Description

• The software program has been well-recognized internationally as an innovative methodology to search for the phraseological patterns in any English corpora. It also contributes to an innovative way of understanding and describing phraseology in English language.
• The program has just been published –  Greaves, C. (2009) ConcGram 1.0. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 
   

Intended educational value 

The English phraseology software program, ConcGram, will continue to be used in a range of ENGL subjects (e.g. corpus-driven language learning, discourse analysis and lexical studies) in both undergraduate and taught research programmes to teach the topic of phraseologies in English, especially in the instances of English use captured in profession-specific corpora. It will also be used by researchers and PhD students in the study of English language, and the comparison of the phraseologies found in profession-specific and reference corpora.

Example of application

• At the BA level, in the subject ENGL303 "Corpus-driven Language Learning" (Semester 1, 2007/08 and 2008/09), a number of seminar tasks were designed to achieve the intended learning outcomes that address the understanding of relevant theories, concepts and methods in corpus studies; and to apply the knowledge and skills to search for patterns and meanings of lexical items and phraseologies in a range of corpora. In a few seminars, students learned to use the English Phraseology Software Program to search for the patterns and meanings of lexical items and phraseologies in the Hong Kong Financial Services Corpus and Hong Kong Engineering Corpus.
• At the MA level, in the academic years 2007/08 and 2008/09, similar instructional activities, materials and illustrative examples were also incorporated into ENGL561 "Practical Communication Strategies 1", ENGL560 "Analysis of Contemporary English 1 (phonology and lexical studies)", and ENGL 561 "Analysis of Contemporary English 1 (discourse and pragmatics)".
• At the PhD level, the software program was adopted by a PhD student as the tool to investigate corpus data. Upon successful completion of the PhD, the thesis will be the first one that has used this innovative software program in the pursuit of postgraduate research study.
• ConGram 1.0 has been used to examine a few professional corpora, namely engineering, financial services and Hong Kong corpus of spoken English, compiled by the PI and team members. The corpora were examined for profession-specific phraseologies, and the results have been successfully presented in a number of conference papers, continuing development programme seminars for a range of professional associations, as well as workshops and consultancy work for a few organizations.

Evaluation/Comments

The design and implementation of the English phraseology software programme is one of the greatest achievements of the project.
 

(Note: For access to this item, please contact Prof Winnie Cheng (egwcheng@polyu.edu.hk)