TELL Digital Media Activity 2

Using the COCA corpus to analyze synonyms

Rationale: Students will see lots and lots of real-life examples of how synonyms are used (e.g.
Im going to watch a movie vs. Im going to see a movie). They will then be able to better
use these verbs in their own writing. The primary goal is to show them how to use a corpus to
answer their own questions about collocations for synonyms.
I ntended students:
This activity was designed with an academic ESL class in mind. The students are at an advanced
level, ages 18-24, and tech savvy.
Time needed:
25 minutes
Objectives:
The participants will gain a deeper understanding of the subtle differences in the meaning
and use of synonyms including their collocations, register, and frequency.
They will then be able to better use these words in their own writing.
They will be able to use the corpus to answer their own questions about how and when to
use various synonyms and collocations.
Procedure:
Part 1: How to use the corpus search feature.
Students take notes as the teacher gives the whole class a live demonstration with a computer
hooked up to the projector. The teacher shows how to create a user account to access the COCA
corpus and then shows how to search the database.
1. T types watch into the search box, selects KWIC, chooses noun.ALL from the
POS drop-down menu, and selects academic as the genre. T explains that by selecting
noun.ALL theyll be able to see which nouns are used with the verb watch.

2. T tells students to only examine the words that are highlighted in purple because that
means they are verbs.
3. Each student compiles a list of words that come after watch besides reading the rest of
the example.
4. Students compare their lists.
5. End results should look like this: TV, programs, demonstrations, fireworks, etc.
6. T reiterates the six steps using a projected PowerPoint list to make sure the students know
how to work the corpus search feature.
Part 2: Students repeat steps 1-6 on their laptops. This time they search for the word see.
T circulates and makes sure everyone know what they are doing.
Part 3: Ss compare their lists for watch and see.
End results should be that watch is used to denote close attention on the part of the viewer
whereas see is generally used to refer to charts and diagrams in the academic register.

Materials:
Evaluation:
The most likely problem is that the internet connection will fail or the electricity will go out. If
either complication arises, the teacher can ask the student to look up example sentences or each
word in their personal dictionaries which they have hopefully brought with them to class. If not,
they can skim through any reading material available for examples of the words and create their
own mini-corpus provided the words are common enough to be found. See and watch would
be fairly easy but observe may prove to be more difficult to find depending on the literature
available in the classroom.
References:
Szendeffy, J. (2005). A practical guide to using computers in language teaching. Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Press. pp. 175,176