Multiple Affordances of Language Corpora for Data-driven Learning

In recent years, corpora have found their way into language instruction, albeit often indirectly, through their role in syllabus and course design and in the production of teaching materials and other resources. An alternative and more innovative use is for teachers and students alike to explore corpus data directly as part of the learning process. This volume addresses this latter application of corpora by providing research insights firmly based in the classroom context and reporting on several state-of-the-art projects around the world where learners have direct access to corpus resources and tools and utilize them to improve their control of the language systems and skills or their professional expertise as translators. Its aim is to present recent advances in data-driven learning, addressing issues involving different types of corpora, for different learner profiles, in different ways for different purposes, and using a variety of different research methodologies and perspectives.

Peter R Crosthwaite, University of Hong Kong, on Linguist List 27.1078 (March 2016):
The volume can be considered as an essential resource for those already well-versed in DDL [Data Driven Learning]. Perhaps more importantly, however, the volume acts as an accessible guide for educational administrators, teachers and students who are thinking about incorporating a data-driven approach to teaching and learning, and who need the know-how, practical applications and most of all, encouragement to start experimenting with DDL and language corpora more generally.