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Multi-word Clusters, Keywords and Key Terms in English Car Reviews: a Preliminary Corpus Linguistic Study ×
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CORPUS LINGUSITICS RESEARCH Vol.4 No. pp.69-98
Multi-word Clusters, Keywords and Key Terms in English Car Reviews: a Preliminary Corpus Linguistic Study
Key Words : keywords,multi-word clusters,corpus linguistics,automotive discourse,car reviews
Abstract
Classroom use of authentic texts used in everyday communication has not always been an inseparable
part of foreign language teaching. According to Grigaliuniene (2013, p. 17), “the structures many
current textbooks teach for certain functions are either never used or used infrequently while
quite unexpected structures are the ones that actually occur”. Despite the awareness of the importance
of authentic patterns of language use, students often learn structures (lexical or grammatical) which
are rarely used in actual communication. Teaching authentic phrases is even more important in
English for Specific Purposes (ESP) where learners' specific needs impact the design of a course
(Dudley-Evans & St John, 1998). What is more, ESP students need to acquire vocabulary of a
target profession. Thus, in this preliminary study, conducted using corpus linguistic methodology,
an attempt is made to identify and explore the use and discourse functions of frequent and typical
patterns of language use, i.e. keywords, recurrent clusters and multi-word terms (nominalizations),
found in a custom-designed corpus of car reviews written in English. As shown by examples
of student tasks, the results have pedagogical potential in that they can be used as a useful resource
when designing or supplementing teaching materials for secondary-school ESP students (automotive
technicians and car mechanics).1)