ABSTRACT
Corpus linguistics (CL) is a heterogeneous field. This is a relevant assertion in the context of a young discipline that is subject to a process of critical inquiry and witnessing a rich debate in terms of methodological foundations. This chapter explores some of the principles behind the exploration of language use and what they imply for the deployment of CL methods in education research. Language use analysis can be conceptualised on a continuum that ranges from the characterisation of the formal features of a genre to an understanding of the social context in which, for example, students, teachers or parents use language when engaged in education activities. The chapter examines two case studies where researchers have used corpus linguistics as one of their data analysis methods to discover hidden patterns of language use. Corpus analyses provide different types of measures of frequencies. The chapter looks at the most relevant frequency-related data necessary to understand to analyse corpora.
