The web as corpus in ESL classes: A case study

The web is argued to be a vast, but disorganized resource for language teaching and learning. This paper will address this claim by investigating whether and how a commercial search engine such as Google and the Leeds web concordancer can be valid language sources in ESL classes. In particular, it will explore if second language (L2) learners mistakes and challenging constructs can be tackled via the web as corpus. In this way, L2 students may become independent learners, dispel linguistic doubts and improve collocational knowledge. After highlighting research techniques and explaining the basic search syntax, this paper will present a pilot lesson with a secondary school language teacher, aimed at introducing the web as a language resource. The findings of the paper will highlight that the web as corpus can be integrated in ESL classes, provided that teachers acquire basic corpus analysis knowledge.