Developing an International Corpus of Creative English

Peter John Hassall, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

World Englishes

Publication Date

2-1-2006

Abstract

This paper proposes an International Corpus of Creative English [ICCE] as a worldwide corpus particularly suitable for easy implementation in countries which have tertiary institutions with well-defined populations of students possessing similar cultural and/or linguistic backgrounds. The ICCE is contextualized as a World Englishes corpus with reference to the International Corpus of English (ICE) and the International Corpus of Learner English (ICLE). Centred round the Extremely Short Story Competition [ESSC], introduced at the 2nd Asia TEFL Conference in Korea (2004), the ICCE will provide potential in terms of intercultural/interlinguistic research and also practical exploitation in the wider community for both educational and commercial purposes. Specifics of the Extremely Short Story Competition [ESSC] are provided in order to introduce a tightly structured contest which has proved to be an extremely efficient instrument for the generation of texts both inside and outside the (language teaching) classroom. A progress report, is presented which outlines two pilot projects undertaken at Zayed University [ZU] in the United Arab Emirates [UAE] (2004) and at the British Council in Seoul, Republic of Korea [ROK] (2005). This is illustrated with the prize-winning ESSC stories in both locations. In addition, an account describes the compilation of the first component of the ICCE corpus which is currently being undertaken in the UAE (2005) using the ZU website specifically designed to operationalize the ESSC in twenty federal tertiary institutions throughout the country. Discussion is provided of the benefits of the ICCE for language learning and teaching, applied linguistics and the community. The paper calls for academics in other nations to contribute to the ICCE and offers the ZU ESSC website and support to other countries wishing to participate in the project.

ISSN

0883-2919

Publisher

Wiley

Volume

25

Issue

1

First Page

131

Last Page

151

Disciplines

Education | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Scopus ID

33646713159

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

no

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