Using language corpora in initial teacher education: pedagogic issues and practical applications

Recent years have seen a vast increase in the amount of materials such as dictionaries and grammars which are ‘corpus-based’ and it is difficult to dispute the contribution of corpus linguistics to English language description. There have also been many developments in the use of corpora in the classroom in data-driven learning (Johns 1991). However, this rapid development in new technology has not been matched in teacher education provision. This paper aims to make a case for the inclusion of corpus linguistics in initial language teacher education. We argue that apart from enhancing teachers’ research skills and language awareness, language corpora can aid pedagogic awareness through the use of in-house classroom corpora, and raise sociocultural awareness through the comparative investigation of large-scale commercially available corpora. We also look at the theoretical and practical considerations that need to be taken into account in the integration of language corpora in a teacher education program. We conclude that it is vital, given the pervasive nature of language corpora and their findings (especially in published materials), that future teachers have the critical evaluative skills to discern and mediate for the needs of their learners.