Make Learning Authentic and Fun with Corpus!

Hey everyone! I’m saying this sincerely: I really miss you all, my blogs, and the tech world 💖. I’m excited to share something new I’ve been working on. I know learning grammar can sometimes feel a bit dry, so we’ve found a way to make it a lot more engaging and real.

For this project, I worked with my valuable friends, Selin Naz Duysak and Pelin Aybay. Together, we were tasked with creating a corpus-based teaching material and lesson plan to help students understand how to use “either” and “neither.” The main goal was to make grammar learning more engaging and authentic by using real-life examples from a corpus. We wanted students to see how these words are used in everyday language, rather than just memorizing rules.

To create the corpus-based materials, we used CorpusMate to analyze authentic language examples and identify the correct usage of “either” and “neither” in context. The lesson plan we designed is hands-on. First, students will test their knowledge with a simple fill-in-the-blank activity to assess what they already know.

Then, they will explore real examples from the corpus, observing how “either” and “neither” are used in context. This encourages them to notice language patterns and figure out the rules themselves, which we believe makes learning more meaningful.

Finally, students will practice what they’ve learned through targeted exercises based on the patterns they discovered.

To design the materials, we used Canva to ensure the instructions were clear and visually appealing. The worksheet is structured in a way that allows students to write their answers and observations in dedicated spaces as they move through each activity.

Additionally, we have prepared the lesson plan based on the ASSURE model, which ensures that the lesson is tailored to students' needs, integrates appropriate methods and media, and involves active learner participation.

A possible challenge we foresee is time constraints—there may not be enough time in class to fully explore all the corpus examples. However, we are excited to see how this approach can make grammar more engaging and relevant to students by connecting it to real-world language use.

You can find our materials and lesson plan below:

Click for the worksheet

Click for the Lesson plan

For now, goodbye, see you in other tech adventures!💜