Authors:
Shaoqun Wu
1
;
Alannah Fitzgerald
2
and
Ian H. Witten
1
Affiliations:
1
Waikato University, New Zealand
;
2
Concordia University, Canada
Keyword(s):
Second Language Learning, Corpus-based Language Learning, English for Academic Purposes, MOOCs, FLAX, Open Educational Resources.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Authoring Tools and Content Development
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
Context Dependent Learning
;
e-Learning
;
e-Learning Hardware and Software
;
Information Technologies Supporting Learning
;
Learning/Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
;
Pedagogy Enhancement with e-Learning
;
Technology Enhanced Learning
;
Ubiquitous Learning
Abstract:
Massive Open Online Courses are becoming popular educational vehicles through which universities reach out to non-traditional audiences. Many enrolees hail from other countries and cultures, and struggle to cope with the English language in which these courses are invariably offered. Moreover, most such learners have a strong desire and motivation to extend their knowledge of academic English, particularly in the specific area addressed by the course.
Online courses provide a compelling opportunity for domain-specific language learning. They supply a large corpus of interesting linguistic material relevant to a particular area, including supplementary images (slides), audio and video. We contend that this corpus can be automatically analysed, enriched, and transformed into a resource that learners can browse and query in order to extend their ability to understand the language used, and help them express themselves more fluently and eloquently in that domain.
To illustrate this ide
a, an existing online corpus-based language learning tool (FLAX) is applied to a Coursera MOOC entitled Virology 1: How Viruses Work, offered by Columbia University.
(More)