Toolbox: an introduction to corpus-based tools
Your profile
This course is ideal for teachers who are already familiar with ideas like chunks and collocations and want to sharpen their lexical awareness—either for their own development or to inform classroom decisions about what to teach and how.
The course
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Fridays, 3:00–4:15 PM (GMT-3)
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October 31st–November 28th*
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4-week course (5 hours)
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From 4 to 8 participants
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R$500 (2x R$250)
*Pause on November 21st
The syllabus
Toolbox is a hands-on course for teachers ready to explore how corpus-based tools can answer real, practical questions about language.
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Over four weeks, we’ll work with tools like NGram Viewer and COCA, progressing from simple searches to more advanced ones. Along the way, you'll learn how to investigate what’s common, natural, and appropriate in real-world English.
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You’ll learn how to answer questions like:
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What’s more common?
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Is this a natural-sounding or strong collocation?
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Is this phrase more typical in speech or writing?
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What grammar patterns tend to follow this word?
You’ll also build confidence exploring authentic usage and interpreting corpus results—developing the kind of lexical sensitivity that supports precise, informed teaching.
What I expect
from you
This course takes a flipped approach. You’ll receive one asynchronous task each week to either prepare for or practice the content of our lessons. These tasks are an important part of the course workload, so please make sure to factor in this extra time—around 30 to 60 minutes per week.
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There is no cost for basic access to COCA, but there is a limit of 20 searches a day. A premium account is recommended for this course. Learn more here.