ABSTRACT
As mentioned in the previous chapter, it is now increasingly common for applied linguists to work with large databases of texts stored on computer hard drives or websites and accessed electronically via specialist software. In this chapter we focus on this corpus-based approach to linguistic analysis. The chapter begins by looking in more detail at what a computer corpus is, and how to go about choosing or building one in order to answer applied linguistic research questions. We then look at some of the new ways of looking at language that electronic corpora and corpus analysis software have made possible, and review some of the many exciting ways in which applied linguists are using these new tools and resources. We will conclude by providing an example of how text analysis and corpus analysis can be combined fruitfully.
