Analyzing Spanish L2 corpus with Sketch Egine and through manual searches: examples from vocabulary research

Abstract

This article discusses how to examine L2 classroom corpora. Specifically, it focuses on how to analyze, manually and with Sketch Engine (https://www.sketchengine.eu), vocabulary instruction in these kinds of corpora. The literature review introduces available L1 and L2 classroom corpora that can be studied using their own online interface or Sketch Engine. To situate these corpora, the two main lines of research that use these kinds of corpora are mentioned and described. The literature review also briefly summarizes current research on instruction of vocabulary including derivational morphology as part of vocabulary instruction. The focus is on three Sketch Engine tools: Wordlist, Concordance, and Keywords. The article shows how to use these tools for analysis as well as how to complement these tools with manual analysis by examining four previous studies and the corpora created by the authors. Besides, the study explores future lines of research. This article aims to be helpful for new researchers who want to explore teaching and learning in classroom corpora and especially teaching and learning of L2 vocabulary.