12th Annual CamTESOL Conference,
20-21 February 2016

Why domestic corpora such as ‘EasyConc.xlsm’& ‘EasyConc_tagged.xlsm’ are needed?
Finding the Expressions EFL Learners Find
Difficult: the Compilation and Use of“EasyConc_tagged.xlsm”

What are the differences between the domestic corpora andusual corpora?


12th Annual CamTESOL Conference on English
Language Teaching
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
20-21 February 2016
Shigeyuki Hidai
hidai_ki@lit.tamagawa.ac.jp
Tamagawa University, Tokyo

EasyConc_tagged.xlsm―Seven stages of DataCollection for Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus

Stage 1

Implementing communication activities such as chats, story
retelling in English Classes.
Stage 2
After the activities, students are asked to write the expressions inJapanese that they wanted to use in English but couldn’t during theactivities
Stage 3
Each question in Japanese from Students is input into each cell on
Excel spreadsheet.
Stage 4
Each question in Japanese from students is translated into English
by Japanese teachers and native English-speaking teachers.

Stage 1
Example of a communication activity in English class forthe compilation of Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus

Data Collection: Chat in pairs about weekends and holidays

‘British National Corpus’ is a huge collection of words which are
expressed by fluent users of English.
‘EasyConc.xlsm’ & ‘EasyConc_tagged.xlsm’ are corpora compiled
with words which Japanese EFL learners wanted to say but couldn’t
in communication activities in English class.
‘EasyConc.xlsm’ & ‘EasyConc_tagged.xlsm’ are tuned for the EFL
learners of English in that the quality of English is simple and their
daily lives are described in both corpora.
‘EasyConc.xlsm’ & ‘EasyConc_tagged.xlsm’ are useful tools forlanguage teachers to make worksheets for their daily English
classes.

EasyConc_tagged.xlsm―Seven stages of Data
Collection for Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus
Stage 5 Data of Japanese questions and their English translations
are incorporated into ‘EasyConc_v.4.2.xlsm’.
Stage 6
 English translations of ‘EasyConc_v.4.2.xlsm’ are annotatedby CLAWS7 and are incorporated into
‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’.
Stage 7
 Some pieces of grammatical information as well as usefulexpressions for learners are retrieved by corpus tools inorder to make worksheets for English classes.
Stage 1
Example of a communication activity in English Class forthe compilation of Japanese-English Bilingual Corpus
Speaking Test called Interview Challenge

Telling the native English-speaking teacher about one lesson from thetextbooks authorized by the Japanese Ministry of Education＜Copyright restricts the display of images here.＞

Project funded by Japan Society for thePromotion of Science KAKENHI award(#25370652)

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12th Annual CamTESOL Conference,
20-21 February 2016

Stage ２ to 5
Compilation of ‘EasyConc_v.4.2.xlsm’: Each Japanese expression ismatched with its English translation on an Excel spreadsheet ,thenincorporated into a domestic corpus called ‘EasyConc_v.4.2.xlsm’.
Translation from Japanese expressions into English inassociation with a native speaker of English

Stage 6Compilation of ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’: English sentences of‘EasyConc_v.4.2.xlsm’ are tagged by CLAWS7, then Japanese
expression with its tagged English translation are incorporated intoa domestic software called ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’.
English translation tagged by CLAWS7

Last 15 examples out of 3,148 questions from junior & senior high school
students

Last 10 examples out of 3,148 questions from junior & senior high school
students

Postmodification: difficult grammar items forJapanese learners of English to acquire

Stage 7
How to use ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’:
Information about UCREL CLAWS7 Tagset



Postmodification is one of the difficult grammar items forJapanese learners of English to acquire because of its different
grammar system.

The patterns of ‘to-infinitive’ in UCREL CLAWS7
Tagset are as follows;

Does your mother tongue have the grammar system likepostmodification?

In this presentation I would like to focus on ‘to-infinitive’ and‘relative clauses’ and ‘contact clauses’ used as postmodification,
which appear in the junior high school textbooks made on thebasis of the teaching guideline called Course of Study directedby the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Scienceand Technology.

Stage 7
How to use ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’:
Retrieval of sentences including ‘to-infinitive’After launching ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’, double-click‘to_TO *_V*’ in line A, then the pattern appears in the box.

to_TO *_VBI
to_TO *_VDI
to_TO *_VHI
to_TO *_VV0
to_TO *_VVI

nb VBI be, infinitive (To be or not… It will be…)
VDI do, infinitive (I may do… To do…)
VHI have, infinitive
VV0 base form of lexical verb (e.g. give, work)
VVI infinitive (e.g. to give… It will work…)

All of the patterns above are rewritten as ‘to_TO*_V*’ using a wild card.
 It is time-consuming and laborious work to retrieve‘to-infinitive’ from an untagged corpus such as
EasyConc_v.4.2.xlsm.
Stage 7
How to use ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’: Thesentences including ‘to infinitive’ appears without tags.
Concordances of ‘to-infinitive’

Partial extracts from the result

Project funded by Japan Society for thePromotion of Science KAKENHI award(#25370652)

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12th Annual CamTESOL Conference,
20-21 February 2016

Corpus finding 1: The frequent patterns of‘something (or nothing) to-infinitive’ retrieved
from ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’something (or nothing) +to-infinitive

Corpus finding 2: The frequent patterns of‘enough money to buy’ and other expressions
retrieved from ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’‘enough money to buy’ and other expressions including‘noun+to-infinitive’

Partial extracts from the result

The input of ‘something’ or ‘nothing’ from New Crown
English Series Book 1, 2 and 3, ) , the authorized
textbooks (henceforth, NC1, 2 and 3

Copies of NC 1, 2 and 3 are used by more than 850,000 junior highschool students. ‘to-infinitive’ appears in NC 1 and 2.
Concordance of ‘something’ and ‘nothing’ from NC1, 2, and 3.
Theoretical background―Without input, output cannot be expected

The relation between input and output

Search Term is ‘(something|nothing) to’ in AntConc(Ellis, 1997:35)
It is very important to know what expressions
students could not express in English.
 How can we utilize these expressions inEnglish teaching?
The pattern of ‘nothing+to-infinitive’ doesn’t appear at all in 24NC1, 2 and3.

Stage 7
Pedagogical Implication 1: Ideas for creating teachingmaterials for English class―the input of necessary
expressions through a game of ‘Bingo’

Stage 7
Pedagogical Implication 2: Ideas for creating teachingmaterials for English classWhile working on the exercises below ,students are exposed tofrequently asked expressions in communicative activities.
Sentences in the exercise below are all from
EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm.
A sample word order exercise:

Put the words in the brackets in the right order.
1. I didn’t (buy / have / money / enough / to) the Beatles CD.
2. I (see / made / appointment / an / to) Ken at the central ticket gate ofMachida station.
3. I have (kill / to / time / some).
4. I (nothing / had / do / to) today. I was free all day.
5. I (had / do / special / to / nothing) , so I did my English homework from cramschool.

Project funded by Japan Society for thePromotion of Science KAKENHI award(#25370652)

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12th Annual CamTESOL Conference,
20-21 February 2016

Stage 7
How to use ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’: Formulating thepatterns of the postmodification by ‘relative clauses’ and ‘contactclauses’ from English sentences of ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’

Samples of English sentences tagged by CLAWS7 having‘relative clauses’ and ‘contact clauses’ selected with manual
operation are as follows;






After launching ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.0.xlsm’, double-click the‘patterns of ‘relative clause’ and ‘contact clause’ in line A, thenthe pattern appears in the box.

290_MC One_MC1 of_IO accessories_NN2 I_PPIS1 bought_VVD
was_VBDZ 400_MC yen_NN ._.
587_MC I_PPIS1 could_VM n't_XX buy_VVI a_AT1 book_NN1
I_PPIS1 wanted_VVD in_II the_AT bookstore._NNUParts of ‘relative clauses’ and ‘contact clauses’ can be rewritten
to the following patterns using wild cards.


accessories_NN2 I_PPIS1 bought_VVD → *_NN2 *_PPIS1 *_VVD
book_NN1 I_PPIS1 wanted_VVD → *_NN1 *_PPIS1 *_VVD

Stage 7
How to use ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’: The result of thepostmodification by ‘relative clauses’ and ‘contact clauses’
Stage 7
How to use ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’: Retrieval of thepostmodification by ‘relative clauses’ and ‘contact clauses’

Concordances of ‘relative clauses’ and ‘contact clauses’

Partial extracts from the result

The input of the post modification of relative
pronoun ‘that’ from New Crown English Series,
the authorized textbooks

Corpus finding 3: Postmodification by relative
clauses and contact clauses retrieved from
‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’Frequently asked questions from students

Partial extracts from the result

Stage 7
Pedagogical Implication 3: Ideas for creating teaching materials forEnglish class―the input of necessary expressions through a gameof ‘Bingo’ and identifying a person

Concordance of ‘that’ from New Crown English Series Book 3

Project funded by Japan Society for thePromotion of Science KAKENHI award(#25370652)

412th Annual CamTESOL Conference,
20-21 February 2016

Three steps of vocabularyacquisition
There are three important general processes that may lead to aword being remembered. These comprise noticing (throughformal instruction, negotiation, the need to comprehend orproduce, awareness of inefficiencies), retrieval, and creative(generative) use. These processes can be viewed as threesteps with the later steps including the earlier steps.
(Nation, 2001: 63)‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’ as a useful
freeware for teaching vocabularyThe positive effects of vocabulary teaching are that it canprovide help when learners feel it is most needed. This isparticularly true for vocabulary teaching that occurs in thecontext of message-focused activities involving listening,speaking, reading, and writing, and where the teaching deals
with items that learners see as being very relevant for theactivity.
(Nation, 2008: 97)‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’ is a bilingual parallel corpus withthe retrieval function which gives teachers expressions students
need in their communication activities.

References
太田洋・日臺滋之. 2006.『新しい語彙指導のカタチ 学習者コーパスを活用して』.明治図書.
日臺滋之・太田洋. 2008.『1日10分で英語力をアップする！コーパスワーク５６』.明治図書.
日臺滋之. 2009.『中学 英語辞書の使い方ハンドブック』．明治図書．
日臺滋之．2015．「日本人高大生の自己表現活動を支える日英パラレルコーパスの構築とその活用」．2013年4月1日～2017年3月31日(予定)（科学研究費基盤研究(C) 研究課題番号：25370652，研究代表者：日臺滋之）Retrieved fromhttps://kaken.nii.ac.jp/d/r/60459302.ja.html
Anthony, L. 2016. AntConc (ver 3.4.4w) [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan: Waseda
University. Retrieved from http://www.antlab.sci.waseda.ac.jp/software.html
Ellis, R. 1997. Second Language Acquisition. Oxford University Press.
Hidai, Shigeyuki．2015．EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm [Computer Software]. Tokyo, Japan:
Tamagawa University. Retrieved from http://www.tamagawa.ac.jp/research/jeparallel/
Lyttelton, D. ・日臺滋之. 20010．『英語スキット・ベスト５０―50 Skits for Learning English―』.
明治図書．
Nation, I.S.P. 2001. Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
Nation, I.S.P. 2008. Teaching Vocabulary: Strategies and Techniques. HEINLE.
Quirk, R., S. Greenbaum, G. Leech and J. Svartvik. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar ofthe English Language. London: Longman.
Takahashi, S, et al. 2011. New Crown English Series. Sanseido.

Project funded by Japan Society for thePromotion of Science KAKENHI award(#25370652)

Pedagogical Implication 4: Ideas for creating teaching materials
from the viewpoint of ‘creative (generative) use’

A sample exercise
Create a story with more than 50 words by using words below.
music shop / CD I wanted / cost 2,500 yene.g. I am a fan of the Beatles. One of my favorite songs is ‘Yesterday’.
Last Saturday I went to the music shop near my house. I found the CD
I wanted. It cost 25,000 yen. It was a little expensive but I got it. I
went straight home and listened to it. I was very happy.
(56 words)

Conclusion






It is important for teachers to know the expressions that learners want
to use in English but can’t through communication activities in yourEnglish classes.
Why don’t you compile bilingual corpus for your students? It will be auseful resource for your teaching.
Bilingual corpus software such as ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’ is easy
to get from the Internet. Without that software, it would be impossible
to retrieve necessary information from bilingual corpus.
Even though your mother tongue is different from Japanese, if you
collect the expressions which your students find difficult to say or writeand paste your data onto ‘EasyConc_tagged_v.2.1.xlsm’, then you cancreate your own ‘EasyConc_tagged.xlsm’.

Thank you for your attention.

Shigeyuki Hidai
Tamagawa University, Tokyo, JAPANhidai_ki@lit.tamagawa.ac.jp

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