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One norm to rule them all? Corpus-derived norms in learner corpus research and foreign language teaching

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2021

Gaëtanelle Gilquin Open the ORCID record for Gaëtanelle Gilquin [Opens in a new window]
Gaëtanelle Gilquin*
Affiliation:
Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
*
*Corresponding author: Email: gaetanelle.gilquin@uclouvain.be
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Abstract

This paper considers the issue of the norm in the context of learner corpus research and its implications for foreign language teaching. It seeks to answer three main questions: Does learner corpus research require a native norm? What corpus-derived norms are available and how do we choose? What do we do with these norms in the classroom? The first two questions are more research-oriented, reviewing the types of reference corpora that can be used in the analysis of learner corpora, whereas the third one looks into the pedagogical use of corpus-derived norms. It is shown that, while studies in learner corpus research can dispense with a native norm, they usually rely on one, and that a wide range of native and non-native norms are available, from which choosing the most appropriate one(s) is of crucial importance. This large repertoire of corpus-derived norms is then reconsidered in view of the reality of the foreign language classroom.

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Plenary Speech
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Language Teaching , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 87 - 99
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Copyright © The Author(s) 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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