Simon Smith

Coventry, United Kingdom United Kingdom

Senior Lecturer at Coventry University

Education

I am one of an increasing number of published, research-­active corpus linguists who consider themselves first and foremost language teachers. My research is on the use of corpora (big computer databases of authentic language) for language teaching and learning. Through the use of large samples of real language in use, students are able to learn autonomously, discovering linguistic patterns for themselves, rather than memorizing grammar patterns and vocabulary presented by a teacher. Recent published work has focused on both Chinese and English learning. Managing the research-­teaching balance is an ongoing challenge. I devise and adapt resources in a way that inspires students to work...