Thursday, December 12, 2013
Podcast about an essay from the JPU corpus
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Sunday, September 22, 2013
JPU Corpus blog logs 14,000 page views
Since its launch in 2007, this JPU Corpus blog has been viewed over 14,000 times. No earth-shattering stats, those, but I am still impressed by the dedication of linguists and other colleagues from around the world, visiting the site.
A run-down of the top ten countries:
A run-down of the top ten countries:
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
This Month's JPU Gem
From time to time, I feature an essay from the corpus. Way back in the 1990s, this is what a student wrote about virtual reality.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Corpus Legend
I began collecting student scripts in 1992 -- and by 1999, the JPU Corpus incorporated over 300 essays and research papers.
At the time, it was the largest European corpus of English as a Foreign Language.
My PhD study is based on this corpus. You can read it online at Google Books.
Three of the five subcorpora are available here and may be used for linguistic study.
I would love to hear from you. Please write me at my email address.
**
Besides colleagues in Hungary, scholars from Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Estonia, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and the US have written and talked about the JPU corpus and my dissertation:
Aijmer, K. (2002). Modality in advanced Swedish learners' written interlanguage. In Granger, S., Hung, J. & Petch-Tyson, S. (Eds.), Computer learner corpora, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching (pp. 55-76). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Bárdos, J. (2002). Könyvszemle [Book review]. Modern Nyelvoktatás, 8 (2-3), 98-99.
Beréndi, M. (2002). Recenzió [Book review]. Nyelvinfó, 10 (3-4), 60-61.
Crawford, W. J. (2008). Place and time adverbials in native and non-native English student writing. In A. Ädel & R. Reppen (Ed.), Corpora and discourse: The challenges of different settings (pp. 267-287). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Károly K. (2002). Answers about FL writing based on 'real' language data. Novelty, 9 (2), 60-62.
Katz, S. R. (2003, June). Peer response in the EFL academic writing cassroom: A critical analysis. Paper presented at the Second EATAW/EWCA Conference, Budapest.
Katz, S. R. (2004, April). Peer response in the EFL academic writing classroom in Eastern Europe: A critical analysis. Paper presented at the American Education Research Association Conference, San Diego.
Katz, S. R. (2005). Peer response in the EFL academic writing classroom in Hungary: A critical analysis. In Jen, B., Sheorey, R., Szilárd, S., & Titchmarsh, P. (Eds)., Contemporary Hungarian perspectives on linguistics, literature and pedagogy. Budapest, Hungary: Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Katz, S. R. (2007). Peer response in the EFL academic writing classroom in Hungary: A critical analysis. In R. Sheorey & J. Kiss-Gulyás (Eds.), Studies in applied and theoretical linguistics. Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó.
Kiszely, Z. (2006). Magyar középiskolások angol fogalmazási stratégiái [English composing skills of Hungarian high-school students]. Nyelvinfó, 14 (2), 8-12.
Kitao, K. (2006). Developing resources for corpus linguistics. Journal of Culture and Information Science, 1 (1), 17-36.
Kitsnik, M. (2006). Keelekorpused ja vöökeeleöpe [Language corpora and foreign language teaching]. Estonian Papers in Applied Linguistics 2, 93-108.
Lehmann, M. (2003). The lexis of writing and vocabulary size: The relationship between receptive knowledge and productive use. In J. Andor, J. Horváth & M. Nikolov (Eds.), Studies in English theoretical and applied linguistics (pp. 172-181). Pécs: Lingua Franca Csoport.
Lehmann, M. (2013). The use of lexical bundles in EFL academic writing tasks. In J. Mihaljevic-Djigunovic & M. M. Krajnovic (Eds.), UZRT 2012: Empirical studies in English applied linguistics (pp. 131-141). Zagreb: FF Press.
Lukácsi, Z. (2013). Cohesion and writing quality: Exploring the construct of cohesion in Euro examinations. PhD dissertation, University of Pécs.
Tono, Y. (2003). Learner corpora: Design, development and applications. In Archer, D., Rayson, P., Wilson, A. & McEnery, T. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics 2003 conference. UCREL technical paper number 16 (pp. 800-809). UCREL, Lancaster University.
At the time, it was the largest European corpus of English as a Foreign Language.
My PhD study is based on this corpus. You can read it online at Google Books.
Three of the five subcorpora are available here and may be used for linguistic study.
I would love to hear from you. Please write me at my email address.
**
Besides colleagues in Hungary, scholars from Austria, Brazil, Canada, China, Estonia, Germany, Japan, Lithuania, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and the US have written and talked about the JPU corpus and my dissertation:
Aijmer, K. (2002). Modality in advanced Swedish learners' written interlanguage. In Granger, S., Hung, J. & Petch-Tyson, S. (Eds.), Computer learner corpora, second language acquisition and foreign language teaching (pp. 55-76). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Bárdos, J. (2002). Könyvszemle [Book review]. Modern Nyelvoktatás, 8 (2-3), 98-99.
Beréndi, M. (2002). Recenzió [Book review]. Nyelvinfó, 10 (3-4), 60-61.
Crawford, W. J. (2008). Place and time adverbials in native and non-native English student writing. In A. Ädel & R. Reppen (Ed.), Corpora and discourse: The challenges of different settings (pp. 267-287). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Deák, J. (2009, October). Corpus analysis of verb phrase constructions in academic English writing by NSs and NNSs. Poster presented at the Second Language Research Forum, Michigan State University.
Doró, K. (2010). Meeting the language barrier:The experience of first-year students of English. In I. Hegedűs & S. Martsa (Eds.), CrosSections: Selected papers in linguistics from the 9th HUSSE conference (Vol. 1, pp. 289-297). Pécs: Institute of English Studies, University of Pécs.
Doró, K. (2011). Students' perceptions about their preparedness for undergraduate studies in English. In UPRT 2009: Empirical studies in English applied linguistics (pp. 81-92). Pécs: Lingua Franca Csoport.
Doró, K. (2013). Selling their research: The linguistic realization of rhetoric moves in English thesis abstracts written by Hungarian undergraduates. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 9 (2), 181-191.
Doró, K. (2011). Students' perceptions about their preparedness for undergraduate studies in English. In UPRT 2009: Empirical studies in English applied linguistics (pp. 81-92). Pécs: Lingua Franca Csoport.
Doró, K. (2013). Selling their research: The linguistic realization of rhetoric moves in English thesis abstracts written by Hungarian undergraduates. Romanian Journal of English Studies, 9 (2), 181-191.
Ene, S. E. (2006). The last stages of second language acquisition: Linguistics evidence from academic writing by advanced non-native English speaker. PhD dissertation, University of Arizona. Microform edition by ProQuest Information and Learning Company.
Fekete, H. (2006). Towards the validation of translation as an intermediate language proficiency exam task. Unpublished PhD dissertation, ELTE, Budapest.
Foss, P. (2009a). Constructing a blog corpus for Japanese learners of English. JALT CALL Journal, 5 (1), 65-76.
Foss, P. (2009b). Written learner corpora. Kwansei Gakuin University Humanities Review, 12, 147-158.
Foster, J., Wagner, J., & van Genabith, J. (2008, May). Using decision trees to detect and classify grammatical errors. Talk presented at the Calico '08 Workshop on Automatic Analysis of Learner Language: Bridging Foreign Language Teaching Needs and NLP Possibilities, University of San Francisco.
Gál, P. (2002). Az íráskészség fejlesztésének tartalmi vonatkozásai [The principles of developing the writing skill]. In J. Bárdos & I. Garaczi (Eds.), Nyelvpedagógia az ezredfordulón (pp. 317-340). Veszprém: Veszprémi Humán Tudományokért Alapítvány.
Gerdin, G. (2006). The use of the general nouns people and thing by L2 learners of English – A corpus-based study. Växjö universitet, Institutionen för humaniora Engelska.
Godó, Á. (2008). Cross-cultural aspects of academic writing: A study of Hungarian and North American college students’ L1 argumentative essays. International Journal of English Studies, 8 (2), 65-111.
Grigaliuniené, J., Bikeliené, L., & Jukneviciené, R. (2008). The Lithuanian component of the International Corpus of Learner English (LICLE): A resource for English language learning, teaching and research at Lithuanian institutions of higher education. Žmogus ir žodis, 10 (3), 62-70.
Guo, X. (2006). Verbs in the written English of Chinese learners: A corpus-based comparison between non-native speakers and native speakers. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, Department of English.
Gál, P. (2002). Az íráskészség fejlesztésének tartalmi vonatkozásai [The principles of developing the writing skill]. In J. Bárdos & I. Garaczi (Eds.), Nyelvpedagógia az ezredfordulón (pp. 317-340). Veszprém: Veszprémi Humán Tudományokért Alapítvány.
Gerdin, G. (2006). The use of the general nouns people and thing by L2 learners of English – A corpus-based study. Växjö universitet, Institutionen för humaniora Engelska.
Godó, Á. (2008). Cross-cultural aspects of academic writing: A study of Hungarian and North American college students’ L1 argumentative essays. International Journal of English Studies, 8 (2), 65-111.
Grigaliuniené, J., Bikeliené, L., & Jukneviciené, R. (2008). The Lithuanian component of the International Corpus of Learner English (LICLE): A resource for English language learning, teaching and research at Lithuanian institutions of higher education. Žmogus ir žodis, 10 (3), 62-70.
Guo, X. (2006). Verbs in the written English of Chinese learners: A corpus-based comparison between non-native speakers and native speakers. PhD thesis, University of Birmingham, Department of English.
Jendryczka-Wierszycka, J. (2009, July). Collecting spoken learner data: Challenges and benefits -- A Polish L1 perspective. In M. Michaela, V. González-Díaz, & C. Smith (Eds.), Proceedings of the corpus linguistic conference. University of Liverpool.
Károly K. (2002). Answers about FL writing based on 'real' language data. Novelty, 9 (2), 60-62.
Katz, S. R. (2003, June). Peer response in the EFL academic writing cassroom: A critical analysis. Paper presented at the Second EATAW/EWCA Conference, Budapest.
Katz, S. R. (2004, April). Peer response in the EFL academic writing classroom in Eastern Europe: A critical analysis. Paper presented at the American Education Research Association Conference, San Diego.
Katz, S. R. (2005). Peer response in the EFL academic writing classroom in Hungary: A critical analysis. In Jen, B., Sheorey, R., Szilárd, S., & Titchmarsh, P. (Eds)., Contemporary Hungarian perspectives on linguistics, literature and pedagogy. Budapest, Hungary: Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
Katz, S. R. (2007). Peer response in the EFL academic writing classroom in Hungary: A critical analysis. In R. Sheorey & J. Kiss-Gulyás (Eds.), Studies in applied and theoretical linguistics. Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó.
Kiszely, Z. (2006). Magyar középiskolások angol fogalmazási stratégiái [English composing skills of Hungarian high-school students]. Nyelvinfó, 14 (2), 8-12.
Kitao, K. (2006). Developing resources for corpus linguistics. Journal of Culture and Information Science, 1 (1), 17-36.
Kitsnik, M. (2006). Keelekorpused ja vöökeeleöpe [Language corpora and foreign language teaching]. Estonian Papers in Applied Linguistics 2, 93-108.
Lehmann, M. (2003). The lexis of writing and vocabulary size: The relationship between receptive knowledge and productive use. In J. Andor, J. Horváth & M. Nikolov (Eds.), Studies in English theoretical and applied linguistics (pp. 172-181). Pécs: Lingua Franca Csoport.
Lehmann, M. (2013). The use of lexical bundles in EFL academic writing tasks. In J. Mihaljevic-Djigunovic & M. M. Krajnovic (Eds.), UZRT 2012: Empirical studies in English applied linguistics (pp. 131-141). Zagreb: FF Press.
Lukácsi, Z. (2013). Cohesion and writing quality: Exploring the construct of cohesion in Euro examinations. PhD dissertation, University of Pécs.
Lüdeling, A. & Kytö, M. (Eds.). (2009). Corpus linguistics: An international handbook. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
Magnuczné Godó, Á. (2009). Gondolatok a kontrasztív retorika változó perspektíváiról. Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti Közlemények, 4 (1), 167-182.
Magnuczné Godó, Á. (2009). Gondolatok a kontrasztív retorika változó perspektíváiról. Alkalmazott Nyelvészeti Közlemények, 4 (1), 167-182.
Mark, K. (2001). A parallel learner corpus: Using computers in a humanistic approach to language teaching and research. Japanese Journal of Language and Society, 4 (1), 5-16.
McEnery, T., Xiao, R., & Tono, Y. (2006). Corpus-based language studies: An advanced resource book. New York: Routledge.
Merckle, T. (2008). Unpacking L2 writing responses: A corpus-based study on teacher feedback to student writing. Teaching English with Technology, 8 (4).
Nesselhauf, N. (2004). Learner corpora and their potential for language teaching. In J. Sinclair (Ed.), Teaching and language corpora (pp. 125-152). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Oh, S. Y. (2007). A corpus-based study of epistemic modality in Korean college students’ writings in English. English Teaching, 62 (2), 147-176.
Ooi, V. (2002). From Shakespeare to Hungarian EFL writing: Using WWW corpora to motivate student learning. In M. Tan (Ed.), Corpus studies in language education (pp. 163-177). Bangkok: IELE Press.
Pravec, N. (2002). Survey of language learner corpora. ICAME Journal, 26, 81-114.
Recski, L. (2005). Utilizando corpora de aprendizes para a investigação de aspectos discursivos, metodologias de ensino e design de materiais pedagógicos [Using learner corpora to investigate discoursal aspects, teaching methodologies, and pedagogical materials]. Linguagem & Ensino, 8 (2), 249-273.
Richter, B. (Ed.). (2006). First steps in theoretical and applied linguistics. Budapest: Bölcsész Konzorcium.
Shaw, P. (2004). A longitudinal corpus of Swedish university students’ written English, some
problems and some results. Lund Working Papers in English, 81-92.
Schiftner, B. (2008). Learner corpora of English and German: What is their status quo and where are they headed? Vienna English Working Papers, 17 (2), 47-78.
Spiri. J. (2008). Online study of frequency list vocabulary with the WordChamp website. Reflections on English Language Teaching, 7 (1), 21–36.>
Stritar, M. (2006). Oblikovanje korpusa usvajanja slovenščine kot tujega jezika [Slovene learner corpus design]. In T. Erjavec & J. Žganec Gros (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Slovenian and 1st International Language Technologies Conference. Ljubljana: Jožef Stefan Institute.
Szabó G. (2008). Applying item response theory in language test item bank building. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Szirmai M. (2001). The theory and practice of corpus linguistics. Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó.
Szirmai M. (2005). Bevezetés a korpusznyelvészetbe: A korpusznyelvészet alkalmazása az anyanyelv és az idegen nyelv tanulásában és tanításában [Introduction to corpus linguistics: The application of corpus linguistics in the study and teaching of the mother tongue and foreign languages]. Budapest: Tinta.
McEnery, T., Xiao, R., & Tono, Y. (2006). Corpus-based language studies: An advanced resource book. New York: Routledge.
Merckle, T. (2008). Unpacking L2 writing responses: A corpus-based study on teacher feedback to student writing. Teaching English with Technology, 8 (4).
Nesselhauf, N. (2004). Learner corpora and their potential for language teaching. In J. Sinclair (Ed.), Teaching and language corpora (pp. 125-152). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Oh, S. Y. (2007). A corpus-based study of epistemic modality in Korean college students’ writings in English. English Teaching, 62 (2), 147-176.
Ooi, V. (2002). From Shakespeare to Hungarian EFL writing: Using WWW corpora to motivate student learning. In M. Tan (Ed.), Corpus studies in language education (pp. 163-177). Bangkok: IELE Press.
Pravec, N. (2002). Survey of language learner corpora. ICAME Journal, 26, 81-114.
Recski, L. (2005). Utilizando corpora de aprendizes para a investigação de aspectos discursivos, metodologias de ensino e design de materiais pedagógicos [Using learner corpora to investigate discoursal aspects, teaching methodologies, and pedagogical materials]. Linguagem & Ensino, 8 (2), 249-273.
Richter, B. (Ed.). (2006). First steps in theoretical and applied linguistics. Budapest: Bölcsész Konzorcium.
Shaw, P. (2004). A longitudinal corpus of Swedish university students’ written English, some
problems and some results. Lund Working Papers in English, 81-92.
Schiftner, B. (2008). Learner corpora of English and German: What is their status quo and where are they headed? Vienna English Working Papers, 17 (2), 47-78.
Spiri. J. (2008). Online study of frequency list vocabulary with the WordChamp website. Reflections on English Language Teaching, 7 (1), 21–36.>
Stritar, M. (2006). Oblikovanje korpusa usvajanja slovenščine kot tujega jezika [Slovene learner corpus design]. In T. Erjavec & J. Žganec Gros (Eds.), Proceedings of the 5th Slovenian and 1st International Language Technologies Conference. Ljubljana: Jožef Stefan Institute.
Szabó G. (2008). Applying item response theory in language test item bank building. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Szirmai M. (2001). The theory and practice of corpus linguistics. Debrecen: Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó.
Szirmai M. (2005). Bevezetés a korpusznyelvészetbe: A korpusznyelvészet alkalmazása az anyanyelv és az idegen nyelv tanulásában és tanításában [Introduction to corpus linguistics: The application of corpus linguistics in the study and teaching of the mother tongue and foreign languages]. Budapest: Tinta.
Tasanameelarp, A. (2010). Effects of using concordancing on EFL learners' ability to self-correct grammatical errors. MA thesis, Prince of Songkla Universiry, Thailand.
Tono, Y. (2003). Learner corpora: Design, development and applications. In Archer, D., Rayson, P., Wilson, A. & McEnery, T. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Corpus Linguistics 2003 conference. UCREL technical paper number 16 (pp. 800-809). UCREL, Lancaster University.
Tono, Y. (2005). Corpus-based SLA research: State of the art of learner corpus studies. In M. Minami, H. Kobayashi, M. Nakayama & H. Sirai (Eds.), Studies in language sciences: Papers from the Fourth Annual Conference of the Japanese Society of Language Sciences (pp. 45-77) Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers.
Vermes A. P. (2003). Idegen nyelvi íráspedagógia és fordítás [Foreign-language writing pedagogy and translation]. Iskolakultúra, 13 (10), 58-60.
Wang, L., & Sun, K. (2005). Current developments in learner English corpus in and outside China. Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Education, 5, 19-24.
Xiao, Z. (2008). Well-known and influential corpora. In A. Lüdeling & M. Kyto (Eds.), Corpus linguistics: An international handbook. Vol. 1. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 383-457.
Vermes A. P. (2003). Idegen nyelvi íráspedagógia és fordítás [Foreign-language writing pedagogy and translation]. Iskolakultúra, 13 (10), 58-60.
Wang, L., & Sun, K. (2005). Current developments in learner English corpus in and outside China. Computer-Assisted Foreign Language Education, 5, 19-24.
Xiao, Z. (2008). Well-known and influential corpora. In A. Lüdeling & M. Kyto (Eds.), Corpus linguistics: An international handbook. Vol. 1. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 383-457.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
The Best Corpus Project
Students in my Corpus Linguistics course have worked on some exciting projects. Here, I make available the best, by Kiss Ilona. First, an excerpt:
I started to develop my corpus by downloading articles on air travel from internet tourism magazines. As tourism is a rather wide issue I had to encompass a narrower scope and focused on travel by air. I assumed that analysing a reliable amount of data with the help of frequency ranges would help me with the selection of the most appropriate vocabulary items to be tested. The amount of data proved to be a crucial point of my investigation. I tried to find evidence to support my hypothesis that with a representative amount of data I would be able to select the most important and most frequent words of a specialised lexis in specialised texts. Thus I have collected twenty-six carefully selected professional articles from different websites comprising approximately thirteen thousand tokens.
The Language Practice Subcorpus
L 148 M, L 149 M, L 150 M, L 151 M, L 152 M, L 153 M
L 154 M, L 155 M, L 156 M, L 157 M, L 158 M, L 159 M
L 160 M, L 161 M, L 162 M, L 163 M, L 164 M, L 165 M
L 166 M, L 167 M, L 168 M, L 169 M, L 170 M, L 171 M
L 172 M, L 173 M, L 174 M, L 175 M, L 176 M, L 177 M
L 178 M, L 179 F, L 180 F, L 181 F, L 182 F, L 183 F
L 184 F, L 185 F, L 186 F, L 187 F, L 188 F, L 189 F
L 190 F,L 191 F, L 192 F, L 193 F, L 194 F, L 195 F
L 196 F, L 197 F, L 198 F, L 199 F, L 200 F, L 201 F
L 202 F, L 203 F, L 204 F, L 205 F, L 206 F, L 207 F
L 208 F, L 209 F, L 210 F, L 211 F, L 212 F, L 213 F
The Writing Subcorpus
W 001 F, W 002 F, W 003 F, W 004 F, W 005 F, W 006 F
W 007 F, W 008 F, W 009 F, W 010 F, W 011 F, W 012 F
W 013 F, W 014 F, W 015 F, W 016 F, W 017 F, W 018 F
W 019 F, W 020 F, W 021 Fm W 022 Fm W 023 F, W 024 F
W 025 F, W 026 F, W 027 F, W 028 F, W 029 F, W 030 F
W 031 F, W 032 F, W 033 F, W 034 F, W 035 F, W 036 F
W 037 F, W 038 F, W 039 F, W 040 F, W 041 F, W 042 F
W 043 F, W 044 F, W 045 F, W 046 F, W 047 F, W 048 F
W 049 F, W 050 F, W 051 F, W 052 F, W 053 F, W 054 F
W 055 F, W 056 F, W 057 F, W 058 F, W 059 F, W 060 F
W 061 F, W 062 F, W 063 F, W 064 F, W 065 F, W 066 F
W 067 F, W 068 F, W 069 F, W 070 F, W 071 F, W 072 F
W 073 F, W 074 F, W 075 F, W 076 F, W 077 F, W 078 F
W 079 F, W 080 F, W 081 F, W 082 F, W 083 F, W 084 F
W 085 F, W 086 F, W 087 F, W 088 F, W 089 F, W 090 F
W 091 F, W 092 F, W 093 F, W 094 F, W 095 F, W 096 F
W 097 F, W 098 F, W 099 F, W 100 F, W 101 F, W 102 F
W 103 F, W 104 F, W 105 F, W 106 F, W 107 M, W 108 M
W 109 M, W 110 M, W 111 M, W 112 M, W 113 M, W 114 M
W 115 M, W 116 M, W 117 M, W 118 M, W 119 M, W 120 M
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
JPU Corpus Gem
Every now and then, I recommend a script from the corpus.
This time, it's L 216 F, an essay about travelling with lobsters.
This time, it's L 216 F, an essay about travelling with lobsters.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
JPU Corpus News
January 2008: My paper on the internet version of the JPU Corpus and its application with the Compleat Lexical Tutor was published in When Grammar Minds Language and Literature by the Institute of English and American Studies, University of Debrecen. (A PDF version of the paper is availabe.) Editors: József Andor, Béla Hollósy, Tibor Laczkó and Péter Pelyvás. The introduction: "At the end of the nineties, the first phase of a corpus-linguistic project involving over three hundred English majors at the university then known as Janus Pannonius came to an end: I had collected one of the largest European learner corpora, the JPU Corpus. It contained almost half a million words, which made it possible to describe and analyze the personal and academic writing of these students and to profile individual and group differences. Among other areas, it provided the raw data for analyzing correct and incorrect uses of the definite article in the essays of colleagues enrolled in the Russian retraining program and the opening and closing sentences in the subcorpus comprising one hundred research papers."December 2007: The Hungarian applied-linguistics journal, Modern Nyelvoktatás, published my article about using the JPU corpus for various language study tasks.
One of these tasks links the corpus with the color-coded frequency bands of the BNC, as part of the Frequency tools of the Compleat Lexical Tutor. Examples are provided in the article, using this excerpt from the JPU script L 220 F: "Graham Greene is the kind of writer whose novels and short stories are influenced by his own experiences in life. He does not write directly about his life but his attitude to the phenomena of the world and the things that happen to him can be felt in the ways he makes his stories. The role of childhood experiences, the unpleasant side of life and escapism are important aspects in Greene's life. This essay will examine how and why he deals with them in his works too."June 2007: Tom Cobb added the JPU Corpus to his Compleat Lexical Tutor suite of tools and sources. You can get concordance citations online.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Searching Scripts
You can use the Search blog field at the top of every window to locate specific words, phrases, or sentences in the scripts.
Also, you can click one of these labels to read a script or more with that tag.
Text types:
essay * research paper * story
Themes:
academic essays * academic journals * accuracy * adverts * Americans * amusing writing * aphasia * attitudes * au-pairs
banned * blues * Britain * buffet
CALL * challenge * CHAT-SL * chatting * childhood * chipcards * classroom behavior * clutter * coffee cups * coherence * computer phobia * conclusions * concreteness * corpus analysis * course analysis * criminals * culture * culture of the English department
Dallas * day student was born * death * design * deviation * diaries in EFL * dictionary use * dogs' life * Dracula
Eco * education * effective presentations * English department * environment protection * esthetics * ethnic minorities * Evillage
Father O'Ryan * feedback * focus * free writing * future
Gandhi * getting up early * gifted children * Greene * group roles
handbook analysis * headlines * holiday * Hungarian journalism * HUSSE
ideal parent * idioms * interaction * introductions * introductions and conclusions * ITN World News
language learning * libraries * literary values * lobster * love
marking * meaning of life * media * medicine * mini essays * modernism
news values * newspapers * Newsweek * normalcy
observation * office design * Oklahoma bombing
paragraphs * paranormal phenomena * parenthood * Passage to India * photography * plagiarism * portfolio analysis * proficiency exam
rain forest * restaurants * retraining program * revision
75 Readings * slang * Soviet Union * Spender * stories with children * student communities * syllabus analysis
taped essay evaluation * taxi drivers * teacher interview * teahouse design * testing * thesis evaluation * Thurber * Time * travel* TV * 2015
university dormitories * USA
violence * virtual reality * vocabulary
war and peace * war in Croatia * Wildlife magazine * word processor * working women * writing * writing course * writing journals * writing skills
Zinsser
Also, you can click one of these labels to read a script or more with that tag.
Text types:
essay * research paper * story
Themes:
academic essays * academic journals * accuracy * adverts * Americans * amusing writing * aphasia * attitudes * au-pairs
banned * blues * Britain * buffet
CALL * challenge * CHAT-SL * chatting * childhood * chipcards * classroom behavior * clutter * coffee cups * coherence * computer phobia * conclusions * concreteness * corpus analysis * course analysis * criminals * culture * culture of the English department
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Friday, May 11, 2007
L 221 F
According to the teachings of history if a lot of people agree in something it is not sure that this something must be the truth. For example Copernicus - in his century - was the only one who was on the opinion that the Earth is global. Everyone else was totally sure about that the Earth is flat. In our days we know that the multitude was wrong.
In spite of this if we deal with religions it is unavoidable to check how many adherents they have. The first one which has the largest number of followers is the Roman Catholic Church, the next is Islam, the third ones are Hinduism, Confucionism and Taoism and the fourth is Buddhism.
There are many different opinions about the exact time of the beginning of Hinduism but usually it is said to began in approximately 1500 BC. But one can find followers of the tendency which claims that Hinduism is 6000, 10000 or even 50000 years old. Anyway Hinduism is the only religion that divides its adherents into four castes which can seldom be mixed with each other. In approximately 500 BC as a breakaway from Hinduism Buddhism began. In a way Buddhism is not a religion , it is rather a lifestyle and the collection of methods which lead to enlightenment. It is interesting to mention that in one of the Buddhist branches - called Zen Buddhism - there is a saying: “After uttering Buddha’s name wash your mouth out.”. It emphasises the unique way - the way of several methods - and would not believe in any kind of Gods or Buddhas.
In the Near East Judaism developed in a contradictional way. First it mixed with Egyptian religion then step by step through the appearing of the prophets it converted in a separate and independent religion. One can clearly follow the development of the changing Jewish idea of God, because in the Old Testament every prophets’ word had been kept word by word. Judaism inspired with the waiting for the coming of Messiah, but when someone is claiming that he is the Messiah or the messenger of it the Jews lost no time in killing them. It happened with Jesus Christ as well with a slightly difference that the Roman governor Pilate Pontius condemned him to death. In approximately 600 AD Mohammed turned up with the intention of mixing the teachings of Judaism and Christianity. In his opinion Adam, Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed were all prophets, the prophets of Allah. The Jewish and Christian people did not share his opinion so the religious wars have started and continued up to our days.
Nowadays the number of religious followers are the highest than ever. The religious types of books are on the tops of the best-sellers lists. God is mentioned more than ever, so therefore unavoidably the question of what is the reason for all that popularity comes up. The first reason is the basic contradiction of human existence, because one is being born to this world maybe unwillingly and disappear from here without any questioning. And if that is the case every human being struggles between the barrier of birth and death, while fighting for implementing their secret dreams and ideas. Everyone has got a feeling that they have to crush their hopes, ambitions and desires into a short interval of a human life. To make it more difficult they can not even use that brief time without any disturbance of a higher authority which steadily interfere in everyone’s life, way of thinking and behaviour.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe that their religion is the only true way. Whereas Confucianism, Hinduism and Buddhism are a kind of summarising religion, they are trying to dissolve other opinions and conceptions into themselves, as long as that other idea would not radically differ from their own teachings. Orientalist religions are based on the doctrine of reincarnation and because rebirth is giving an infinite perspective it can give a stable background to the religious patience. Religious impatience comes from the awareness that human life is happening only once and unable to repeat itself.
What different religions have in common that they offer codes of conduct. if one observes these codes he/she can easily notice that usually they are reasonable and rational codes disguised - by a clever and wise person - as a kind of religious rule or code of conduct. But anyway one could easily mix some parts of the doctrines and statements of the different religions up and afterwards hardly anyone would notice even these changes.
Among Hungarian traditions there is a big fast around the time of Easter which coincides with the clearing the toxins out of the body suggested by the doctors and the alternative healers. In Judaism and Islam porkeating prohibition serves the same purpose.
Religions in their original form assure one’s physical and mental health and the harmony with the nature and the universe. The only problem if some fundamentalist and unintelligent people deal with the case of religions and they interpret the other way simple and rational regulations in literal sense and they use these as a weapon against the followers of other conceptions. To sum it all up every morally well-founded religions serve well the development of one’s spiritual, physical and mental state. But like everything else, religions too could be used for bad purposes and that is not the problem of a religion but the follower.
In spite of this if we deal with religions it is unavoidable to check how many adherents they have. The first one which has the largest number of followers is the Roman Catholic Church, the next is Islam, the third ones are Hinduism, Confucionism and Taoism and the fourth is Buddhism.
There are many different opinions about the exact time of the beginning of Hinduism but usually it is said to began in approximately 1500 BC. But one can find followers of the tendency which claims that Hinduism is 6000, 10000 or even 50000 years old. Anyway Hinduism is the only religion that divides its adherents into four castes which can seldom be mixed with each other. In approximately 500 BC as a breakaway from Hinduism Buddhism began. In a way Buddhism is not a religion , it is rather a lifestyle and the collection of methods which lead to enlightenment. It is interesting to mention that in one of the Buddhist branches - called Zen Buddhism - there is a saying: “After uttering Buddha’s name wash your mouth out.”. It emphasises the unique way - the way of several methods - and would not believe in any kind of Gods or Buddhas.
In the Near East Judaism developed in a contradictional way. First it mixed with Egyptian religion then step by step through the appearing of the prophets it converted in a separate and independent religion. One can clearly follow the development of the changing Jewish idea of God, because in the Old Testament every prophets’ word had been kept word by word. Judaism inspired with the waiting for the coming of Messiah, but when someone is claiming that he is the Messiah or the messenger of it the Jews lost no time in killing them. It happened with Jesus Christ as well with a slightly difference that the Roman governor Pilate Pontius condemned him to death. In approximately 600 AD Mohammed turned up with the intention of mixing the teachings of Judaism and Christianity. In his opinion Adam, Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed were all prophets, the prophets of Allah. The Jewish and Christian people did not share his opinion so the religious wars have started and continued up to our days.
Nowadays the number of religious followers are the highest than ever. The religious types of books are on the tops of the best-sellers lists. God is mentioned more than ever, so therefore unavoidably the question of what is the reason for all that popularity comes up. The first reason is the basic contradiction of human existence, because one is being born to this world maybe unwillingly and disappear from here without any questioning. And if that is the case every human being struggles between the barrier of birth and death, while fighting for implementing their secret dreams and ideas. Everyone has got a feeling that they have to crush their hopes, ambitions and desires into a short interval of a human life. To make it more difficult they can not even use that brief time without any disturbance of a higher authority which steadily interfere in everyone’s life, way of thinking and behaviour.
Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe that their religion is the only true way. Whereas Confucianism, Hinduism and Buddhism are a kind of summarising religion, they are trying to dissolve other opinions and conceptions into themselves, as long as that other idea would not radically differ from their own teachings. Orientalist religions are based on the doctrine of reincarnation and because rebirth is giving an infinite perspective it can give a stable background to the religious patience. Religious impatience comes from the awareness that human life is happening only once and unable to repeat itself.
What different religions have in common that they offer codes of conduct. if one observes these codes he/she can easily notice that usually they are reasonable and rational codes disguised - by a clever and wise person - as a kind of religious rule or code of conduct. But anyway one could easily mix some parts of the doctrines and statements of the different religions up and afterwards hardly anyone would notice even these changes.
Among Hungarian traditions there is a big fast around the time of Easter which coincides with the clearing the toxins out of the body suggested by the doctors and the alternative healers. In Judaism and Islam porkeating prohibition serves the same purpose.
Religions in their original form assure one’s physical and mental health and the harmony with the nature and the universe. The only problem if some fundamentalist and unintelligent people deal with the case of religions and they interpret the other way simple and rational regulations in literal sense and they use these as a weapon against the followers of other conceptions. To sum it all up every morally well-founded religions serve well the development of one’s spiritual, physical and mental state. But like everything else, religions too could be used for bad purposes and that is not the problem of a religion but the follower.
L 220 F
Graham Greene is the kind of writer whose novels and short stories are influenced by his own experiences in life. He does not write directly about his life but his attitude to the phenomena of the world and the things that happen to him can be felt in the ways he makes his stories. The role of childhood experiences, the unpleasant side of life and escapism are important aspects in Greene's life. This essay will examine how and why he deals with them in his works too.
The bad experiences that Greene has during his childhood influence his later life to a great extent. He cannot get rid of the idea that one's personality is determined by the age of 16 and the early negative experiences have special effects on one's whole life. This kind of mentality is due to the fact that as a student he does not live at home but in a dormitory. This means that he has to leave his loving mother with whom he is in a close relationship and that he has to get used to the hostile atmosphere of the dormitory. He has to accept conditions he can hardly bear : he has to adapt to others and has no private life. In addition the headmaster of the school he attends is his father so all the students pick on him, they enjoy ridiculing him. But this is not Greene's fault: he is only the victim of the conditions. What makes it even worse is that their house is on the doorstep of the dormitory and there is a door connecting the two buildings but he is never allowed to open that door and retreat to home. This door appears in some of his books and is called the 'green baize door'. In one of his stories he writes about a madhouse where this door is between the wards and the cell: it connects the world where the mad are 'happy' to live and the world they detest and are afraid of.
Greene's early bad experiences have such a great effect on him that he writes about the importance and influence of childhood in many of his stories. In the 'Innocent' the narrator, who is an adult, tries to compensate for his childhood: as a child he was truly in love with a girl but the affair was 'innocent' because there could be no physical satisfaction, which made him suffer a lot. Therefore now he tries to live a life that is exactly the opposite of his childhood life: it is full of sexual satisfaction, he has as many experiences as possible and has no emotions just plays around with girls. In the 'Shocking Accident' Greene also suggests that one cannot escape from the effects of bad experiences: all the people to whom the main character Jerome tells the story of his father's death laugh-his father died because a pig fell out from a balcony and hit him while walking in the street. For the naive and inexperienced child the main negative experience is not the casualty but people's reactions to the story: when they laugh he is struck by the real world. From then on he developes different methods of telling the story to avoid having the same humiliating experience and qualifies people according to the ways they react: he would not marry a girl who laughed at his story.
Greene's experiences make him obsessed with the dark side of life: his pessimism roots in his childhood because he cannot live the kind of life he wants to live and he can only feel the hostility and spitefulness of people. His pessimism is always there in his stories as a general atmosphere or background. In 'The Destructors' for instance little children deliberately and without any reason destroy someone's house and they laugh at the man's tragedy. So in this story Greene draws attention to the fact that the world is full of hostility, it cannot be changed because evil is in human nature itself, it is even in children and that is the biggest problem. 'The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower', which is another short story, also shows Greene's pessimistic point of view: by the fact that in the story someone steals the Tower without anyone noticing it the writer concentrates on the superficiality and indifference of 20th century people.
Apart from his childhood experiences World War II and other events that claimed the death of many people also contribute to Greene's pessimism and focusing on the dark side of life only. He is so concerned about war and terrorism that he even makes some historical references in his stories and in this way he draws attention to the danger and existence of violence in the world. In 'An Old Man's Memory' for example the Channel Tunnel is destroyed by terrorists and Greene refers to actual events that happened in his own life: he mentions the so-called Lockurbie-disaster and another plane destruction when the Americans exploded a plane over the USA because its pilot refused to identify himself and the US thought they were Iranians or spies - in reality they were civilians. The fact that in Greene's life there are so many bloody incidents claiming a lot of victims makes him even more pessimistic and he cannot help concentrating on the unpleasant side of life in his works.
His pessimism is made even stronger by the dehumanisation that he can feel around him as an adult. In his despair he tries to escape from the world he does not like and to create another one where he can find no aggression, no low moral standards and no humiliating effects. First he tries to escape by reading and then later by writing. His escapism can even be detected in the stories themselves: for example in 'The Lottery Ticket' the main character goes on a holiday because he wants to escape from where he lives, he wants to be alone so that he can be happy about coming back. However he finally escapes from where he escaped to.
Considering all these facts one can conclude that Greene's background influences his works. His negative childhood experiences determine his later life to the effect that he becomes a pessimist. His mentality can be felt in his stories because he always focuses on the dark side of life. In other words: what happens to Greene in his life indirectly appears in his works too.
The bad experiences that Greene has during his childhood influence his later life to a great extent. He cannot get rid of the idea that one's personality is determined by the age of 16 and the early negative experiences have special effects on one's whole life. This kind of mentality is due to the fact that as a student he does not live at home but in a dormitory. This means that he has to leave his loving mother with whom he is in a close relationship and that he has to get used to the hostile atmosphere of the dormitory. He has to accept conditions he can hardly bear : he has to adapt to others and has no private life. In addition the headmaster of the school he attends is his father so all the students pick on him, they enjoy ridiculing him. But this is not Greene's fault: he is only the victim of the conditions. What makes it even worse is that their house is on the doorstep of the dormitory and there is a door connecting the two buildings but he is never allowed to open that door and retreat to home. This door appears in some of his books and is called the 'green baize door'. In one of his stories he writes about a madhouse where this door is between the wards and the cell: it connects the world where the mad are 'happy' to live and the world they detest and are afraid of.
Greene's early bad experiences have such a great effect on him that he writes about the importance and influence of childhood in many of his stories. In the 'Innocent' the narrator, who is an adult, tries to compensate for his childhood: as a child he was truly in love with a girl but the affair was 'innocent' because there could be no physical satisfaction, which made him suffer a lot. Therefore now he tries to live a life that is exactly the opposite of his childhood life: it is full of sexual satisfaction, he has as many experiences as possible and has no emotions just plays around with girls. In the 'Shocking Accident' Greene also suggests that one cannot escape from the effects of bad experiences: all the people to whom the main character Jerome tells the story of his father's death laugh-his father died because a pig fell out from a balcony and hit him while walking in the street. For the naive and inexperienced child the main negative experience is not the casualty but people's reactions to the story: when they laugh he is struck by the real world. From then on he developes different methods of telling the story to avoid having the same humiliating experience and qualifies people according to the ways they react: he would not marry a girl who laughed at his story.
Greene's experiences make him obsessed with the dark side of life: his pessimism roots in his childhood because he cannot live the kind of life he wants to live and he can only feel the hostility and spitefulness of people. His pessimism is always there in his stories as a general atmosphere or background. In 'The Destructors' for instance little children deliberately and without any reason destroy someone's house and they laugh at the man's tragedy. So in this story Greene draws attention to the fact that the world is full of hostility, it cannot be changed because evil is in human nature itself, it is even in children and that is the biggest problem. 'The Man Who Stole The Eiffel Tower', which is another short story, also shows Greene's pessimistic point of view: by the fact that in the story someone steals the Tower without anyone noticing it the writer concentrates on the superficiality and indifference of 20th century people.
Apart from his childhood experiences World War II and other events that claimed the death of many people also contribute to Greene's pessimism and focusing on the dark side of life only. He is so concerned about war and terrorism that he even makes some historical references in his stories and in this way he draws attention to the danger and existence of violence in the world. In 'An Old Man's Memory' for example the Channel Tunnel is destroyed by terrorists and Greene refers to actual events that happened in his own life: he mentions the so-called Lockurbie-disaster and another plane destruction when the Americans exploded a plane over the USA because its pilot refused to identify himself and the US thought they were Iranians or spies - in reality they were civilians. The fact that in Greene's life there are so many bloody incidents claiming a lot of victims makes him even more pessimistic and he cannot help concentrating on the unpleasant side of life in his works.
His pessimism is made even stronger by the dehumanisation that he can feel around him as an adult. In his despair he tries to escape from the world he does not like and to create another one where he can find no aggression, no low moral standards and no humiliating effects. First he tries to escape by reading and then later by writing. His escapism can even be detected in the stories themselves: for example in 'The Lottery Ticket' the main character goes on a holiday because he wants to escape from where he lives, he wants to be alone so that he can be happy about coming back. However he finally escapes from where he escaped to.
Considering all these facts one can conclude that Greene's background influences his works. His negative childhood experiences determine his later life to the effect that he becomes a pessimist. His mentality can be felt in his stories because he always focuses on the dark side of life. In other words: what happens to Greene in his life indirectly appears in his works too.
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