Welcome to langui.ch

Dear visitor,

Thanks for stopping by at langui.ch, a site dedicated to collecting useful resources in the fields of corpus linguistics, e-learning, natural language processing and python programming with a particular focus on applied uses in the foreign language classroom.

I started this website as a by-product and companion to my Lizenziatsarbeit/M.A. Thesis in English Linguistics at the University of Zurich. As I will provide an overview of available tools and also evaluate their usability for practical applications in the EFL classroom, I thought that my progress could be documented online and – at the same time – this collection of resources could prove to be useful to English teachers using corpus linguistic approaches in their classrooms.

Other overviews/directories I found online were either not specific enough, confusing or no longer maintained. The initial entries in my database represent tools that I have been using for years and tools I’ve only just learned about when going through the following three publications:

  • Anthony, Laurence (2013). “A critical look at software tools in corpus linguistics”. Linguistic Research 30 (2): 141–161.
  • Bennett, Gena R. (2010). Using Corpora in the Language Learning Classroom: Corpus Linguistics for Teachers. Ann Arbor, Mich: University of Michigan Press.
  • Breyer, Yvonne A. (2011). Corpora in language teaching and learning: Potential, evaluation, challenges. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.

A collection of resources can only be kept up-to-date with the help of those who are using it. With that in mind, I attempted to make it as easy as possible for everyone to submit requests, corrections, dead links or reviews of the resources in the database.

I’m looking forward to receiving many contributions from casual and regular visitors to langui.ch /ˈlæŋgwɪdʒ/.

Markus Killer