1. Home
  2. Peer Review: COCA Corpus Training

Peer Review

COCA Corpus Training

Reviewed:

Feb 18, 2025 by Teacher Education
Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating: 5.0 stars
Content Quality: 5.0 stars
Effectiveness: 5.0 stars
Ease of Use: 5.0 stars
Overview:

The COCA Corpus, developed by Mark Davies at BYU, is a powerful tool for language learning and teaching (among other discilpines). This interactive tutorial website will walk users through the basic functionality of the COCA Corpus. It is designed with language teachers in mind (as opposed to learners).

The COCA corpus (new version released March 2020). The corpora from English-Corpora.org are the world’s most widely-used corpora. The Corpus of ContemporaryAmerican English (COCA) is by far the most widely-used of these corpora. In early 2020, we dramatically expanded the scope and size and features of COCA to make it even more useful for researchers, teachers, and learners.The corpus contains more than one billion words of data, including 20 million words each year from 1990-2019 (with the same genre balance year by year). This makes COCA the only corpus of English that is 1) large 2) recent and 3) has a wide range of genres.

Type of Material:

Tutorial

Recommended Uses:

There are six main ways to search the corpus:

1. Search for phrases and strings. And because the corpus is optimized for speed, searches for substrings (*ism, un*able) and phrases are very fast, e.g.: got VERB-ed, BUY * ADJ NOUN, "gorgeous" NOUN -- and even high frequency phrases like: from ADJ to ADJ, phrasal verbs, or NOUN NOUN.

2. Browse a frequency list of the top 60,000 words in the corpus, including searches by word form, part of speech, ranges in the 60,000 word list, and even by meaning or pronunciation. This should be particularly useful for language learners and teachers.

3. Browse through the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL) (Gardner and Davies, 2013), and then see detailed entries for each of the 3,000 words. This is a great option for those who are interested mainly in academic English.

4. Search by individual word, and see collocates, topics, clusters, websites, concordance lines, and related words for each of these words. Note that some of these searches are unique to COCA and iWeb.

5. Input entire texts and then use data from COCA to get detailed information on the words and phrases in the text.

6. Find random words and also browse through randomly-selected "Words of the Day", and then save new words and come back and review them later.

You might pay special attention to the comparisons between genres and years and virtual corpora, which allow you to create personalized collections of texts related to a particular area of interest.

Technical Requirements:

Internet Access

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The major goal of this tutorial is to assist the user in navigating the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).

 

  • Creates four functions of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA Corpus).
  • Analyzes how to use the COCA Corpus.
  • Applies to asking questions.
  • Identifies the three colorful themes.
Target Student Population:

High School, College General Ed, Professional

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Basic computer skills.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:

 

  • Comprehensive Coverage: The site offers detailed explanations of COCA's functionalities, including LIST, CHART, COLLOCATE, and COMPARE functions. Each section provides step-by-step guidance, making it suitable for both beginners and advanced users.

  • Accuracy and Relevance: The information is accurate and aligns with COCA's features. However, the site was last updated in 2016, and COCA may have undergone updates since then. Users should verify if there have been changes to COCA's interface or capabilities.

  • Engagement: The inclusion of practical examples and interactive slideshows enhances user engagement, facilitating hands-on learning.

 

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:

Potential Effectiveness for Teaching and Learning:

  • Learning Objectives: The website clearly aims to teach users how to navigate and utilize COCA effectively, which is beneficial for language teachers, students, and researchers.

  • Instructional Design: The content is organized logically, guiding users from basic concepts to more advanced queries. The use of real-world examples helps in contextualizing the information.

  • Assessment: While the site provides thorough tutorials, it lacks interactive quizzes or assessments to test user understanding. Incorporating such features could enhance learning outcomes.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:

 

  • Navigation: The website has a straightforward layout with a clear menu, allowing users to easily access different sections.

  • Design and Aesthetics: The design is minimalistic, which aids in focusing on the content. However, some interactive elements, like slideshows, may require users to click through multiple steps, which could be streamlined for better usability.

  • Technical Functionality: All links and interactive components function correctly. Since the site is built on the Wix platform, it ensures compatibility across various devices and browsers.

 

Other Issues and Comments:

Overall, the website is a valuable resource for individuals seeking to learn how to use the COCA corpus effectively.

Creative Commons:
creative-commonscreative-commons by