
textbook

• In corpora e.g. Dunno know about Mm, Yeah
  right, I mean actually probably a price thing
  in a like hotel.

• In textbook neat and better comprehended
  utterances

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Discussion

• Textbook and grammar are mainly based on written
  English
• Teaching purposes
• The age of learners

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Summary

• Not to exclude corpus from their classroom but
  demands teachers conscious use
• Pick the corpus data that serves their teaching
  purpose and back up the particular grammar rule
  or edit them to present a clearer picture to
  learners and minimize confusion

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Intermediate or advanced learners

• Provide students with guidance about how to
  search in a corpus,
• Train them how to interpret for example
  concordance lines

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Awareness raising

• Native English speakers use language differently
  in terms of grammatical choices in different
  situations

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• Thank you!