Using concordance software to inform classroom practice
General corpora
1
1- conference is ranked 966, part of speech is a noun, frequencies in 5 registers
2- definitions
3- collocations grouped into adjectives, nouns and verbs, in rank order, i.e. most frequent first
4- visual depiction in the 5 registers
5- sample concordance lines, with colour coded words
6- synonyms grouped into senses
Example exercise A: From the collocates list we can use the following with example speaking questions for learners: international conference - Are there any international conferences you want to go to?
conference committee - Have you been involved in any conference committees?
attend conference - What was the last conference you attended?
Example exercise B: Using one of the following concordances from the magazine register we can ask learners to write a short story:
1. She was a participant on a panel at a conference convened by her worst enemy.
2. He took part in a conference on new directions in the field.
3.The most annoying thing about going to a conference is constantly getting lost at the site.
TESOLFR2013 Muralee Navaratnam 23 November 2013

2 Using concordance software to inform classroom practice
Build your own corpus
AntConc
Anthony, L. (2012). AntConc (Version 3.3.5m beta) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan:
Waseda University. Available from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/
Automatic collection of texts using TextSTAT or ICEWeb
Building your own corpus – TextSTAT and AntConc: http://eflnotes.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/building-your-own-corpus-textstatantconc/
Building your own corpus – ICEweb: http://eflnotes.wordpress.com/2013/09/04/building-your-own-corpus-iceweb/
You can read my whole series of blog posts about building and analyzing your own corpus from this link: http://eflnotes.wordpress.com/tag/build-your-own-corpus/
Frankenbeg-Garcia
A must read rationale and how to for using corpora in the classroom.
Frankenberg-Garcia, A. (2012). Integrating corpora with everyday language teaching.
In: Thomas, J. and Boulton, A. (Eds.) Input, Process and Product: developments in teaching and language corpora. Brno: Masaryk University Press. 33-50. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/3368339/Integrating_corpora_with_everyday_language_ teaching
GooglePlus community
Please consider joining for more information on how corpora can help teachers: https://apis.google.com/u/0/wm/1/communities/101266284417587206243
Contact
Email: muranava@gmail.com
Twitter: @muranava
Blog: eflnotes.wordpress.com
TESOLFR2013 Muralee Navaratnam 23 November 2013