Designing an English vocabulary workbook based on corpus-based approach: what actual learning task to incorporate target vocabularies into speaking

Abstract

Corpus linguistics is a recent approach that many researchers use to conduct a study on language learning and acquisition. Through Corpus, the language learners can discover how a certain word is used authentically in the context. Corpus also allows the learners to find what the most frequent words or phrases emerge in the corpus so it can be one of the indicators that the word and the phrases are generally used by the general speakers. Moreover, it is possible to search and observe the collocation of a certain word so that learners can speak or write natural-sounding English. Therefore, several studies have already addressed how corpus usage will improve vocabulary mastery. The problem is that after knowing the important words and collocation, the learners need to be able to use them in productive skills such as speaking and writing. In the context of hospitality students, speaking is the most significant skill for their potential career as they can use verbal language dominantly in their job. Therefore, the goal of using corpus linguistics for hospitality students should be more than gaining vocabulary. Some exercise activities that enable the students to be able to use the target vocabularies taken from the corpus are very important to be designed. Based on the problem above, this article aimed to review some recent literature regarding the applications of the corpus in the area of language learning and teaching so that some proper ways of the task to help the students incorporate their vocabulary into speaking can lead to the development of English vocabulary workbook model based on the Corpus-based approach.

Keywords: Corpus linguistics, vocabulary, speaking, workbook