Oliver Ballance

• Lecturer at Massey University

Corpora and corpus tools are essential resources for modern vocabulary research. On one hand, corpora can provide researchers with a powerful evidence base for their analyses. On the other hand, corpus tools can facilitate efficient management and analysis of huge data sets and thereby greatly expand the scope and rigor of research. This means that...

The majority of research papers in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) report on primarily quantitative studies measuring the effectiveness of pedagogical interventions in relation to language learning outcomes. These studies are frequently referred to in the literature as experiments , although this designation is often incorrect because of...

There is a vast literature on collocation, and mutual information scores are frequently used to justify the listing, targeting or indexing of collocations within studies. However, despite methodologically focused papers that discuss the limitations of mutual information scores and the importance of uncertainty estimates in corpus linguistic data, v...

Accurate description of language use is central to English for academic purposes (EAP) practice. Thanks to the development of corpus tools, it has been possible to undertake systematic studies of language in academic contexts. This line of research aims to provide detailed and accurate characterization of academic communication and to ultimately in...

Narrow reading has the potential to reduce vocabulary load and to provide rich opportunities for developing collocation knowledge, but these benefits rely on narrow reading increasing lexical repetition within a text. Hence, interest in narrow reading has been limited by the relatively small lexical effect of narrowing reading by topic (Nation, 201...

Vocabulary load is a predictor of comprehension and a common concern in relation to learner use of concordances; however, vocabulary load figures for whole texts have limited relevance to learner use of concordances. This paper explores the average vocabulary load of the citations (or lines) in a concordance, reflecting how learners use concordance...

This volume provides an up-to-date and comprehensive coverage of second language learning. The focus throughout the book is primarily on language learning, but each chapter also discusses the implications for teaching and assessment, thus informing both understanding and practice. The book contains nine sections, which aim to organise and reflect d...

Effective use of technology to teach vocabulary requires an understanding of both vocabulary acquisition and computer‐assisted language learning, and potentially related fields such as mobile‐assisted language learning and computer‐mediated communication. This entry discusses technology from the perspective of affordances and illustrates this appro...

Pre‐teaching vocabulary (PTV) means teaching vocabulary before learners engage with a text or task. It scaffolds learners' processing or production of language, or else focuses attention on lexis within a text or task. The principles for designing PTV activities should reflect the rationale for using PTV in a given context.

The Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1983; Schmitt, Schmitt, & Clapham, 2001) indicates the word frequency level that should be used to select words for learning. The present study involves the development and validation of two new forms of the test. The new forms consist of five levels measuring knowledge of vocabulary at the 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000...

One of the most promising avenues of research in computer-assisted language learning is the potential for language learners to make use of language corpora. However, using a corpus requires use of a corpus tool as an interface, typically a concordancer. How such a tool can be made most accessible to learners is an important issue. Specifically, the...

In pedagogical contexts, concordancing is often researched in relation to a non-concordanced-based learning condition, such as dictionary-based learning, and studies have generally shown concordancing to be a valuable language learning resource, as indicated by Tom Cobb and Alex Boutlon's recent meta-analysis. However, studies framed in terms of co...

In the previous issue of LLT, I commented upon Stockwell (2010), suggesting that the learning activities investigated limited the scope of his research on the effects of the MALL platform. Professor Stockwell responded in the same issue with a spirited riposte. However, it became clear that much of the disagreement lay in a matter of definition. Th...

Mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) is attracting a great deal of attention at present (Stockwell & Sotillo, 2011). However, it is important that teacher and researcher exploitation of technological developments be guided by more than just enthusiasm. Language Learning & Technology's commitment to empirical studies is admirable but, for conclu...