Foundations of Corpus Linguistics and Language Data: For EFL University Students

Foundations of Corpus Linguistics and Language Data: For EFL University Students is a free introductory textbook for international undergraduates studying through English as a foreign language. Part of the Applied Linguistics branch of English Language Studies for EFL University Students, it develops the concepts and practical reasoning needed to investigate language through corpus evidence, with no previous university course in the subject assumed.

Fifteen chapters cover corpus design and representativeness; corpus types and resources; collecting, preparing, and annotating language data; corpus searching and concordances; frequency and quantitative reasoning; collocation; keywords, n-grams, and formulaic language; vocabulary and lexico-grammar; register, genre, variation, and change; learner corpora; corpus-informed teaching and data-driven learning; ethical data use; and the design of a small corpus study. Students learn to connect research questions, transparent methods, and appropriately limited conclusions.

The book includes learning outcomes, chapter roadmaps, worked examples and calculations, original figures and tables, guided practice, five final practice tasks per chapter, review infographics, key terms, short quizzes, and complete answers and explanations. Chapter 15 supplies the complete eight-text Campus Notices Teaching Dataset for a documented project that can be completed by hand without a separate download. It supports approximately 35–45 classroom contact hours and independent study. Constructed examples and datasets are teaching materials rather than empirical findings about real populations.

First Edition, Version 1 (2026). Directed by Munassir Alhamami, Professor of Applied Linguistics at King Khalid University, Saudi Arabia. Original content is licensed under CC BY 4.0, except where otherwise stated; linked and credited external resources retain their own terms.

AI-use disclosure: ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and NotebookLM assisted with research, drafting, revision, visual development, and production of this textbook. ChatGPT Image generated the front and back cover artwork and illustrations in the 32 roadmaps and infographics, with exact lettering typeset separately. The eight-text Campus Notices Teaching Dataset in Chapter 15 was drafted with ChatGPT assistance and editorially reviewed. Munassir Alhamami, the Project Director, is responsible for the final editorial decisions and released version. The Campus Notices Teaching Dataset contains no sampled institutional notices or participant writing; it is constructed for teaching and cannot estimate frequencies in actual university communication.

Series website: https://sites.google.com/view/els4efl/home