Longman Corpus Network

WHAT IS THE LEARNERS' CORPUS?

Students and teachers throughout the world send in essays and exam scripts to help us create the Longman Learners' Corpus, a 10 million word computerized database made up entirely of language written by students of English. Every nationality, every language level is represented in the corpus and this provides an unprecedented insight into learner English

WHAT DOES IT TELL US?

Each student essay is coded by nationality and language level amongst other things (fig.1) - TUR, IN for Turkish intermediate student, SSP, EL for a Spanish elementary student (from Spain as opposed to South America), and then entered onto the computer to form part of the corpus. We are able to focus in on a selected group of students e.g. French advanced students, and then understand what the specific problem areas particular to this group are (fig. 2). Alternatively, we are able to focus in on a word or a phrase and view the errors made by the entire gamut of students.

HOW DO WE USE THE INFORMATION?

The Longman Learners' Corpus offers so much invaluable information about the mistakes students make and what they already know, that it is the perfect resource for lexicographers and material writers who want to produce dictionaries and coursebooks that address students' specific needs. The Longman Learners' Corpus was used to write the Usage Notes in the Longman Active Study Dictionary, Evidence from the corpus showed that there was 100% error in the meaning and the use of the word cloth: My cloths and shoes were wet, We have very good cloth stores etc. Having pinpointed such a problem, our lexicographers were then able to write a corresponding Usage Note (fig. 3).

BECOME PART OF THE LEARNERS' CORPUS

As the Longman Learners' Corpus grows, so we need more and more student scripts. So, don't throw away your students' papers at the end of a sessions, send them to us at Longman and we will give a Longman Wordwise Dictionary for you or a copy of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for your school library for 100 scripts or more. For more details of this offer contact Denise McKeough

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