Corpus Based Language Learning: Johns, T (1994) and Richards, J & Rogers, T (2001)

John, T. 1994. From printout to handout: grammar and vocabulary teaching in the context of data-driven learning. In T. Odlin (Ed), Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar (pp.293-313). Cambridge University Press.

The purpose of the chapter is to describe and illustrate the synthesis of traditional and more innovative language teaching approaches. In particular, Johns describes an on going-work taking place at a program called English for Overseas Students Unit at the University of Birmingham. The program was intended for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and second language (L2) adult learners and built based on the notion of the relationship between form and function in language. Johns posits that a concern with language form and function is always followed by the need of an extremely extensive use of authentic and unmodified data found in original texts. However, such concern results in a question of "how such data are to be obtained and made available to the learner in such a way that they do not overload his or her linguistic and learning resources" (p 294).

Processing raw data taken from authentic materials such as scientific journal or other reading materials designed for native speakers using Data-driven Learning (DDL) to create teachable and learnable ESL materials is the answer for the "how question" in page 294. Johns explains in detail how DDL approach was applied to the Remedial Grammar and Vocabulary Studies classes, which were originally designed to accommodate individual student's needs. DDL is employed because it is technologically and methodologically innovative. By using a concordancer, Johns and his team were able to create ready-made corpora taken from authentic texts to provide their students' questions through a form of linguistic research done both by students and teachers. Johns posits that DDL approach  have been proven so powerful to design materials that are closer to authentic language use. Johns provides various examples of using extracts from the available teaching materials to address some linguistic points, particularly those emerged from a close study of weekly journal the New Scientist. DDL approach had made unique inquiry collaboration between students and teacher possible through completing a huge amount of concordance-based linguistic tasks related to synonymy, antonymy, and hyponymy in more meaningful ways compared to similar tasks previously designed without the aid of a concordancer. 

Johns concludes that the results of processing extracts using a concordancer are encouraging and indicate that DDL approach may result in teachable and learnable materials that were impossible before Johns and his team applied the approach. However, at the end of the chapter, Johns states that there is a wide open research opportunity towards investigating the effectiveness of DDL, particularly with beginners or near beginners. He also recommends four research questions related to the trainability and transferability of language learning strategies and individual differences  between language learners, in the context of comparing DDL and traditional teaching approaches.   


Richards, J., and Rogers, T. 2001. Approaches and methods in language teaching (pp. 132 - 140). Cambridge University Press.

Richards and Rogers explain that a lexical approach in language teaching refers to an approach "derived from the belief that the building blocks of language learning and communication are words and word combination" (p. 132). Lexical approaches in language teaching reflect a Chomskyan belief that "a lexicon is prime"; it is the center of language structure, second language learning, and language use. The role of lexical units has been emphasized in first and second language acquisition research. In addition, the availability of many lexically based texts and computer resources have made the organization and teaching the lexicon possible.

Referring to the lexical view Richards and Rogers state that basically the role of collocation is important in lexically based theories of language. Collocations as types of  lexical units are crucial in learning and communication. Studies on linguistic corpora have been done to examine patterns of phrases and clauses sequences in samples of various kinds of texts, including spoken samples. However, referring to Pawley and Syder's estimation about native speakers' lexical inventory, Krashen's suggestions related to language input, amd Bahns' suggestion on the emphasis of teaching lexical collocation to EFL learners, Lewis' and other experts' proposal for a lexis-based approach, Richards and Rogers conclude that "how a lexically based theory of language and language learning can be applied at the levels of design and procedure in language teaching still need to be continuously convincingly demonstrated.


I wish I read these two chapters when I was still teaching ESP reading in my home institution. Back then, I taught freshmen, sophomore, and senior undergraduate students having telecommunication, informatics, and industrial engineering as their major. My students have similar English learning experience background, in which mostly they learned grammar in their previous education, with those described in Johns' chapter. I would have tried DDL approach with my students if I knew about it. These two chapters have been published more than 10 years ago and ironically I've just read them this week. Well, one aspect that makes me like L 544 is that I have been exposed to language teaching and learning approaches new to me but have been practiced and scientifically proven.