 Study
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"Resource-assisted learning" is the model for online learning which makes use of RealAudio streaming so you can listen as you read and at the same time use concordance searches through a corpus of the author's work, as well as direct dictionary links using Active Dictionary web pages so that you can easily lookup the meaning of any word in the text by clicking the mouse on the word you want. |
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The most complete implementation which integrates audio streaming, concordancing and dictionary links with literary texts is the Listen and Learn section, with texts taken from authentic literature such as Sherlock Holmes stories. Various aspects of this model are featured in other VLC materials, including the News from the web ESL Corner and the Reading for fun pages. Concordancing Contextual inference can be substantially enhanced by multiplying the number of contexts available for a given word with the aid of a corpus. This is the basis of concordancing as a learning tool ("Data-driven learning"). The concordancer assembles all the contexts available for a given word or phrase throughout a text or corpus, the rationale being that when several contexts are available, some of them may be unclear, but others are likely to have the mix of linguistic and semantic support that provides the learning conditions needed by a particular learner to build a stable understanding for a new word.
The concordancer lists the keyword contexts in linear format, and these can be sorted by right or left collocates. This makes it easy to see how keywords are used and the words they are typically partnered with (collocates). If the corpus is a collection of the writer's works then it is likely that a concordance search for any particular word in the text will produce other examples of the writer's use of the word in other works. Thus for example the Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle" is supported by concordance searches using a corpus of Arthur Conan Doyle's works that includes many other stories in addition to this one. For further and detailed academic discussions of this learning model, see:
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