ABSTRACT
Corpora have become common currency among professionals involved in foreign language syllabus and materials design, particularly in the case of English. However, it has frequently been observed that the key actors in the educational process – teachers and learners – are reluctant to engage in data-driven activities. This chapter attempts to pinpoint the reasons for such diffidence and discuss ways to promote corpus-based activities. The discussion starts with a presentation of teachers’ and students’ experience with data-driven learning (DDL) reported in several surveys. Next, the necessary skills for the application of corpora in language education and different models of teacher and learner training in DDL are examined. The chapter also recapitulates the results of several studies into the effectiveness of such training, which identify the obstacles in the use of data-driven activities in the process of language instruction and learning. The methodology used to collect such information is also reviewed. Finally, two selected examples of courses promoting DDL are discussed, followed by analyses of the effects of the instruction. Overall, the chapter argues for an adequate model of teacher and learner training which puts more emphasis on the integration of data-driven activities with other classroom procedures and tasks. This should raise teachers’ and learners’ awareness of the full potential of corpus-based techniques and encourage them to employ such activities as part and parcel of their standard teaching and learning practices.
