Transcript - University of Leeds

Using language corpora in
developing Arabic lessons &
syllabuses
Dr Rasha Soliman
Teaching Fellow in Arabic Language
Arabic, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies
University of Leeds
Arabic Teacher Development and Networking Day
11th of July 2016
Overview
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Fields of linguistic research
Corpus linguistics in Arabic language teaching
Examples and discussions
Available tools for Arabic teaching
Ways they can help
Challenges
Questions
Fields of linguistic research
Traditional Linguistics 4
Corpus Linguistics 5
Sociolinguistics 3
1 Psycholinguistics
Historical Linguistics 2
What is the use of corpus linguistics in
Arabic teaching?
The searchable language corpora can provide
non-biased answers to many questions that we
– the teachers – and our students may have.
Try to answer the following questions based on
your own experience and intuition
1.
Write down 10 words that you think are the most frequently used words in MSA.
2.
Which noun case ending is most frequently used in MSA? Is it ‫ المرفوع‬, ‫ المنصوب‬or ‫?المجرور‬
3.
Which is the correct plural of ‫ ?مشكلة‬Is it ‫ مشاكل‬or ‫?مشكالت‬
4.
Which is more commonly used in MSA; ‫ المصدر‬or ‫ الفعل المضارع‬+ ‫أن المصدرية‬. Example ‫ أريد السفر‬or
‫?أريد أن أسافر‬
5.
What are the most frequently used adjectives in: English, in MSA and in the Quran?
6.
What are the most frequently used subject pronouns in English, in MSA and in the Quran?
7.
What are the nouns that tend to come after the following verbs: َ‫ع َقد‬
َ - ‫ َحقَّق‬- ‫ أتاح‬- ‫? أبْدى‬
8.
In the use of ‫ إذا‬in conditional sentences, can it be followed by present verb or past verb .e.g ‫إذا أذهب‬
or ‫إذا ذَ َهبْت‬
9.
Can the adjectives describing objects (non-human) be in the feminine singular or feminine plural
forms? E.g. ‫ هذه األيام باردة‬or ‫?هذه األيام باردات‬
Arabic corpora
• Quranic - http://corpus.quran.com/
• Dilworth Parkinson’s: http://arabicorpus.byu.edu/search.php
• Frequency dictionary:
Buckwalter, T., & Parkinson, D. B.
(2011). A frequency dictionary of Arabic :
core vocabulary for learners. London:
Routledge.
• Arabic Learner Corpus
http://www.arabiclearnercorpus.com/
• The English profile
http://www.englishprofile.org/
Answers to the questions from corpora
1. Write down 10 words that you think are the most
frequently used words in MSA.
‫و‬
‫في‬
‫ِمن‬
‫على‬
َّ
‫أن‬
‫إلى‬
َ‫كان‬
‫ال‬
‫هللا‬
ْ
‫أن‬
From: Buckwalter, T., & Parkinson, D. B. (2011). A frequency dictionary of Arabic : core
vocabulary for learners. London: Routledge.
Answers to the questions from corpora
2. Which noun case ending is most frequently
used in MSA? Is it ‫ المرفوع‬, ‫ المنصوب‬or ‫?المجرور‬
‫المجرور‬
Answers to the questions from corpora
3. Which is the correct plural of ‫ ?مشكلة‬Is it ‫مشاكل‬
or ‫?مشكالت‬
Both are used but ‫ مشاكل‬is more common
Answers to the questions from corpora
4. Which is more commonly used in MSA;
‫ المصدر‬or ‫ الفعل المضارع‬+ ‫أن المصدرية‬. Example
‫ أريد السفر‬or ‫?أريد أن أسافر‬
‫أن المصدرية‬
Answers to the questions from corpora
5. What are the most frequently used adjectives
in English, in MSA and in the Quran?
English
MSA
Quran
From the Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA)
From the frequency dictionary
http://corpus.quran.com/lemmas.jsp
?page=2
Other
‫آخر‬
‫رحيم‬
New
‫عربي‬
‫عظيم‬
Good
‫كثير‬
‫عليم‬
High
‫جديد‬
‫حكيم‬
Old
‫كبير‬
‫دنيا‬
Great
‫أمريكي‬
‫أليم‬
Answers to the questions from corpora
6. What are the most frequently used subject
pronouns in English, in MSA and in the Quran?
English
MSA
Quran
From the Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA)
From the frequency dictionary
http://corpus.quran.com/lemmas.jsp
?page=2
It
‫هو‬
‫هم‬
I
‫أنا‬
‫هو‬
You
‫هي‬
‫أنتم‬
He
‫أنت‬
َ
‫نحن‬
They
‫نحن‬
‫أنت‬
َ
We
‫هم‬
‫هي‬
‫‪Answers to the questions from corpora‬‬
‫‪7. What are the nouns that tend to come after‬‬
‫عقَدَ ‪the following verbs:‬‬
‫? أبْدى ‪ -‬أتاح ‪َ -‬حقَّق ‪َ -‬‬
‫أبدى‬
‫اهتماما ً – استعدادا ً – رغبة – إعجابا ً ‪ -‬ارتياحا ً‬
‫أتاح‬
‫الفرصة – المجال – خدمات ‪ -‬إمكانية‬
‫حقَّق‬
‫نجاحا ً – نتائج – تقدما ً – ربحا ً – هدفا ً‬
‫عقد‬
‫مقارنة – العزم – قران ‪ -‬اتفاقا ً‬
‫‪http://arabicorpus.byu.edu/search.php‬‬
Answers to the questions from corpora
8. In the use of ‫ إذا‬in conditional sentences, can
it be followed by present verb or past verb .e.g
‫ إذا أذهب‬or ‫إذا ذَ َهبْت‬
In MSA, it’s followed by past verbs. In the
Quran, both forms are found
Answers to the questions from corpora
9. Can the adjectives describing objects (nonhuman) be in the feminine singular or feminine
plural forms? E.g. ‫ هذه األيام باردة‬or ‫هذه األيام‬
‫?باردات‬
In MSA, it’s singular. In the Quran, both forms
are found.
Ways in which corpora can help us
design lessons and syllabuses
• Teaching language for specific purposes i.e. Media,
Quran, Business. etc.
• Selecting more frequently used words first
• Finding collocations and their contexts
• Designing glossaries and dictionaries
• Compare between languages and between varieties of
the same language
• Better understand how the language is really used
• We can even make our own corpora i.e. children
stories, language used in textbooks…
challenges
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Some require paid subscription
Slow processing
Technical issues
Linguistic issues
Language change
Any questions?
Thank you for listening