Key Words and the Language Teacher

Mike Scott, University of Liverpool, U.K.

Third International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching Methodology in China Shanghai International Studies University

March 28 to March 30, 2008This presentation is at www.lexically.net/downloads/corpus_linguistics

to consider

1. the notion of “keyness”2. identifying keyness in texts3. working with key words and language

learners

Aims

forgot

categories the linguist …

the paragraph

(Kaplan 1966)

the section

the topic

the gist

chapter

the key word!

for ato be key?

what does it mean

word

find the KWs?

and how can we

importance aboutness

2 central notions

A woodsman from Zheng saw a deer in the field, shot and killed it. Afraid he would be caught, he hid the deer and covered it with banana leaves. He was pleased with himself.

Rightaway he forgot the hiding place, and thought that the whole episode was a dream! On his way home, he kept telling himself that it was only a dream. As he mumbled to himself about his dream, he was overheard by a passerby.

The passerby thought about what he had heard and figured out where the deer was hidden. He found the deer and took it home. He told his roommate, "The woodsman dreamt he killed the deer and forgot where he hid it. I now found the deer; so his dream must be true."

The roommate said, "Was there really a woodsman? Or did you dream the woodsman? Since you now have the deer, doesn't it mean that your dream is true?"

Identifying KWs

human-identified...

woodsman dream deer kill etc.

or machine-identified?

deer dream passerby kill he himself about

to the studenteverything seemsequally importantanddifficultso...

The teaching problem

focus text content on the gist focus the learner’s effort on the more important

words ... pronunciation ... meaning ... spelling ... collocates ... colligation ... pragmatics by focussing the learner’s attention away from

the other words

Using KWs in teaching

key words

1. the KWs are the important words

2. repeated words3. they can be identified

by the student, the teacher, or a computer

4. and we can focus on those KWs in language learning and teaching

Conclusions

Corpus Linguistics Summer Institute 30 June 2008 – 03 July 2008http://www.lexically.net/courses/corpus_linguistics_summer_2008.htm

Corpus Linguistics 2009University of Liverpool, UK

See you in Liverpool…

Kaplan, Robert, 1966. "Cultural Thought Patterns in Inter-Cultural Education“. Language Learning, Vol. 16 Nos 1 & 2, pp. 1-20.

Scott, Mike, 2008. WordSmith Tools 5.0. Lexical Analysis Software Ltd. (www.lexically.net) and SFLEP (www.sflep.com.cn)

http://www.chinapage.com/story/deerhunter.html (accessed on 16 March 2008)

References

A Deer Hunter Misplaced the Deer(and thought he dreamt it.)

A woodsman from Zheng saw a deer in the field, shot and killed it. Afraid he would be caught, he hid the deer and covered it with banana leaves. He was pleased with himself. Rightaway he forgot the hiding place, and thought that the whole episode was a dream! On his way home, he kept telling himself that it was only a dream. As he mumbled to himself about his dream, he was overheard by a passerby.

The passerby thought about what he had heard and figured out where the deer was hidden. He found the deer and took it home. He told his roommate, "The woodsman dreamt he killed the deer and forgot where he hid it. I now found the deer; so his dream must be true." The roommate said,"Was there really a woodsman? Or did you dream the woodsman? Since you now have the deer, doesn't it mean that your dream is true?"

The man replied," I now have the deer. It doesn't matter whether his dream or my dream is true." The woodman went home, and was depressed about his lost deer. That night he had a dream. He dreamt about

the passerby who had heard of him talking to himself and then found the hidden deer. Next morning, following his dream, he found the passerby and the deer. So he took him to the Magistrate and sued for the recovery of the deer.

The Magistrate said, "First the woodman killed the deer, but thought it was a dream. Then he dreamt that he killed the deer and believed it was real. He found the passerby with a real deer,so he sues for the deer.The roommate said that the passerby got the deer from another man's dream; so the deer belongs to no one.The deer is here and is real. Let it be divided equally between the two men."

The case was appealed to King Zheng, who jokingly remarked, "Jeez, next thing I will be told that the Magistrate had dreamt about dividing the deer." and sent the case to his Chief Adviser for an opinion.

The Adviser reported, "Sir, whether this case is about dreams or reality I cannot tell. Only (really wise men like) Huang Di or Confucius can differentiate dreams and realities. Since they are both dead, I recommend that we leave the Magistrate's decision be."

-Lie Zi, Han Dynasty

the whole story