Multimodal concordancing for online language learning: exploring language functions in authentic texts

The work presented in this article is the result of what initially were two separate projects: the creation of an online English course using a corpus of original multimedia texts; and an under-graduate dissertation project for the creation of function-based language learning materials based on a corpus of films. The article will initially describe the corpus of multimedia texts created for the development of materials for Learning Links, Padova University Language Centre’s online English course (Ackerley & Cloke, 2005). It will then go on to discuss the dissertation-based project (Coccetta, 2004) with its model for the analysis of language functions in a multimedia corpus through the use of the multimodal concordancing software MCA (Baldry, 2004). Both projects aim to make audio and video materials more easily accessible to researchers, material developers, teachers and students and in particular to allow them to analyse the form of various language functions in use. This article will present the common aims of these projects, subsequent changes made to Coccetta’s initial model to adapt it for use with the Padova Multimedia English Corpus (MEC) and the online English course, and potential for future research and development, as well as practical examples of how the multimodal concordances produced thanks to MCA can be used to create language learning materials.