ARTIGO

Key multi-word terms in a language teacher

education journal

Práticas bem legais: uma análise de termos-chave em uma revista de

formação de professores

Wesley Henrique ACORINTI

wesley.acorinti@ufrgs.br

FLUXO DA SUBMISSÃO

Submissão do trabalho: 01/03/2023

Aprovação do trabalho: 28/08/2023

Publicação do trabalho: 15/09/2023

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brasil.

Marine Laísa MATTE

marine.laisa@gmail.com

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brasil.

Simone SARMENTO

simone.sarmento@ufrgs.br

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, RS, Brasil.

1

0.23925/2318-7115.2023v44i2e61035

Abstract

The Bem Legal Journal (BLJ) serves as a developmental platform for pre-

and in-service teachers (Welp et al., 2020) to develop their identity as

teacher-author-educators (Garcez & Schlatter, 2017) while improving

language teaching. The purpose of this study is to identify the topics

covered in BLJ articles through the extraction of key multi-word terms

(KMWT), a type of keyword that consists of two or more words and

appears more frequently in the corpus of study when contrasted to a

reference corpus (Kilgarriff et al., 2014). The corpus of study comprises

all English-written BLJ articles, while The Warwick ELT Journal serves as

the reference corpus. The Keyword & Term tool in Sketch Engine

(Kilgarriff et al., 2014) was used to extract KMWT and the Concordance

tool aided in understanding their meanings in the corpus of study. The

analysis of the 95 KMWT extracted revealed seven categories. Project-

based pedagogy emerged as the main theme in the articles that

constitute the corpus, being the category with the largest number of

KMWT. This study sheds light on the topics and teaching approaches

covered in BLJ and offers insights for language educators seeking to

enhance their professional development.

Distribuído sob Licença Creative Commons

Keywords: English language teaching; Key multi-word terms; Corpus

linguistics; Teacher-author-educator.

Wesley Henrique ACORINTI; Marine Laísa MATTE; Simone SARMENTO

61

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Resumo

A Revista Bem Legal (BLJ) serve como uma plataforma de desenvolvimento para professores em

formação e em serviço (Welp et al., 2020) visando desenvolver sua identidade como professores-autores-

formadores (Garcez; Schlatter, 2017), buscando aprimorar o ensino de línguas. Este estudo tem como

objetivo identificar os temas abordados nos artigos da BLJ por meio da extração de termos-chave

multipalavra (KMWT), um tipo de palavra-chave formada por duas ou mais palavras e que ocorre com

maior frequência no corpus de estudo quando contrastado ao corpus de referência (Kilgarriff et al., 2014).

O corpus de estudo compreende todos os artigos da BLJ escritos em inglês, enquanto a Revista The

Warwick ELT compõe o corpus de referência. A ferramenta Keyword & Term no Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff

et al., 2014) foi utilizada para extrair os KMWT e a ferramenta Concordance auxiliou na compreensão de

seus significados no corpus de estudo. A análise dos 95 KMWT extraídos revelou sete categorias. A

pedagogia baseada em projetos emergiu como o principal tema tratado nos artigos que compõem o

corpus, se configurando como a categoria com o maior número de KMWT. Este estudo lança luz sobre os

tópicos e abordagens de ensino abordados no BLJ e pode servir como fonte de estudo e pesquisa para

educadores de línguas que buscam aprimorar seu desenvolvimento profissional.

Palavras-chave: Ensino de língua inglesa; Termos-chave; Linguística de corpus; Professor-autor-

formador.

1. Introduction

Teaching additional languages is a complex and challenging task, and good language teaching

practices require an understanding of the linguistic, cultural, and social aspects of languages and

students (Scrivener, 2011). In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in corpus-based

studies, which provide an empirical basis for language teaching and learning (Jablonkai & Csomay,

2

022) by analyzing language in context (McEnery & Brezina, 2022). In this vein, the present study aims

to investigate the key multi-word terms (KMWT) used in texts published by pre- and in- service English

1

teachers in a journal named Bem Legal . The study draws on a corpus of 96 texts written in English by

Brazilian language teachers, which were compiled and analyzed using corpus linguistics methodology.

The main objective of the study is to identify the most frequent KMWT used in Bem Legal

Journal (BLJ) when compared to a publication which has similar purposes, The Warwick ELT

Journal, to, then, analyze the topics related to language teaching. The study adopts a bottom-up

approach to identify the KMWT in the corpus, which are then manually grouped into categories

based on their semantic and pedagogical properties.

1

In English: "Pretty Cool".

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In the following sections, we introduce the BLJ, corpus linguistics, and KWMT analysis,

followed by the methodology employed in this study. We then present the results and engage in a

detailed discussion. Finally, we conclude with a summary of the main findings and offer suggestions

for future research.

2

. The Bem Legal Journal

The Bem Legal Journal (BLJ) is an online, open-access publication dedicated to promoting

successful initiatives in language education. Published biannually by the Institute of Languages and

Literature at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul;

UFRGS), a prominent public research university in southern Brazil, BLJ serves as a platform for

educators to share their innovative ideas, teaching practices, and critical reflections with their

peers. The primary objective of BLJ is to foster a collaborative and inclusive environment that

encourages the exchange of valuable insights and knowledge within the language education

community. As such, BLJ is an indispensable resource for educators and researchers who seek to

advance the field of language education.

The journal can be understood as a space for pre- and in-service teachers which can assist in

the construction of their identity as teacher-author-educators (Garcez & Schlatter, 2017) and, thus,

improve language education as a whole through the proposition of a collective reflection with their

peers. A teacher-author is a professional who can formulate as well as solve problems that arise

from their practice, going beyond to exchange those experiences with peers, looking to reflect

meaningfully and collectively on what it means to learn to teach in the context they are inserted

(

Garcez & Schlatter, 2017). A teacher-author-educator does the same as a teacher-author with the

difference of the responsibility for registering their repertoire which is being constructed (Garcez

Schlatter, 2017).

&

Garcez and Schlatter (2017: 30, our translation) further expound on those concepts arguing

that:

The joint construction of a culture of teacher-author-educators takes place, in our

experience, from at least the practicum. Since the first issue of the Bem Legal Journal,

we propose reading and discussing articles published in previous issues as well as

submitting texts for publication in the journal about some pretty cool aspects of the

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experience of the project developed in the practicum (instead of reports to the

supervisor). [...] The journal has an editorial committee of more experienced teacher-

author-educators who welcome, analyze and make suggestions for the rewriting of

articles, thus creating the opportunity for teacher-authors also to constitute themselves

as teacher-author-educators.²

Like other university professors at UFRGS and its neighboring universities in the South of

Brazil, Garcez and Schlatter incorporate articles from BLJ into their classroom instruction and

actively encourage their students to submit their own work during practicum courses in teaching

degrees. This pedagogical approach likely accounts for the high proportion of published works by

undergraduates hailing from the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Additionally, the editorial committee

of BLJ serves as a fortifying source of support and guidance for teacher-authors, allowing them to

strengthen their identities as teacher-author-educators through the publication of their work

(Garcez & Schlatter, 2017). This collective experience of knowledge exchange and authorship is an

essential aspect of professional growth in the field of language education since it provides

educators with the opportunity to engage in ongoing critical reflection and development of their

teaching practices (Schön, 1997). Therefore, BLJ serves as a crucial resource for both established

and aspiring educators, fostering a sense of community, intellectual curiosity and dedication to the

improvement of language education (Garcez & Schlatter, 2017; Welp et al., 2020).

Welp et al. (2020) provide a comprehensive overview of the structure of BLJ, which is

organized into five distinct sections, each corresponding to a specific speech genre with unique

objectives and publication norms. Genres in BLJ include (1) reports on good practices, which are

detailed 2,200-word texts outlining successful projects or task sequences that have already been

implemented; (2) lesson plans, which are 1,500-word texts containing a comprehensive lesson or

task plan; (3) project proposals, which are texts of 1,000 words that present suggestions for

projects or didactic sequences; (4) classroom stories, which are 1,500-word texts that focus on

interesting classroom anecdotes; and (5) interviews, which are limited to 2,000 words and provide

an account of a dialogue with an education agent about a relevant theme.

2

Originally in Portuguese: "A construção conjunta de uma cultura de professores-autores-formadores tem lugar,

na nossa experiência, desde pelo menos os estágios de docência. Desde a primeira edição da revista Bem Legal,

propomos a leitura e a discussão de artigos publicados nas edições anteriores e a escrita de artigos para publicação

na revista sobre algum aspecto bem legal da vivência do projeto desenvolvido no estágio supervisionado (em vez

de relatórios para o supervisor). [...] A revista reúne uma comissão editorial de professores-autores-formadores

mais experientes que acolhem, analisam e fazem sugestões para a reescrita dos artigos, criando, assim a

oportunidade para que professores-autores também se constituam como professores-autores-formadores."

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In the next section, we discuss our choice of using corpus linguistics tools in order to analyze

key multi-word terms in BLJ.

3

. Corpus linguistics and key multi-word terms analysis

Corpus linguistics is an approach to the study of large language data "through corpora

singular: corpus). A corpus is a large, principled collection of naturally occurring examples of

(

language stored electronically" (Bennett, 2010: 2). Considering the large scale of data dealt with by

corpus linguists, a computer is employed to "read, search and manipulate" the information, since

it would not be feasible due to time and lack of accuracy for human analysts to retrieve results

through individual analyses of each text (McEnery & Hardie, 2012: 2).

Brezina (2018) emphasizes the importance of a corpus being both representative and

unbiased. Specifically, the texts included in the corpus should exhibit "similar characteristics to the

population it is drawn from" (Brezina, 2018: 15) and avoid any "systematic but often hidden

deviation of the sample from the population" (Brezina, 2018: 16). One possible type of deviation

from representativeness and unbiasedness occurs when a corpus is composed of disparate

sections of texts or texts that cover a range of unrelated topics, even though these selections do

not align with the research question or goals of the analyst. Such deviations can compromise the

corpus and ultimately hinder its suitability for analysis.

Key multi-word terms (KMWT), the object of this study, can be extracted from corpora.

KMWT are expressions composed of two or more words that appear frequently together in a

corpus, when contrasted to a reference corpus, and that carry a specific meaning or concept

(Kilgarriff et al., 2014). We understand that the KMWT we analyze are capable of facilitating

"understanding the main point of a text" (Bondi, 2010: 3), or, in the case of this study, giving access

to features of our corpus of study "that are not immediately obvious" (Bondi, 2010: 5). According

to Scott (1997: 243), through the analysis of KMWT, it is possible to reveal the aboutness of the

corpus of study.

Furthermore, KMWT seem to be more indicative of content as opposed to isolated single

keywords, as suggested by the Firthian maxim: “You shall know a word by the company it keeps!”

(FIRTH, 1957, p. 11). The reason for this is that, when considering the co-occurrence of the elements

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that make up a KMWT, their meanings become less opaque, allowing for more valid and

appropriate interpretations of their use (FIRTH, 1957).

In order to achieve the goal of this study and considering that it is through the analysis

of the KMWT of a corpus that we can identify its aboutness, the detailed methods for extracting

and analyzing the terms of the corpora are described in the next section.

4

. Methodology

This study seeks to characterize the community from which BLJ texts originate by analyzing

KMWT, thereby gaining a better understanding of the topics considered important by teacher-

author-educators who submit their work to the publication. This section outlines the corpus-

analytic steps utilized to achieve this objective, with a focus on the design and compilation of the

two corpora, followed by the extraction and categorization of the KMWT.

To conduct this study, a comparison was carried out between the Bem Legal Corpus (BLC)

and a reference corpus called The Warwick ELT Corpus (TWELTC). The BLC consists of English-

language articles published between 2011 and 2021, which were manually located and downloaded

as PDF files and later uploaded onto Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al., 2014). The corpus comprises all

issues of the BLJ from its inception in 2011 until the latest publication in 2021, which marks the

commencement of the compilation process.

As our research aimed to investigate KMWT, we designed and compiled the reference

corpus following Brezina's (2018: 81) recommendation: "the larger and the more similar the

reference corpus is to the corpus of interest the more reliable and focused the comparison is".

Thus, we chose texts from The Warwick ELT Journal – published from 2016 to 2019 and curated by

a group of Master's students of English Language Teaching at the University of Warwick, based in

the United Kingdom, to compose the corpus of reference due to its similarities with the objectives

as the BLJ and its higher token count compared to the BLC. TWELTC comprises all issues of The

Warwick ELT Journal, which commenced publication in 2016 and appears to have been

discontinued in 2019.

Table 1. BLC description

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Section

Number of texts Number of words

Percentage of words

Reports on good practices

Lesson plans/project proposal

Classroom stories

54

42

0

101,871

58,277

0

63.6%

36.4%

0%

Interviews

0

0%

TOTAL

96

160,149

100%

Source: The authors

As can be seen in Table 1, the BLC is made up of 96 texts, totaling 160,149 words. This corpus

3

only includes reports on good practices and lesson plans/project proposals sections of the journal,

as these were the only English-language texts found to be published. The data in the table also

indicates that the majority of texts fall within the reports on good practices section.

Table 2 shows that TWELTC is composed of 67 articles and 205,144 words. Despite the

smaller number of texts in this corpus, the total word count is higher, allowing us to extract KMWT

from the BLC reliably since the texts are adequate as for the time and topic of publication and the

number of tokens is bigger.

Table 2. TWELTC description

Number of texts

Number of words

Whole corpus

67

205,144

Source: The authors.

After compiling both corpora, they were analyzed using the Keyword & Term tool in

SketchEngine (Kilgariff et al., 2014) to generate a list of lemmatized KMWT in the BLC. Additionally,

we used the Focus on feature of SketchEngine, which identifies a list of words that appear more

frequently in the focus corpus than in the reference corpus. In this feature, a setting of 0.001 would

3

In some issues of BLJ, the sections lesson plans and project proposals were treated as one. Thus, we considered

both to be of the same genre in this study.

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refer to rare or unusual words in the reference corpus. Conversely, a setting of 1000000 would

focus on words that are very frequent in general language or in the reference corpus (Kilgariff et

al., 2014). Thus, we decided to set the feature at 100, which is close to the middle of the scale as

can be seen in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Focus on tool and minimum frequency settings

Source: SketchEngine (Kilgariff et al., 2014)

We also selected a minimum of 10 occurrences for a word to be considered a KMWT, since we

wanted words that appeared somehow regularly in the corpus of study. After setting this

threshold, we excluded KMWT that appeared in fewer than three texts, as well as those that were

4

in Portuguese (e.g., língua adicional , em língua estrangeira, material didático, leitura em língua

and sílabas tônica) and discourse markers (e.g., final consideration and other word). This process

yielded a list of 95 terms, which can be found in Appendix I.

Once the list of 95 terms was compiled, each term was thoroughly analyzed and

categorized by the three authors according to semantic fields. Seven categories were identified:

project-based pedagogy, sequencing, context, classroom management, language teaching,

language focus, and resource. Definitions for each category were derived from the concordance

lines and the literature related to language teaching as will be explained in the next section.

5. Results

4

Henceforth, KMWT will be referenced in the text using italics.

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As discussed above, the categories were defined based on the extraction of KMWT and

extensive reading of the concordance lines of all the occurrences. The 95 key terms were manually

grouped into seven categories: (1) project-based pedagogy, (2) sequencing, (3) context, (4)

classroom management, (5) language teaching, (6) language focus, and (7) resource. Table 3

illustrates the categories that emerged from the data categorization process, along with the

number of terms and total number of occurrences in each group.

Table 3 - Categories

Total number of

Number of KMWT

occurrences

Category

KMWT

f in BLC

f in TWELTC Relative f in

Relative f in Keyness score

TWELTC

BLC

final product

video clip

97

55

46

34

31

24

21

3

1

494.46152

280.36478

234.48691

173.31641

158.02379

122.341

11.6822

3.89407

11.6822

3.89407

27.25846

15.57626

0

5.323

3.661

2.995

2.631

2.028

1.924

2.07

linguistic resource

final production

previous knowledge

reading activity

horror story

3

1

7

4

0

4

0

5

4

1

project-based

5

pedagogy

107.04837

71.36558

112.14591

86.6582

76.46312

66.26804

3.89407

short story

21

15.57626

0

1.791

1.714

1.434

1.836

1.797

1.765

1.663

1.6

eating habit

14

22

17

cultural aspect

next class

19.47033

15.57626

3.89407

0

fourth class

end of the class

first moment

previous activity

next step

15

13

0

1

sequencing

0

5

The words presented here are not meant to encapsulate the entirety of project-based pedagogy. These terms are

used to refer to specific elements within the broader pedagogical approach. In the following section, we will

provide more comprehensive evidence of project-based pedagogy in the BLC.

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english class

high school

52

27

33

25

24

41

11

28

27

2

265.07214

137.63362

168.21887

127.43854

122.341

109.03384

105.13978

7.78813

27.25846

3.89407

864.4826

190.80922

0

1.746

1.158

2.488

1.787

2.14

context

whole group

small group

classroom

management

7

big group

1

english language

english teacher

simple present

new vocabulary

simple past

222

49

0

208.99921

56.07296

117.24345

71.36558

56.07296

96.85329

61.1705

0.32

language

teaching

0.537

2.172

1.434

1.502

1.969

1.551

23

14

11

anguage focus

resource

5

19.47033

3.89407

0

1

piece of paper

computer lab

19

12

0

1

3.89407

Table 4 displays the categories in ascending order based on the number of different types

and tokens of KMWT. The most diverse and frequent category is project-based pedagogy,

comprising 43 types and 848 tokens, representing 45.29% of the total number of occurrences of

KMWT. This category refers to a pedagogy that involves a final production (or final product) linked

to a selected theme, such as eating habits or cultural aspects, and includes speech genres (e.g.

video clip, horror story, short story) and tasks (e.g. linguistic resource, previous knowledge,

reading activity). Further in the text, we will address how tasks relate to previous knowledge and

linguistic resources in greater detail.

The second most numerous category is sequencing, with 21 types and 449 tokens (23.98%)

of KMWT. It refers to the progression of the course (e.g. next class, fourth class), the class (e.g.

end of the class, first moment) or the activity (e.g. next class, fourth class, end of the class, first

moment).

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The third most frequent category is context, which relates to the circumstances that

constitute the setting of the learning event, such as English class and high school. This category

includes nine KMWT, totaling 187 occurrences, accounting for 9.98% of the total.

In the fourth place, there is the classroom management category, which involves actions

aimed at creating "the conditions in which learning can take place" (Scrivener, 2011: 54), such as

how the students can be grouped in the classroom (e.g. whole group, small group, big group). This

category comprises seven KMWT, with 139 occurrences, representing 7.42% of the total.

The category of language teaching includes terms related to the craft of teaching, such as

the subject of the class (e.g. English language) and the educational agent (e.g. English teacher).

This category comprises six KMWT and accounts for 126 types (6.73%).

The category of language focus comprehends the language features – such as grammar

(e.g. simple present, simple past) and lexis (e.g. new vocabulary) – dealt with in the reported

projects. It encompasses six KMWT that occur 79 times (4.22%) in the BLC.

Lastly, the category of resource concerns materials (e.g. piece of paper) and spaces (e.g.

computer lab) that enable activities to happen. The three terms included in this category total 44

occurrences and account for 2.35% of all tokens of KMWT.

The stacked bar graph in Figure 2 summarizes the results described in this section.

Figure 2. Categories, number of occurrences and number of terms

Source: The authors.

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The graph presents the categories on the X-axis and the number of occurrences of KMWT

and the variety of terms in each category on the Y-axis. The different shades within each bar

represent the range of terms within each category. A detailed discussion of each category is

presented next.

6

. Discussion

This section presents the discussions of the main findings of the study, which revealed that

project-based pedagogy is the most significant category in terms of both the number of

occurrences and the variety of different KMWT.

According to Hernández and Ventura (1998), project-based learning is a method of

organizing the school curriculum that prioritizes students' engagement with information and the

connection between various subject matters through problems that stimulate the construction of

knowledge. Projects begin with the definition of a thematic focus. Subsequently, students explore

materials from which they can acquire the necessary content to address the problem within the

chosen thematic axis, allowing them to study and refine the theme while actively engaging the

students. In a project-based pedagogy, it is also important to maintain an evaluative attitude

throughout the process in order to elicit what students already know, what they believe they are

learning, and what they are most curious to learn (Hernández & Ventura, 1998).

Furthermore, at the end of the project, it is essential to recapitulate the journey in order to

organize the acquired knowledge and plan new educational proposals (Hernández & Ventura,

1

998). In language education, Schlatter and Garcez (2009; 2012) suggest that projects can

culminate in a final product aimed at assessing learning outcomes and systematically summarizing

the knowledge addressed throughout the process. This final product takes the form of a text that

represents a particular genre of oral or written discourse.

The project-based pedagogy category in question can be better understood with the help

of the following excerpt, which is taken from the BLC and highlights the KMWT in bold.

Considering that the students were interested in music and that this topic can embrace different age groups, which

was the case of our students, we decided to develop a project involving songs. </s><s> As the final product, we

thought of producing a video clip. </s><s> [...] </s><s> Now we will show in detail each step of our project named A

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video clip in our lives. </s><s> It is important to mention that this project was designed for beginners in English and it

can be adapted to different contexts (high beginners, intermediate, etc). (file23661052)

The most frequent KMWT in the project-based pedagogy category were final product and

video clip, which are terms that directly refer to a document used as a reference in the Practicum

and Teaching Methodology credit-courses at UFRGS and other neighboring universities: the Rio

Grande do Sul State Curriculum Standards (Schlatter & Garcez, 2009). Furthermore, texts in the

BLC also make reference to a book published by the same authors (Schlatter & Garcez, 2012). This

book was conceived as a follow-up of their work in the State Curriculum Standards and aims at

providing additional language teachers with a more comprehensive and practical understanding of

the project-based pedagogy. By grounding their teaching methodology on this pedagogy, the

authors offer a more effective alternative to the traditional fragmented content list, which, in turn,

still tends to be the norm in many educational contexts.

Barbosa (2004) highlights that projects can be conducted individually or in groups,

stemming from a problem situation for a specific group of students. In the perspective of linguistic

education, projects may involve a final production, such as a video clip, related to a selected theme,

in the case of the excerpt below, music. Additionally, projects should involve one or more speech

genres related to students' effective participation in the communities in which they are inserted

(Schlatter & Garcez, 2009; 2012).

The project-based pedagogy category also comprehends terms that refer to those speech

genres themselves, i.e. "relatively stable types" of utterances used in different spheres of

communication in human activity (Bakhtin, 1986: 61). Video clip, horror story, short story and comic

book are the most frequent and prototypical terms of speech genres in the corpus.

Referring back to the excerpt above, video clip was chosen to be the structuring genre of

that project, combining the theme with the tasks, leading students to the production of this

specific genre. Even though that was the genre focused, it does not necessarily mean that there

was an exclusive approach to it, since others could have been supporting genres, used to provide

support to and scaffold the development of the project (Schlatter & Garcez, 2009; 2012).

According to Referenciais Curriculares do Rio Grande do Sul (2009), comic books are part of students' interests and

they can be an important tool for teaching an additional language, since they are composed by short texts and present

linguistic resources in a contextualized way. </s><s> Moreover, the work with comic books develops students' abilities

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to identify the different elements of the narrative, to make inferences over the relations between verbal and non-

verbal texts, to recognize the effects of graphic and linguistic resources in the story, to comprehend and discuss the

theme, and to express points of view. (file23661083)

This second excerpt above, extracted from the BLC, is also representative of the project-

based pedagogy category and explicitly aligns with the Rio Grande do Sul State Curriculum

Standards (Schlatter & Garcez, 2009), emphasizing the importance of selecting projects based on

students' interests. In the passage, comic books are referred to as a speech genre that caters to

students' specific interests.

Other terms in this category – such as linguistic resource, previous knowledge, and reading

activity – are related to the design of tasks, i.e., the planning and directions teachers want to see

being carried out by the students (Schlatter & Garcez, 2012). In the texts comprising the corpus,

task-based language teaching (TBLT) appears to be connected with project-based pedagogy, as it

helps students develop practical skills that are applicable in real-world contexts (Schlatter &

Garcez, 2009; 2012). This approach provides a more engaging and effective way for students to

learn, as it allows them to apply their language knowledge and skills to meaningful tasks and

projects.

For Branden (2016: 240), "a task is a goal-oriented activity that involves the meaningful use

of language," and, in TBLT, communication tasks are the centerpiece of language acquisition

(Branden, 2006). Task-based language classrooms often follow a three-stage model that

encompasses pre-task activities, the task itself and post-task activities. During the pre-task phase,

teachers and students prepare for the task by introducing the topic, activating previous knowledge

and providing relevant vocabulary. Teachers also motivate learners and give clear task instructions.

In the task performance stage, students work individually or in groups to complete the task, with

the teacher providing interactional support to address misconceptions and give feedback. Finally,

in the post-task phase, students report on their task outcomes and discuss their performance

(Branden, 2016).

Linguistic resources, a term that occurs 46 times in 26 different texts in the corpus, is closely

tied to the notion of TBLT, particularly in the context of project-based pedagogy, where specific

genres bring relevant lexico-grammatical features to the fore. It is worth mentioning that the

choice to use the term linguistic resources (recursos linguísticos in Portuguese) rather than simply

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grammar is because it is a more contextualized way of referring to the specific language that

matters to accomplish certain tasks. Schlatter and Garcez (2009) argue that the relevance of a

linguistic resource to students’ project participation should be justified, meaning that grammar

work should be targeted and focus on what is necessary for the speaker to achieve a specific

purpose, rather than covering all rules and structures.

The sequencing category is the second most frequent and diverse category in the BLC,

encompassing terms that refer to the progression of the course, class, or activity. Terms in this

category are mostly found in passages where authors describe the delivery of tasks. It is

noteworthy that the sequencing created between tasks and lessons is especially relevant to

project-based pedagogy since the activities developed by students aim to produce a predefined

final product (Schlatter & Garcez, 2009; 2012). Additionally, terms in this category support what

Branden (2016) notes regarding the three-stage model activities.

In the corpus, the authors seem to understand the importance of a sequence of chained

tasks for the accomplishment of a project. The following excerpt exemplifies this context with two

of the most prototypical terms: next class and previous activity. It seems to highlight how essential

it is to establish a clear and logical sequence of tasks and activities, considering that proper

sequencing helps to build students' knowledge progressively, reinforcing the learning process and

providing them with the necessary skills to accomplish the proposed final product of the project.

At this moment, students must get prepared for their final presentation, which is supposed to happen next class.

</s><s> In the same pairs as the previous activity, they need to create a PowerPoint presentation determining a new

occupation for the character in their flashcard and what aspects led them to that decision. (file23661044)

The most recurrent KMWT in the context category is English class, followed by high school,

as seen in the excerpts below. This category encompasses terms that are related to the location

and setting of the lessons. The frequency of the terms of this category suggests that the BLC is

primarily composed of texts that describe English language teaching practices in high school

settings.

The classes took place in the state school Gema Angelina Belia, located in Porto Alegre, between April and July of 2015.

</s><s> The group was a second year of high school with almost thirty students. (file23661152)

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In my first English teaching practicum, I chose to teach a seventh grade in a school near my house. </s><s> The school

offered two periods of English classes a week. </s><s> Before starting the teaching part of my practicum, I observed

some of the English teacher's classes, in order to know the students and for them to know me. (file23661143)

The context in which language teaching and learning take place is a crucial factor that can

influence the success of the educational process. As such, it is important for teachers to be mindful

of the context in which they are teaching and adapt their lessons accordingly. This way, teachers

can provide effective instruction that is tailored to the unique needs of their students. The texts in

the corpus show that the teacher-author-educators are conscious of this fact. This is evident in the

references to the learning environment as indicated by the frequencies of KMWT in this category

and illustrated in the excerpts above. In essence, authors systematically include information about

the context where the class was taught in their texts. This is because of the importance of

acknowledging that every teaching context is unique and has specificities that can affect what is

considered a pretty cool practice in English language teaching.

The category of classroom management, i.e., important conditions for learning to take

place, has whole group as the most recurrent term. In contrast to a traditional teacher-centered

approach, a project-based pedagogy prioritizes interaction and collaboration, both between peers

and between students and teachers, in order to facilitate the construction of knowledge

(Hernández & Ventura, 1998).

This conception seems to relate to Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory, in which learning

occurs primarily through interaction with others and with the world, with language playing a

fundamental role. Vygotsky's (1998) notion of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) explains

the relationship between learning and child development, indicating that a child's potential

development is identified not only by what they can do independently but also by what they can

do with help from others. In turn, scaffolding refers to the temporary assistance provided by a

teacher or more capable peer to help learners perform tasks that are beyond their current ability.

This concept stems from the notion of ZPD and is believed to be beneficial to developing the

learners' autonomy. By offering guidance and assistance, scaffolding enables learners to perform

similar classroom tasks independently in the future outside of the classroom (Gibbons, 2015).

The excerpt provided below illustrates the author's description of the group arrangements

used to carry out the tasks, including pair, trio and whole group. This particular pattern of group

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arrangement, which moves from small groups to a whole-group setting, is not unique to this

specific text, rather, it can be encountered in multiple texts in the corpus, highlighting the

importance authors attach to collaborative learning and the scaffolding of the learning.

This class starts with wrap–up about the information they brought as required last class. </s><s> Each pair/trio will

discuss about the topic they are producing. </s><s> The teacher will accompany and guide each group. </s><s> By the

end of this discussion, the groups are going to tell to the whole group the topic they chose. </s><s> Activity After the

warm-up, students are going to keep working on their trailers. (file23661072)

The language teaching category pertains to the subject matter being taught, namely the

English language and to the category of teachers involved at stake. This category is particularly

salient in the Brazilian context, a country marked by significant socio-economic disparities that also

permeate the educational system. In public schools, where a majority of students come from low-

income families, English is often perceived as having little relevance to their daily lives, as these

students are unlikely to travel abroad or interact with English speakers in their local communities.

Consequently, one of the initial goals of English language instruction in public schools is to

"guarantee conditions so that students do not turn their backs to a world that happens in

6

diversity” , a world mobilized by texts in English – and other additional languages (Schlatter &

Garcez, 2009: 135).

We were concerned to show that the English language was not that far from their everyday life and it could be very

useful for basic things and they could see English as a language spoken by many, not only in the United States or

England. </s><s> We wanted them to discover other cultures and other interests inside the classroom. (file23661090)

The excerpt provided above is representative of the need to justify the importance of

English language teaching in the Brazilian public school system. The challenges of teaching English

in this context are closely tied to the social and economic realities of the students and their families,

making it critical to demonstrate the potential value of English as a means of engaging with the

wider world and advancing their future opportunities.

6

In Portuguese: "garantir condições para que os educandos não deem as costas ao mundo que acontece na

diversidade"

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The language focus category includes essential linguistic resources, such as grammar and

lexis, necessary for tasks that integrate language use with the project being developed. These

situated linguistic elements are practiced in situations that are significant and intrinsically linked to

the goals of the tasks or projects, which involves the reflection on the role of these resources in

language practices, including underlying genres and topics.

The provided excerpts below exemplify the use of the simple present and simple past as

KMWT. Additionally, other related terms that were not found to be KMWT – such as present

continuous, language resources, tense, and weather and music vocabulary – are similarly

representative in the passages. The use of the latter term is especially notable, as it is clearly

intrinsically connected to the topic of the project, which is focused on weather and music. This

illustrates the efforts of integrating linguistic resources with the context and purpose of the

project, highlighting the importance of situated linguistic practice for a "pretty cool" language

class.

They had to create a poster to exhibit in the hall of the school suggesting people songs to listen to according to the

weather - sunny, rainy, cloudy, hot and cold days. </s><s> They structured the sentences to give the suggestion making

use of the Simple Present and Present Continuous, beyond the weather and music vocabulary. (file23661135)

Language resources [Aiming at providing the students with tools, this section focuses on the simple past. </s><s> This

tense is frequent in Chimamanda's talk and it is extremely important to the personal narrative structure.] In order to

produce your own personal narrative, you will often need to use the simple past form of the verbs. </s><s> Therefore:

1

. </s><s> Find the simple past form of the verbs in the chart below that were taken from Chimamanda's talk and write

them in the second line. (file23661059)

Lastly, the resource category focuses on the tools required to carry out tasks effectively and

encompasses only three KMWT: piece of paper, sheet of paper, and computer lab. The use of a

piece of paper as a tool can be observed in the provided excerpt below, in which its use is merely

instrumental, supporting the development of the task by the students. While the limited range of

tools in this category may seem surprising, it is important to note that the tasks analyzed in the

corpus mainly involve language use and development, rather than a focus on technology or

material resources. All in all, the use of supporting tools for language learning tasks highlights the

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importance of considering the specific needs and requirements of each task and project, and the

role that various resources play in achieving its goals.

Each student will receive a piece of paper (as the model below), write down the information needed, and draw their

pet (it can be an imaginary pet). </s><s> These papers must have the same shape and size because they are going to

be used in the final activity. (file23661035)

In the next section, the conclusion is presented.

7

. Conclusion

This study set out to identify the topics approached in the texts published in BLJ as compared

to The Warwick ELT Journal. We identified the key pedagogical concepts in the corpus of study

through a combination of manual and automated analysis with a focus on frequently occurring

KMWT related to pedagogical concepts. The 95 KMWT extracted using Sketch Engine (KILGARRIFF

et al., 2014) were manually categorized into six categories, namely: project-based pedagogy (43

KMWT), sequencing (21 KMWT), context (nine KMWT), classroom management (seven), language

teaching (six), language focus (six) and resource (three).

Our findings indicate that project-based pedagogy is the most frequently emphasized

pedagogical concept in the BLC, as evidenced by the frequent occurrence of KMWT such as final

product and video clip. Our analysis also highlights the importance of sequencing in these

materials, as well as the close relationship between task-based language teaching and project-

based pedagogy. In addition, we identify a number of other key pedagogical concepts, such as

linguistic resource and previous knowledge, that are also frequently emphasized in the texts.

Those seem to reflect the methodological approach presented in the Rio Grande do Sul State

Curriculum Standards (Schlatter & Garcez, 2009; 2012), a document that, even though is not the

current official standard, is still used in courses such as Teaching Methodology and Practicum in

some universities in the South of Brazil. In the corpus, there are 32 explicit occurrences of

Referenciais Curriculares, which suggests that the document is still a reference in this community.

The community that publishes in BLJ seems to be moving away from the presentation-practice-

production paradigm. This approach has been criticized for being too teacher-centered and not

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giving learners enough opportunities for authentic communication, which is the opposite of

project-based pedagogy (Hall, 2015). However, it remains a popular approach in language teaching,

particularly for learners who are not yet comfortable with the language.

To further build on this study, future research could broaden the scope of the analysis

beyond the current sample to include other relevant journals, countries, and languages. For

instance, it would be beneficial to compare the findings from The Warwick ELT Journal and other

similar journals to identify good practices in English language teaching. Additionally, exploring the

texts published in languages other than English in BLJ could shed light on the teaching approaches

and strategies used in other contexts of linguistic education.

In summary, this study offers valuable insights into the pedagogical principles and practices that

are being advanced by a community of English teachers in the southern region of Brazil, who aptly

embody the spirit of the Bem Legal Journal. We trust that this study can serve as a foundation for

future research and reflection on the teaching of additional languages not only in Brazil but also

beyond its borders.

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