BNClab: A platform for corpus-based exploration of spoken British English

BNClab is a corpus platform developed at Lancaster University to give students, teachers and researchers easy access to a large  sample of spoken British English. The platform can be accessed directly here. The BNClab platform contains  samples from two major corpora of British English:

The structure of the data in BNClab thus offers different types of exploration of spoken British English such as:

• Focus on current language use
• Comparison of changes in the use of spoken English between 1990s and its current use

BNClab can be used with students in two key areas:

Searching the two corpora: the corpora can be searched for frequency information about individual linguistic features but the website also provides an analysis of the influence of social factors on language use. To read more about the searching functions in BNClab, click here. 

Teaching materials: The BNClab platform contains a set of ready-to-use teaching materials. These are worksheets that focus on a specific question in spoken language use and explore it with a series of practical and discussion tasks. Follow these links to read more about BNClab teaching resources for A-level English Language and for ESL/EFL teaching. 

BNClab: A short overview 

You can watch a short video that offers an overview of BNClab functions and resources.