论文部分内容阅读
Abstract：Applying corpus is a new aspect in foreign language teaching，especially in the lexis teaching. With the lexical approach and schema theory，this paper presents the use of corpus in lexis teaching.
Key words：corpus；lexis；schema
1、Introduction
Corpus is a collection of linguistic data either complied as written texts or as a transcription of recorded speech （D.Crystal，1992）.From the early 1990 onward，there has been a steady increase in the number of publications devoted to the use of corpus in context of language teaching and learning （Burnard ＆ McEnery，2000； Kettemann ＆ Marko，2002； Beranardini，2002； Chambers ＆ O’Sullivan，2004； Kennedy ＆ Miceli，2001，2002）. Several domestic studies also involve corpus in language teaching （ Xu ＆ He，2004； Shi ＆ Feng，1997）. It is definitely that the applying of corpus is a new aspect in foreign language teaching，especially the lexis aspect. Feng ＆ Sun （1999） state the importance of corpus in English lexis teaching and propose the use of corpus in English lexis teaching classroom，while Zhang （2006） demonstrates the use of corpus in lexis teaching from four aspects，such as，lexicon frequency，collocation，syntax and context. This paper presents the applying of Corpus Linguistic in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in general from both theoretical and practical aspects.
2、The theoretical aspect
Regarding the theoretical aspect，it mainly refers to the Lexical approach and the Schema theory. The lexical approach concentrates on developing learners' proficiency with lexis，or words and word combinations，based on the idea that an important part of language acquisition is the ability to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes，or "chunks，" and that these chunks become the raw data by which learners perceive patterns of language traditionally thought of as grammar （Lewis，1993，p. 95）. Instruction focuses on relatively fixed expressions that occur frequently in spoken language，such as，"I'm sorry，" "I didn't mean to make you jump，" or "That will never happen to me，" rather than originally created sentences （Lewis，1997a，p. 212）. The lexical approach makes a distinction between vocabulary—traditionally understood as a stock of individual words with fixed meanings，and lexis，which includes not only the single words but also the word combinations that we store in our mental lexicons. The lexical approach makes the possibility of applying Corpus in foreign language teaching and learning，for that Moudraia ＆ Olga （2001） proposes that activities used to develop learners' knowledge of lexical chains include working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom or accessible on the Internet.
Schema is the structure of the knowledge which the learners acquired （Carrell & Eisterhold，1983），the Stereotypical Knowledge （Schank & Abelson，1997），and the way to remember new knowledge by the equipped structure （Gui，2003），while foreign language can be viewed as a process of schemata construction and reconstruction （Xu & He，2004）. The condition of constructing language schemata is that students must repeatedly experience lots of language phenomenon，while the main feature of corpus，the concordance，which is an alphabetical listing of words in a text or collection of text，together with the context in which they appear，makes it possible for learners to repeatedly get the same language phenomenon in different context. In recent years，lots of external scholars study on the positive use of corpus on the learners' language schemata construction，including Aston （1997），Guy Aston （1999，1997），Schmidit （1990，2000），Sinclair （1991），and Skehan （1993）. Schemata Theory proves theoretical basis for corpus in foreign language teaching. The special material and tool of corpus is very useful for the construction and reconstruction of various schemata in foreign language learning process.
3、The practical aspect
Corpus linguistic is efficiently applied to foreign language teaching and learning. The most important reason is that corpus provides a large number of natural language materials. As J.Sinclair （1997） suggests，there are several advantages of using corpus as language teaching material：
（1）The corpus only present authentic language phenomenon.
（2）The corpus can make people realize their own language faculty，which is to make them see clearly the language form use inattentively but frequently.
（3）The corpus can provide the context of the lexicon.
（4）The corpus provides semantic basis for grammar.
（5）The corpus gives a large number of variants in language use，new and creative language form，reflecting the new development and change of language.
While learning a new word doesn't only involve its pronunciation，spelling and meaning，but also the context in which the word appears. Corpus is just a tool making learners fix in the use and context of the word. Corpus helps teacher a lot in designing learning activities，and students don't only learn the new word，but also keep interest in study. He（2004）gives us an example to use of corpus in the new word teaching，that is，from corpus，teacher retrieves all the sentences containing the target word，which is familiar for students，then uses another new word，to take the place of the target word，following，let students guess the meaning of the words according to the context by asking several questions： what is the category of the word? What is the meaning of the words surrounding the target word?.etc. Besides learning new word，it is easy for teachers to make distinction between synonyms. With the help of corpus，teachers can also make the complex explanation simply and transfer the abstract distinction to direct comparison （Yang，2004）.
Besides，collocation is also the very important part of applying corpus in lexis teaching. Collocation is not only composed of verb phrase，complex noun，idiom，and other phrases，but also composed of various habit uses with certain principles. Just as J.R.Firth refers，collocation is a way of meaning，and the words always expect and predict each other. However，in the traditional lexis teaching，the collocation is always limited in lexicon and the teaching of collocation is always carried out after the introduction of pronunciation，spelling，and meaning，so that it is difficult for foreign language learners to learn lexis in a large scale.Firth （1957） claims the collocation is the words appearing together in habit use'，not only refers to such phrases as， last week'， another one'，but also refers to these kinds of collocation，such as， although the' orand the'. Besides，the collocation taught in traditional lexis teaching classroom sometimes is far from the lexis in everyday use. For example， rain cats and dogs' means rain heavily，because it appears in every lexicon teaching material，while in modern English people hardly use it： in the spoken BNC corpus of 10 million phrases，it doesn't appear； in the written BNC corpus of 90 million words，it appears once （Rundell）. Corpus can provide various kinds of collocation including what
Firsh suggests and make sure the lexis authentic and useful in daily life.
4、Conclusion
Corpus provides us with a large number of real，up to date，and relevant language uses in concrete context. With the support of Lexical approach and the Schema theory，this paper presents the efficiency of applying corpus in lexis teaching. There is no doubt that the applying of corpus is a new aspect in lexis teaching. However，besides many advantages in the use of corpus，there are still some problems to deal with，such as issues relating to the creation and popularization and limitation of corpus. So，it still exists ample scope for further research and development.
References：
［1］Moudraia，Olga. Lexical Approach to Second Language Teaching. ERIC Digest. 2001.
［2］何安平.语料库语言学与英语教学.外语教学与研究出版社. 2004.10.
［3］冯跃进，孙明渝.论语料库在英语词汇教学中的作用.外语研究.1999年第3期.
［4］曾用强.语料库在外语教学与研究中的应用.《福建外语》1999年第3期.
［5］章柏成.语料库与英语词汇教学.重庆交通学院学报（社科版）. 2006. 7.
Key words：corpus；lexis；schema
1、Introduction
Corpus is a collection of linguistic data either complied as written texts or as a transcription of recorded speech （D.Crystal，1992）.From the early 1990 onward，there has been a steady increase in the number of publications devoted to the use of corpus in context of language teaching and learning （Burnard ＆ McEnery，2000； Kettemann ＆ Marko，2002； Beranardini，2002； Chambers ＆ O’Sullivan，2004； Kennedy ＆ Miceli，2001，2002）. Several domestic studies also involve corpus in language teaching （ Xu ＆ He，2004； Shi ＆ Feng，1997）. It is definitely that the applying of corpus is a new aspect in foreign language teaching，especially the lexis aspect. Feng ＆ Sun （1999） state the importance of corpus in English lexis teaching and propose the use of corpus in English lexis teaching classroom，while Zhang （2006） demonstrates the use of corpus in lexis teaching from four aspects，such as，lexicon frequency，collocation，syntax and context. This paper presents the applying of Corpus Linguistic in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning in general from both theoretical and practical aspects.
2、The theoretical aspect
Regarding the theoretical aspect，it mainly refers to the Lexical approach and the Schema theory. The lexical approach concentrates on developing learners' proficiency with lexis，or words and word combinations，based on the idea that an important part of language acquisition is the ability to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes，or "chunks，" and that these chunks become the raw data by which learners perceive patterns of language traditionally thought of as grammar （Lewis，1993，p. 95）. Instruction focuses on relatively fixed expressions that occur frequently in spoken language，such as，"I'm sorry，" "I didn't mean to make you jump，" or "That will never happen to me，" rather than originally created sentences （Lewis，1997a，p. 212）. The lexical approach makes a distinction between vocabulary—traditionally understood as a stock of individual words with fixed meanings，and lexis，which includes not only the single words but also the word combinations that we store in our mental lexicons. The lexical approach makes the possibility of applying Corpus in foreign language teaching and learning，for that Moudraia ＆ Olga （2001） proposes that activities used to develop learners' knowledge of lexical chains include working with language corpuses created by the teacher for use in the classroom or accessible on the Internet.
Schema is the structure of the knowledge which the learners acquired （Carrell & Eisterhold，1983），the Stereotypical Knowledge （Schank & Abelson，1997），and the way to remember new knowledge by the equipped structure （Gui，2003），while foreign language can be viewed as a process of schemata construction and reconstruction （Xu & He，2004）. The condition of constructing language schemata is that students must repeatedly experience lots of language phenomenon，while the main feature of corpus，the concordance，which is an alphabetical listing of words in a text or collection of text，together with the context in which they appear，makes it possible for learners to repeatedly get the same language phenomenon in different context. In recent years，lots of external scholars study on the positive use of corpus on the learners' language schemata construction，including Aston （1997），Guy Aston （1999，1997），Schmidit （1990，2000），Sinclair （1991），and Skehan （1993）. Schemata Theory proves theoretical basis for corpus in foreign language teaching. The special material and tool of corpus is very useful for the construction and reconstruction of various schemata in foreign language learning process.
3、The practical aspect
Corpus linguistic is efficiently applied to foreign language teaching and learning. The most important reason is that corpus provides a large number of natural language materials. As J.Sinclair （1997） suggests，there are several advantages of using corpus as language teaching material：
（1）The corpus only present authentic language phenomenon.
（2）The corpus can make people realize their own language faculty，which is to make them see clearly the language form use inattentively but frequently.
（3）The corpus can provide the context of the lexicon.
（4）The corpus provides semantic basis for grammar.
（5）The corpus gives a large number of variants in language use，new and creative language form，reflecting the new development and change of language.
While learning a new word doesn't only involve its pronunciation，spelling and meaning，but also the context in which the word appears. Corpus is just a tool making learners fix in the use and context of the word. Corpus helps teacher a lot in designing learning activities，and students don't only learn the new word，but also keep interest in study. He（2004）gives us an example to use of corpus in the new word teaching，that is，from corpus，teacher retrieves all the sentences containing the target word，which is familiar for students，then uses another new word，to take the place of the target word，following，let students guess the meaning of the words according to the context by asking several questions： what is the category of the word? What is the meaning of the words surrounding the target word?.etc. Besides learning new word，it is easy for teachers to make distinction between synonyms. With the help of corpus，teachers can also make the complex explanation simply and transfer the abstract distinction to direct comparison （Yang，2004）.
Besides，collocation is also the very important part of applying corpus in lexis teaching. Collocation is not only composed of verb phrase，complex noun，idiom，and other phrases，but also composed of various habit uses with certain principles. Just as J.R.Firth refers，collocation is a way of meaning，and the words always expect and predict each other. However，in the traditional lexis teaching，the collocation is always limited in lexicon and the teaching of collocation is always carried out after the introduction of pronunciation，spelling，and meaning，so that it is difficult for foreign language learners to learn lexis in a large scale.Firth （1957） claims the collocation is the words appearing together in habit use'，not only refers to such phrases as， last week'， another one'，but also refers to these kinds of collocation，such as， although the' orand the'. Besides，the collocation taught in traditional lexis teaching classroom sometimes is far from the lexis in everyday use. For example， rain cats and dogs' means rain heavily，because it appears in every lexicon teaching material，while in modern English people hardly use it： in the spoken BNC corpus of 10 million phrases，it doesn't appear； in the written BNC corpus of 90 million words，it appears once （Rundell）. Corpus can provide various kinds of collocation including what
Firsh suggests and make sure the lexis authentic and useful in daily life.
4、Conclusion
Corpus provides us with a large number of real，up to date，and relevant language uses in concrete context. With the support of Lexical approach and the Schema theory，this paper presents the efficiency of applying corpus in lexis teaching. There is no doubt that the applying of corpus is a new aspect in lexis teaching. However，besides many advantages in the use of corpus，there are still some problems to deal with，such as issues relating to the creation and popularization and limitation of corpus. So，it still exists ample scope for further research and development.
References：
［1］Moudraia，Olga. Lexical Approach to Second Language Teaching. ERIC Digest. 2001.
［2］何安平.语料库语言学与英语教学.外语教学与研究出版社. 2004.10.
［3］冯跃进，孙明渝.论语料库在英语词汇教学中的作用.外语研究.1999年第3期.
［4］曾用强.语料库在外语教学与研究中的应用.《福建外语》1999年第3期.
［5］章柏成.语料库与英语词汇教学.重庆交通学院学报（社科版）. 2006. 7.