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Automatically augmenting academic text for language learning: PhD abstract corpora with the British Library

Title:

Automatically augmenting academic text for language learning: PhD abstract corpora with the British Library

Wu, Shaoqun, Fitzgerald, Alannah ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0392-2740, Witten, Ian and Yu, Alex (2018) Automatically augmenting academic text for language learning: PhD abstract corpora with the British Library. In: Zou, Bin and Thomas, Michael, (eds.) Handbook of Research on Integrating Technology Into Contemporary Language Learning and Teaching. IGI Global. ISBN 9781522551409

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Abstract

This chapter describes the automated FLAX language system (flax.nzdl.org) that extracts salient linguistic features from academic text and presents them in an interface designed for L2 students who are learning academic writing. Typical lexico-grammatical features of any word or phrase, collocations and lexical bundles are automatically identified and extracted in a corpus; learners can explore them by searching and browsing, and inspect them along with contextual information. This chapter uses a single running example, the PhD abstracts corpus of 9.8 million words, derived from the open access Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) at the British Library, but the approach is fully automated and can be applied to any collection of English writing. Implications for reusing open access publications for non-commercial educational and research purposes are presented for discussion. Design considerations for developing teaching and learning applications that focus on the rhetorical and lexico-grammatical patterns found in the abstract genre are also discussed.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Education
Item Type:Book Section
Refereed:Yes
Authors:Wu, Shaoqun and Fitzgerald, Alannah and Witten, Ian and Yu, Alex
Editors:Zou, Bin and Thomas, Michael
Date:23 February 2018
Projects:
  • FLAX Language Project flax.nzdl.org
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):10.4018/978-1-5225-5140-9.ch025
Keywords:L2 academic writing, lexico-grammatical patterns, collocations, lexical bundles, abstracts, English for Academic Purposes (EAP)
ID Code:983413
Deposited By: ALANNAH TERESA FITZGERALD
Deposited On:23 Jan 2018 19:32
Last Modified:23 Jan 2018 19:39
Related URLs:

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