Effects of corpus-based instruction on phraseology in learner English

This study analyses the effects of data-driven learning (DDL) on the phraseology used by 223 English students at an Italian university. The students studied the genre of opinion survey reports through paper-based and hands-on exploration of a reference corpus. They then wrote their own report and a learner corpus of these texts was compiled. A contrastive interlanguage analysis approach (Granger, 2002) was adopted to compare the phraseology of key items in the learner corpus with that found in the reference corpus. Comparison is also made with a learner corpus of reports produced by a previous cohort of students who had not used the reference corpus. Students who had done DDL tasks used a wider range of genre-appropriate phraseology and produced a lower number of stock phrases than those who had not. The study also finds evidence that students use more phrases encountered in paper-based concordancing tasks than in hands-on tasks.Unlike in previous DDL studies, observations of the learning of a specific text-type through DDL in the present study are based on the comparison with both a control learner corpus and an expert corpus.The study also considers the use of DDL with a large class size

Effects of corpus-based instruction on phraseology in learner English

This study analyses the effects of data-driven learning (DDL) on the phraseology used by 223 English students at an Italian university. The students studied the genre of opinion survey reports through paper-based and hands-on exploration of a reference corpus. They then wrote their own report and a learner corpus of these texts was compiled. A contrastive interlanguage analysis approach (Granger, 2002) was adopted to compare the phraseology of key items in the learner corpus with that found in the reference corpus. Comparison is also made with a learner corpus of reports produced by a previous cohort of students who had not used the reference corpus. Students who had done DDL tasks used a wider range of genre-appropriate phraseology and produced a lower number of stock phrases than those who had not. The study also finds evidence that students use more phrases encountered in paper-based concordancing tasks than in hands-on tasks. Unlike in previous DDL studies, observations of the learning of a specific text-type through DDL in the present study are based on the comparison with both a control learner corpus and an expert corpus. The study also considers the use of DDL with a large class size

Meeting the Challenges of Delivering Specialised English Language Training for University Staff

The drive for internationalisation in European universities, and the resulting increase in English-taught programmes and international students, is bringing new challenges to university language centres. While many universities now offer linguistic and methodological training to the lecturers involved, it is essential that adequate training is also made available to non-academic staff. In 2015 the University of Padova Language Centre was asked to train administrative staff who deal with international visitors and students, many of whom lack effective communication skills in the local language. The language teachers involved find themselves in a new role, with challenges that differ from those associated with teaching students. This paper discusses how the specific language learning needs of university administrative staff are met by highly qualified and experienced university language teachers. It examines participant feedback and suggests training solutions that could enhance communication within an increasingly international academic community

Development of a selection to recover improved DNA ligase enzymes during directed evolution

DNA ligases are essential enzymes used in many molecular biology applications. Of particular note, they are important enzymes in next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies. The improved speed, efficiency, and affordability of NGS over Sanger sequencing has greatly expanded the applications of DNA sequencing. In most NGS technologies ligase enzymes play a crucial role, for instance in ligating adaptors onto sequence fragments during sample preparation. This key step requires a blunt-ended ligation reaction, with highly efficient ligases required in order to create a sample library of high quality. The current go-to enzyme is T4 DNA ligase, which has not evolved in Nature to perform blunt ended ligations, and as such has relatively poor levels of activity when compared to other substrates. There is therefore potential to improve upon this enzyme and engineer a ligase that is more efficient with blunt-ended substrates. We have developed a novel function-based directed evolution selection to evolve blunt-ended ligases that have greater catalytic efficiency. The basis for this approach is the over-expression of a ligase enzyme variant which is then incubated with a linearised plasmid encoding for that same ligase variant. More efficient ligases will ligate the plasmid encoding for their own gene variant more efficiently (in a blunt-ended ligation), and so greater numbers of the circularised plasmid will be produced. Through successive rounds of transformation, amplification and ligation the most improved enzyme variants are enriched. This selection approach is being used to evaluate a panel of ligase variants in order to identify the best ligases for blunt-ended ligation applications. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Nonhuman Animal Pain and Capital Punishment in Beckett’s “Dante and the Lobster”

This article offers a fresh examination of the representation of nonhuman animals in Beckett’s early aesthetics, using ‘Dante and the Lobster’ as a case study. Beckett’s story is illuminated by historical documents including newspaper articles which will allow readers to see more clearly the deliberate parallels drawn between the question of the lobster’s suffering and the planned execution of a criminal which Belacqua contemplates throughout the day. An alternative reading model of the text, focusing on the Joycean concept of parallax rather than the Dantean concept of pity will be developed. The article closes by examining Beckett’s views on allegorical readings of texts containing representations of nonhuman animals and his later notes on E. P. Evans’s 1906 work, The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals

Using Comparable Expert-writer and Learner Corpora for Developing Report-writing Skills

The combined analysis of expert-writer and learner corpora for the identification of features of a register and genre can be of considerable pedagogical value, particularly when applied to courses of English for special purposes. The analysis of a corpus of a specific text-type can reveal recurring lexico-grammatical patterns and aspects of the generic structure of the text which can then be applied to language learning. The arguments in favour of a genre-based approach to the language syllabus are by now well known (Swales 1990, Bhatia 1993), and corpus-based approaches to identifying the linguistic resources available to achieve the communicative goal of a particular genre (Bondi 2001; Flowerdew 2001; Tribble 2002) are becoming increasingly widespread. This article shows how, when the analysis of expert-writer and learner corpora are combined, a corpus-informed approach can, on the one hand, enable the description of features of a genre and, on the other, promote an awareness of the kind of language produced by students. This combination can then lead to the selection of linguistic features which may be focussed on in an English language course with specific aims. Data from two small, specialised corpora have been used to identify characteristics of the genre under investigation. In particular insights will be provided into how corpora and concordancing software can be used in the teaching of writing skills, through the design of course materials that raise students’ language awareness

A corpus-based investigation of native speaker and learner student profiles

This paper is part of a wider corpus-based study that aims to draw up a profile of how language majors at an Italian University introduce themselves in English to peers in an online environment, and how approaches to teaching and learning can be enhanced. The study focuses on various aspects of convergence and divergence between learner and native speaker production, rather than merely on learner errors, as other studies in the field have done. The paper first considers why it is important that language majors aim to write in a way that is appropriate to a given genre, rather than merely focusing on lexicogrammatical accuracy. To do this, students should to be made aware of the lexical choices, collocational patterns and phraseology used by native speakers. The corpora in question are made up of self-presentation messages in on-line forums. A comparison of learner and native speaker use of the word student in these texts will be the focus of this paper