Types of Corpora and the Significance of Corpus-Based Approaches in Teaching English
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63208/21011-651Keywords:
Corpus-Based Approaches, Data-Driven Learning, English as a Foreign Language, Learner Autonomy, Learner CorporaAbstract
Corpus-based methodologies have gained increasing attention in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education because they provide access to authentic language data and enable learners to examine linguistic patterns in meaningful contexts. This study aims to examine the significance of corpus-based methodologies, identify major types of corpora, and explore their pedagogical applications in English language teaching. A Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach was employed to identify, examine, and synthesize relevant literature on corpus-based language teaching, learner corpora, and Data-Driven Learning (DDL), with emphasis on recent studies published between 2015 and 2024. The findings indicate that corpus-based approaches can support vocabulary acquisition, grammar instruction, writing development, learner autonomy, and communicative competence. Corpora also provide opportunities for integrating authentic language resources into digital learning environments. However, effective implementation requires adequate corpus literacy, teacher training, appropriate corpus selection, and sufficient learner guidance. Overall, corpus-based methodologies represent a valuable complementary approach to EFL teaching by connecting classroom instruction with authentic language use and promoting more learner-centered and evidence-based learning.
References
Barabadi, E., & Khajavi, Y. (2017). The effect of data-driven approach to teaching vocabulary on Iranian students’ learning of English vocabulary. Cogent Education, 4(1), 1283876.
Bennett, C., & Dhonnchadha, E. U. (2023). Becoming corpus literate: An in-service EFL teacher education framework for integrating corpora into EFL teaching. Applied Corpus Linguistics, 3(1), 100048.
Birhan, A. T., Teka, M., & Asrade, N. (2021). Effects of using corpus-based instructional mediation on EFL students’ academic writing skills improvement. Theory and Practice of Second Language Acquisition, 7(2), 133-153.
Boulton, A. (2017). Data-driven learning and language pedagogy. Language, education and technology: Encyclopedia of language and education, 3, 181-192.
Boulton, A., & Cobb, T. (2017). Corpus use in language learning: A meta‐analysis. Language learning, 67(2), 348-393.
Callies, M. (2019). Integrating corpus literacy into language teacher education. Learner corpora and language teaching, 245-263.
Granger, S., Gilquin, G., & Meunier, F. (2015). The Cambridge handbook of learner corpus research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kim, H. (2019). The perception of teachers and learners towards an exploratory corpus-based grammar instruction in a Korean EFL primary school context. Primary English Education, 25(1), 123-152.
Luo, Q. (2016). The effects of data-driven learning activities on EFL learners’ writing development. SpringerPlus, 5(1), 1255.
Lusta, A., Demirel, Ö., & Mohammadzadeh, B. (2023). Language corpus and data driven learning (DDL) in language classrooms: A systematic review. Heliyon, 9(12).
Ma, Q., Tang, J., & Lin, S. (2022). The development of corpus-based language pedagogy for TESOL teachers: A two-step training approach facilitated by online collaboration. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 35(9), 2731-2760.
Meunier, F. (2016). Learner corpora and pedagogical applications. The Routledge handbook of language learning and technology, 376-387. Routledge.
Poole, R. (2022). “Corpus can be tricky”: revisiting teacher attitudes towards corpus-aided language learning and teaching. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 35(7), 1620-1641.
Vyatkina, N. (2020). Corpora as open educational resources for language teaching. Foreign Language Annals, 53(2), 359-370.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 The Author(s)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.


