Exploring mega-corpora: Google Ngram Viewer and the Corpus of Historical American English

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.1.4

Keywords:

GOOGLE N-GRAM VIEWER, CORPUS OF HISTORICAL AMERICAN ENGLISH, MEGA-CORPORA, TREND STUDIES

Abstract

The creation of internet-based mega-corpora such as the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) (Davies, 2011a) and the Google Ngram Viewer (Cohen, 2010) signals a new phase in corpus-based research that provides both novice and expert researchers immediate access to a variety of online texts and time-coded data. This paper explores the applications of these corpora in the analysis of academic word lists, in particular, Coxhead’s (2000) Academic Word List (AWL). Coxhead (2011) has called for further research on the AWL with larger corpora, noting that learners’ use of academic vocabulary needs to address for the AWL to be useful in various contexts. Results show that words on the AWL are declining in overall frequency from 1990 to the present. Implications about the AWL and future directions in corpus-based research utilizing mega-corpora are discussed

Author Biographies

Eric Friginal, Georgia State University

Eric Friginal specializes in technology and language teaching, applied corpus linguistics, cross-cultural communication, and discipline-specific writing. His primary research program focuses on the exploration of professional, spoken interaction; the acquisition of fluency in ESL; and the study of language, culture, and cross-cultural communication. He makes use of corpus and computational tools as well as qualitative and quantitative research approaches in analyzing and interpreting linguistic patterning from corpora. His present work aims to contribute linguistic data that could be used for materials production and the development of training curricula in language proficiency and task performance of ESL speakers.

Marsha Walker, Georgia Institute of Technology

Marsha Walker teaches various courses at the Language Institute (GaTech) focusing on the areas of student academic writing, reading, and grammar. She specializes in second language acquisition, language and literacy, classroom approaches, and corpus-based studies. Her research interests include the application of SLA theories, technology, and corpora in language teaching. She also has developed courses specific to her interests in literature and vocabulary, and she continually develops classroom teaching materials and instructional tools primarily intended for international students in U.S. universities.

Janet Beth Randall, New York University, Tokyo

Janet Beth Randall specializes in ESL/EFL pedagogy and cross-cultural communication. Her work also consists of administration, curriculum development and pedagogically-oriented programs in English for Specific Purposes. Her current research and teaching interests include the use of corpus tools in content-based instruction and language program evaluation.

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Published

2014-11-30

How to Cite

Friginal, E., Walker, M., & Randall, J. B. (2014). Exploring mega-corpora: Google Ngram Viewer and the Corpus of Historical American English. EuroAmerican Journal of Applied Linguistics and Languages, 1(1), 48–68. https://doi.org/10.21283/2376905X.1.4

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2014)

Section

Research Articles - Regular Issue

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Copyright (c) 2014 Eric Friginal

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.