Why use BNClab to teach A Level English Language?
BNClab and teaching materials developed for use with the BNClab platform contribute to three key areas in A-level English Language.
A. Curriculum and Subject learning
The materials are designed to respond to some of the main areas identified in A Level English Language curriculum. In particular, the following areas are covered in the teaching materials: Spoken language: These materials focus on language used by British English speakers in spoken, interactive communication. Social factors in language use: This set of materials explores how language use and choice varies according to users from different social groups. Language change: The materials compare how language was used in the 1990s and in the present day, allowing students to explore the changes that have taken places and the reasons behind these changes.
B. Access to real-life data
The BNClab and associated teaching materials aim to provide teachers and students with direct and easy access to large, systematic and high-quality collections of spoken British English which can be used in the classroom as well as for independent projects.
C. Research-led teaching
We strongly believe in the benefits of getting state-of-the art resources and most recent research findings to teachers and students without delay. It is only too common that some of the useful resources available to academic researchers reach secondary schools only after a considerable period of time. Understandably, it takes time to translate research resources into school materials through textbooks or curricular changes. ‘Corpus for schools’ project seeks to close the gap between research and secondary school teaching and to contribute to genuine research-led teaching in A-level classrooms. To achieve this, the development of BNClab teaching materials was based on the following principles:
Most recent corpus resources: BNClab materials are based on the state-of-the-art corpus resources such as the British National Corpus 2014 (completed in 2018). Since it release, it became one of the major resources in the study of the English language and is used widely by researchers all over the world. Working with BNClab, students in schools can access and work with the same data and the same platform as used by world-leading researchers in language analysis.
Most recent research findings: The teaching materials are based on the most recent corpus or linguistic findings about language use which were translated into student worksheets.
Students as researchers: The teaching materials guide students to (re)discover these recent findings for themselves and by themselves – allowing them to engage in genuine discovery learning.
Teaching resources in BNClab
The teaching resources contain both i) Worksheets for students and ii) accompanying Teacher handouts with model answers and additional information. Student worksheets are freely downloadable; to gain access to Teacher handouts, please email Dr. Dana Gablasova (d.gablasova@lancaster.ac.uk) or Dr. Vaclav Brezina (v.brezina@lancaster.ac.uk) to receive a password.
Each student worksheet follows the same structure: 
Accessing BNClab teaching resources
To access the BNClab teaching materials, you can go to the BNClab website or click here to go directly to the A-level English Language teaching resources.