WordSmith Software
Wordsmith software | Sally | January 17th, 2005
Dear those of you who are into technology,
I am usually a lurker. I wouldn't have known the term had I not been lurking for some time. It is nice to just see that there are other people out there doing the same course and given work load and all, that just about sums up the use I have made of the discussion list so far. However, (the cheek of it, a years silence and then a request for help) I get the impression that some of you are seriously au fait with software.
I'm toying with the notion of creating a learner corpus as I'm really interested by what I have read about this area so far. Ramesh suggested I look at Wordsmith (and made lots of other useful comments about my very woolly ideas), but having looked it is almost enough to make me abandon any project that needs corpus software. I use Word with ease, but know almost nothing else about my computer. I've tried looking at bits of what the demo of Wordsmith downloaded, but have only really managed to identify the instructions. These are seriously intimidating and I can't find what I needed to know in the short term i.e. as I have very limited study time till June, I was hoping to just type in material now and again at the end of the night when my other work is finished, brain is dead, but fingers can still move - can I just type it into word and then when I have lots of time in the summer, figure out how to process it with Wordsmith? Is there a Wordsmith instruction page for the uninitiated anywhere (not the pages on the web the demo takes you to - they are no more help than the instructions on the demo)? Is there easier to use software? Will it in fact take me as long to learn how to use the software as it would to just pick another subject and write an assignment on that instead? Though I'm prepared to put in a reasonable amount of time as I am very much drawn to the concept.
If any of you who discuss the technical side of things get five minutes to throw in a bit of advice I'd be very grateful.
Thanks
Sally
Re: Wordsmith software | David Anderson | January 17th, 2005
I used the beta version of Wordsmith for my LEX assignment, and I know what you mean about it being quite daunting when you first look at it. However, that is because it is packed with features that simpler corpus software doesn't have and also because it is broken down into separate programmes within one (wordlist, concord and keyword). If you just want to do a simple concordance or create a wordlist, there are only a few steps you have to take. Once you have done it once (and I would start out with one simple text file) you should have no problem repeating it. I know you mention you have seen some instructions, but have you seen the online guides that are available? I particularly recommend this online manual.
Although the guide is for version 4, most of the features are the same as version 3 (I'm not sure which one you are using).
If you really can't get your head round Wordsmith, Mike Scott also worked on another concordancer called MiniConcord which you can download for free. I haven't tried it myself, but he states, "It is very useful for a quick analysis, and may be easier for students to use than WordSmith Tools."
On a more general note, you might be interested in the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE) which is a project to collect samples of learner English from around the world. You might like to find out if you can contribute. On the website they state: "If you contribute to the ICLE project, you will have access to other learner corpora for comparative studies."
Also, typing in your students' work is pretty time consuming. Is there any way you could get your students to type their work so that you only have to copy and paste it into a file? I'm sure many of them would be more than happy to present it in this format and give it to you on a floppy or email it to you.
Good luck!
David
Anderson
Abu Dhabi
PS: Just found the following page of links on Learner Corpus research. I'm sure there will be something useful on it for you!
Re: Wordsmith software | Sally | January 17th, 2005
Wow thanks a million for the response so far. It makes me wish I had made more use of the discussion list in the past. Some of it I need to sift through a bit, but in response to immediate questions.
McDave: that is how software ignorant I am- I had no idea there were so many 'wordsmiths' out there. I found a wordsmith in the OUP sales catalogue. That's downloaded something called wordsmith tools (or the demo version at least). The lack of user friendliness of which is what prompted my cry for help.
Paul: What exactly I want to do is still part of the question. The other problem is I'm hoping to do the drudge work for the meantime and formulate the question more precisely in the summer. I'm marking for distance DELTA for the next two months on top of a full teaching load at Istanbul university, so I had hoped I could do it this way on a time management basis, perhaps I can't in reality.
The odd pieces of research I have read about are all linked to the Granger project the International Corpus of learner English. They are very specific about the types of written work they want. All advanced, all particular types of composition. Their questions so far are interesting, about what learners do and don't do with wide ranging, little content carrying words like make, or use of collocation. In my teaching situation (MBA prep course in theory, but often used just as a kick start for Business English needed for job applications in practice) and that of many around me (I tutor for face to face DELTA and ICELT here in Istanbul so I get around a lot of classrooms) an awful lot of us are teaching fluent inaccurate intermediate level learners, who achieve fluent inaccurate upper int at best. I am also in a position (on the MBA prep ) to try something longitudinal - some of mine start from zero(all studies I have seen so far (though that is only about 5) are snap shot cross student). Think collocation and multi word units in general are as important at low levels so would like to find out something about what my learners are doing (probably with collocation) over time. Also think it matters, maybe have skewed view from Istanbul, but there just seem to be an awful lot of learners here who never will be (perhaps because they don't really need to be) advanced. Afraid it is still that woolly. Have been trying to articulate ideas in short break before work goes back to full on, so the ideas can be fermenting meanwhile. Tend to crack on with modules in the summer, but have got caught sometimes by the fact that as soon as I have time to do some serious work the Aston tutors are on leave.
David A: Thanks for all the links. I have to sit down and try them to be sure if I have been there or not, but given the quantity, I'd guess some of them at least are new for me. With any luck at least one will turn out to be more comprehensible than what I've seen so far.
Have realized how brave you lot are when you write to this list. Have tried to write this quickly as I am so delighted with the swiftness of your response, but have to go to work in a minute, but then you realize lots of people may read it which is quite scary when you are publicly admitting how inarticulate your ideas for an assignment currently are. But thanks again. That's all really helpful.
Sally
[Editor's Note: Click this link to read a review of Wordsmith]
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