Using a specialized corpus and Google custom search engine (CSE) for enhancing L2 teaching and learning

This study explores how teachers can enhance L2 instruction using a specialized corpus with a popular custom search engine from Google. With a focus on the learners' lexicogrammatical performance, a corpus-based system consisting of a database of genreand discipline-specific texts and a companion search engine are developed for an undergraduate L2 writing course. Using digital video technology, this study documents the learners’ interactions with the corpus system over the course of one semester. The findings show that the learners engage in cognitive collaboration with the system and address their lexico-grammatical issues in moment-by-moment development of their linguistic competence rather than simply borrow the text from the corpus. The learners engage in intense hypothesis-testing in order to appropriate the language items from the corpus and in this endeavor, they interact with the system in a highly interactive and multi-layered way. The findings suggest the potential impact of the custom search engine on technology-enhance language learning, i.e., as a teachers’ tool to facilitate the learner's development. This study concludes by discussing implications of custom search engine as a powerful tool for corpus-enhanced language learning.