TY - JOUR

T1 - Use of Google Scholar in corpus-driven EAP research

AU - Brezina, Vaclav

PY - 2012/12

Y1 - 2012/12

N2 - This primarily methodological article makes a proposition for linguistic exploration of textual resources available through the Google Scholar search engine. These resources (Google Scholar virtual corpus) are significantly larger than any existing corpus of academic writing. Google Scholar, however, was not designed for linguistic searches and special attention therefore needs to be paid to maximising its effectiveness in corpus linguistics research. The article discusses the search capacity of Google Scholar and compares the Google Scholar virtual corpus with the largest traditional corpus of written academic English, COCA – academic. Finally, the article offers a case study on the as-author-reporting verb structure (and its modifications). The study demonstrates that Google Scholar can be employed effectively in EAP research offering us new insights into reporting practices in two disciplines, Applied Linguistics and Physics, which were chosen for comparison. The benefits of using Google Scholar virtual corpus are the following: 1) wide representativeness of written academic language, 2) possibility of capturing subtle variation in academic patterns, and 3) possibility of comparing linguistic patterns across different academic fields.

AB - This primarily methodological article makes a proposition for linguistic exploration of textual resources available through the Google Scholar search engine. These resources (Google Scholar virtual corpus) are significantly larger than any existing corpus of academic writing. Google Scholar, however, was not designed for linguistic searches and special attention therefore needs to be paid to maximising its effectiveness in corpus linguistics research. The article discusses the search capacity of Google Scholar and compares the Google Scholar virtual corpus with the largest traditional corpus of written academic English, COCA – academic. Finally, the article offers a case study on the as-author-reporting verb structure (and its modifications). The study demonstrates that Google Scholar can be employed effectively in EAP research offering us new insights into reporting practices in two disciplines, Applied Linguistics and Physics, which were chosen for comparison. The benefits of using Google Scholar virtual corpus are the following: 1) wide representativeness of written academic language, 2) possibility of capturing subtle variation in academic patterns, and 3) possibility of comparing linguistic patterns across different academic fields.

KW - Corpus linguistics

KW - English for academic purposes

KW - Google Scholar

KW - Linguistic searches

KW - Reporting verbs

U2 - 10.1016/j.jeap.2012.08.001

DO - 10.1016/j.jeap.2012.08.001

M3 - Journal article

VL - 11

SP - 319

EP - 331

JO - Journal of English for Academic Purposes

JF - Journal of English for Academic Purposes

IS - 4

ER -