Using the JSCC as a Teaching Resource

Since the John Swales Conference Corpus contains transcripts from an academic conference that was recorded at the University of Michigan in 2006, it is a very useful resource for EAP instructors who are looking for model samples of conference presentations by internationally renowned experts in the field of linguistics and examples of discussions (question & answer sessions) that follow these presentations.

How the JSCC has been used in EAP teaching

• Judy Dyer (English Language Institute, University of Michigan) has used JSCC excerpts in EAP classes with international students to teach speaker introduction strategies, the use of fillers and expressions for use with visuals.
  Handout coming soon!

• Fanny Meunier (Centre for English Corpus Linguistics, University of Louvain, Belgium) has used a JSCC transcript to teach oral presentation skills. She had her EAP students compare an expert presentation from the John Swales conference with student presentations she recorded at her university. Here is a copy of the handout Fanny used with her students.

• Kristin Blanpain and An Laffut (Leuven Language Institute, Belgium) have based exercises and examples in a textbook on academic spoken English on the JSCC and MICASE. The reference to the book is: Blanpain, K., Laffut, A. Academic Spoken English. A Corpus-based Guide to Lectures, Presentations, Seminars and Tutorials. Leuven: Acco.

If you are using JSCC materials in your teaching and would like to share experiences and/or handouts, please let us know at elicorpora@umich.edu.