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In:Applying Corpora in Teaching and Learning Romance Languages
Edited by Henry Tyne and Stefania Spina
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 122] 2025
► pp. 156–179

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Chapter 7
Learning one’s own language

Data-driven learning for Italian L1 speakers in LSP classes

 | University of Turin
Published online: 20 November 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.122.07cor
Abstract
When discussing data-driven language learning (DDL), it is almost a given assumption that we are referring to the acquisition of a second or ‘foreign’ language (L2). While it is true that DDL was essentially born in the context of the foreign language class, it is equally true that the exploration of corpora can effectively support reflection on specialized languages, even when it comes to a speaker’s first language (L1). This chapter illustrates how a corpus-based and bottom-up inductive approach that allows for a focus on form can foster Language for Specific Purposes (LSP) competence and awareness, developing affordance strategies, thus offering the possibility of collecting data on the use of the language that might otherwise go unnoticed, for example appropriate use of collocations, semantic preferences, and specific morphosyntactic patterns.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.LSP and (meta)linguistic awareness
  • 3.DDL in LSP
  • 4.Case study: The language of the Italian Constitution
    • 4.1Structure of the exercises
    • 4.2Results
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (54)
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