From second language acquisition research to foreign language teaching through the prism of corpora

Abstract

Corpus linguistics can be seen as a set of methods applicable to different branches of linguistics. This article deals with the application of corpus linguistics (including learner corpus research) to second language acquisition (SLA) research and foreign language teaching (FLT). It describes the existing links between these frameworks, arguing that the combinations usually work in pairs. By contrast, the concept of corpus-based theory-to-practice paths is introduced as a way of combining the three frameworks. More precisely, SLA research and FLT are brought together through the prism of corpora, which can provide data to test and possibly refine SLA hypotheses and then form the basis for pedagogical materials that can help solve some of the issues brought to light by the corpus analysis. Illustrations of such paths are given that centre around language input, the natural order hypothesis and language transfer.