Course syllabus

 

Course Schedule: LT 311                                

Text analysis and technology for language teachers

Semester dates: Monday 6 March - Friday 9 June.

Classes: Tuesday 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm     Location: Fale Pasifica Lab

Instructors: Michael Barlow and Louisa Buckingham

Michael Barlow Office 207-319. Ext 7599. Email: mi.barlow@auckland.ac.nz

Office hours: Monday 11am-12pm and by appointment

Louisa Buckingham. Office 206-431 Ext 87045 Email: l.buckingham@auckland.ac.nz  

Office hours: Thursday 2-3pm and by appointment

Course expectations

 It is expected that this course will require 10 hours per week. This includes reading, attending lectures, revising notes, and preparing for assignments. Note that this is an average amount of time, and students who achieve high marks will generally exceed this.

Course schedule

Week	Topic	Class Activities	Pre-class Readings
Week 1 7/3/17 MB	Words and lexis.	1.1 What is a word?	Barlow pp39-45
		1.2 Lexis vs. vocab
		1.3 Word lists
		1.4 Keywords
Week 2 14/3/17 MB	Interpreting corpus data	2.1 Types of corpora	Barlow pp 19-24, 47-59
		2.2 Searching a corpus	Hunston, S. (2002). (pp. 1-24).
		2.3 Representativeness
		2.4 Sources of information about the structure and function of English
Week 3 21/3/17 MB	Words: structure and meaning	3.1 Word categories
		3.2 Word, lemma and family
		3.3 Polysemy
Week 4 28/3/17 MB	Exploring lexis and grammar.	4.1 Collocations	Barlow pp107-113
		4.2 Context and meaning	Partington, A. (2001). (pp. 63-84).
		4.3 Grammar and lexicogrammar
		4.4 Applications in language learning
Week 5 4/4/17 MB	Text visualisation	5.1 Collocations as networks	Barlow, M. (2016)
		5.2 Distribution of words in texts
Week 6 11/4/17 LB	Corpus applications	6.1 Applying corpus findings to language teaching and learning	Reppen (2010) Davies (2010)
		6.2 Using corpora to help with word choice
		6.3 Using corpora for writing support

 

Week 7 2/5/17 LB	Exploring discourse	7.1 What is discourse? 7.2 Using a corpus to explore discourse 7.3 Written academic discourse.	Harwood, N. (2005). Swales, J. (2006) Davies (2010)
Week 8 9/5/17 LB	Exploring discourse	8.1 Media discourse 8.2 Looking at how newspaper texts construe events 8.3 Identifying differences between newspaper reporting	O’Halloran, K. (2010).
Week 9 16/5/17 LB	Exploring interaction	9.1 Using corpora to explore interaction in communication 9.2 Examining the role of the listeners in texts	O’Keeffe A., McCarthy, M. & Carter, R. (2007). Davies (2010)
Week 10 23/5/17 LB	Exploring spoken corpora	10.1 Spoken corpora 10.2 Pronunciation in spoken corpora 10.3 Accents in English	Timmis, I. (2015)
Week 11 30/5/17 MB	Texts and culture	11.1 Culturnomics: the attempt to use large text databases to access culture 11.2 Bookworms	Michel, J-B et al. (2010)
6/6/17	In-class test	Covers material from both MB’s and LB’s sessions.

 

Readings

Barlow: Concordancing and Corpus Analysis (on Canvas)

Barlow, M. (2016). WordSkew: Linking corpus data and discourse structure. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 21:1, 104-114.

Davies, M. 2009. The 385+ million word Corpus of Contemporary American English (1990–2008+): Design, architecture, and linguistic insights. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, Volume 14, Issue 2, 159 –190

Harwood, N. (2005). ‘We do not seem to have a theory . . . the theory I present here attempts to fill this gap’: Inclusive and exclusive pronouns in academic writing. Applied Linguistics 26/3: 343–375.

Hunston, S. (2002). Chapter 1: Introduction to a corpus in use. In Corpora in applied linguistics (pp. 1-24). Cambridge: CUP.

Michel, J-B., Shen, Y.K., Alden, A.P., Veres, A., Gray, M.K. (2010). Quantitative analysis of culture using millions of digitized books. Science 16 Dec. 2010

O’Halloran, K. (2010). How to use corpus linguistics in the study of media discourse. In A. O’Keeffe, A. and M. McCarthy (eds.), The Routledge handbook of corpus linguistics, pp. 563-577. Abingdon: Routledge.

O’Keeffe A., McCarthy, M. & Carter, R. (2007). Relational language. In From Corpus to Classroom (pp.159-183). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Partington, A. 2001. Corpus-based description in language and teaching. In G. Aston (Ed) Learning with corpora. (pp. 63-84). Houston: Athelstan

Reppen, R. (2010). Using corpus material in the classroom and creating corpora for classroom use. In R. Reppen, Using corpora in the language classroom, 52-60. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J. (2006). Chapter 2: Corpus linguistics and English for academic purposes. In: Arno Macia, E., Soler Cervera, A. & Rueda Ramos, C. (Eds.) Information Technology in Languages for Specific Purposes Issues and Prospects (p. 19-33). Springer Science.

Timmis, I. (2015). Chapter 5: Spoken corpus research. In: Corpus Linguistics for ELT: Research and Practice (pp. 81-118). Routledge.

 

Students with impairments

STUDENTS WITH IMPAIRMENTS are asked to discuss privately with the course convenor (face–to-face and/or by email) any impairment-related requirements regarding delivery of course content or course assessments. Please contact Michael Barlow as soon as possible if you have any impairment-related needs.

CLL Assignments Policy:   Extensions, Deadlines and Penalties

 

1. TIME MANAGEMENT

Time management is essential to academic success, and it is the responsibility of students to manage their time so all assignments can be submitted on or before the due dates.

 

2. HOW TO SEEK/ REQUEST/APPLY FOR AN EXTENSION

 

In serious circumstances* beyond the student’s control (see below), s/he may request an extension from the Course Convenor. The request should…

• be made by email at least 2-3 days BEFORE the due date for the assignment
• provide an explanation of the circumstances

• be supported by a satisfactory medical certificate or other documentation

 

If an extension is granted, you will be given a new due date.

Only ONE extension can be granted to a student per assignment.

Only in extreme circumstances will late requests for extensions be considered.

 

*Serious circumstances refers to major, unexpected events such as sudden illness (in the case of in-class tests etc.), long-term illness (for essays etc. done over a week or more), or bereavement in the immediate family. Documentary evidence will be requested. It does NOT include time management difficulties, wanting to go on holiday, relatives visiting from overseas, computer breakdowns, etc.

 

3. SUBMISSION OF ALL ASSIGNMENTS

 

Unless indicated otherwise by the Course Lecturer, hard-copies of assignments should be posted in the appropriate assignment box on 3^rd floor Arts 1 building before 4 pm on the due date. The Reception Area is not open on Saturday or Sunday or during public holidays.

 

4. DEADLINES & PENALTIES FOR LATENESS

 

Any work submitted after the due date and without an extension form or permission in writing from the Course Convenor will be treated as overdue and penalties will apply (see below).

 

The mark given to an overdue assignment will be reduced by up to 10 per cent (at the discretion of the Course Convenor) of the total possible marks for that assignment for each day that it is late up to 5 days (e.g. for an assignment marked out of 20, deduct up to 2 marks per day up to a total of 10 marks). Assignments which are due on Friday, or the day before a university holiday, but are not received until the next working day will be counted as TWO days late.

 

Overdue assignments that are submitted more than five days late will not be marked; nor will assignments be marked if submitted after the assignment has been marked and returned. Unmarked assignments will be held by the marker until the end of the semester, and in cases where the final grade for the student is borderline (D+), the marker may choose to award a minimal completion mark. For this reason, it is better to hand in an assignment late than not at all.

 

 

5. EXTENSIONS

When a staff member grants an extension they will set a new due date. The completed assignment must be submitted on or before the new due date together with the medical certificate and other documentation. If an assignment is submitted after the new due date, penalties for lateness apply as above.

 

 

6. IN CLASS TESTS, ELECTRONIC TESTS AND ORAL PRESENTATIONS ETC.

 

When serious circumstances (e.g. sudden serious illness or a car accident) cause a student to miss an in-class test/assessed presentations or electronic test it is expected that the student will notify the course convenor at the earliest possible opportunity, if possible before the scheduled test or presentation takes place. If the student or their representative makes no contact within five days of the scheduled test/presentation, they will be awarded a zero grade for that piece of assessment.

 

 

Plagiarism and the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

 

Students need to be aware of University regulations with regard to…

 

 

1. PLAGIARISM

 

The University of Auckland will not tolerate cheating, or assisting others to cheat, and views cheating in coursework as a serious academic offence. The work that a student submits for grading must be the student's own work, reflecting his or her learning. Where work from other sources is used, it must be properly acknowledged and referenced. This requirement also applies to sources on the world-wide web. A student's assessed work may be reviewed against electronic source material using computerised detection mechanisms. Upon reasonable request, students may be required to provide an electronic version of their work for computerised review.

 

Students may not translate work from another source without proper acknowledgment and referencing. The use of translation machines to translate and copy texts into the target language of an assignment constitutes academic dishonesty.

 

The penalties for plagiarism are severe and can range from gaining no marks for the assignment to disciplinary action under the terms of the Examination Regulations.

 

For further information and advice on University regulations and how to reference appropriately, see:

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/teaching-learning/academic-integrity/tl-about-academic-integrity.html.

 

This webpage provides links and information about various aspects of academic integrity: sources of information and advice (e.g. Referen©ite) as well as University regulations (the Student Academic Conduct Statute), and Turnitin. All students entering the University are required to complete the Academic Integrity Module.

 

 

2. USE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY (E.G. CLASS FACEBOOK PAGES)

 

If students in any course wish to set up a Facebook page for the course or to use any other form of ICT, they need to be aware that the University of Auckland Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Statute sets out rules governing use of any ICT hardware or software at or for University activities. It forbids using ICT “to store, display or communicate… files containing any text, image that is deceptive or misleading, is abusive or defamatory, contravenes anyone’s privacy… or that reproduces all or part of any work in breach of the Copyright Act 1994”. The Statute refers students to the relevant University Disciplinary Statute and the penalties that may apply. It can be found at: https://policies.auckland.ac.nz/student-undergraduate.aspx

 

The Discussion option on CANVAS is a more appropriate forum for student discussions about coursework.

 

 

DELNA SERVICES

If your academic English skills are keeping you from performing well in your courses, you should know that there is help available and that it will not cost you anything.

 

DELNA is a free check of your academic English language skills. Your results will not exclude you from courses you are already enrolled in and will not appear on your official academic record.

 

The process begins with a computer-based screening, which may reveal that you need to do a diagnosis. Do this as soon as you can. The diagnosis will give you a finer language profile of your listening, reading and writing skills. You will then be able to discuss these results with a friendly language adviser who will advise the best language enrichment for you on campus. This will put you on track to achieving better academic results!

 

Note: You only need to do the DELNA screening ONCE (NOT for each course). You will be emailed your results and your faculty will be informed that you have completed this assessment.

 

DELNA (Diagnostic English Language Needs Assessment)

Rooms 419, 421, and 425

ARTS, 1 Building 206

1. 3737599 x 88947 / 82427

delna@auckland.ac.nz

www.delna.auckland.ac.nz