English Language and Literature (Peer-reviewed publications)

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Connecting voices: an introduction to Irish women writers' collaborations and networks, 1880–1940 (Pre-published version)
(Routledge, 2023-07) Laing, Kathryn; Mooney, Sinéad; Ní Bheacháin, Caoilfhionn; Pilz, Anna; Standlee, Whitney; Stevens, Julie Anne
Collaborations and networks are both the modus operandi and focus of investigation in this Special Issue on Irish women writers between 1880 and 1940. This introductory essay sets the scene for the discussions and investigations that follow: we theorise the importance of collaboration and networks for understanding Irish women's writing and publishing, and highlight how contributors draw on extensive archival research that enables the tracing of the intersecting nodes, webs, and relationships between collaborations and networks. The Special Issue platforms the study of Irish women within collaborative sibling, spousal and other partnerships and within the context of movements, organisations, and networks. Our co-authored introduction, a product of our own feminist collaborative approach developed during the project, asserts that as the process of recovery of Irish women's writing continues, the collaborative and networked aspects of women's cultural productions become more central and significant. Their retrieval demands a suite of methodologies alongside a collective approach that pools resources, insights, and knowledge networks.
Lost and found in the archives: Hannah Lynch and Dimitrios Vikélas Dublin, Athens, Paris: literary crossings and collaborations (Pre-published version)
(Routledge, 2023-11) Laing, Kathryn; Theodoropoulou, Iliana
This essay illuminates a late nineteenth-century literary connection between Ireland and Greece, also revealing hitherto unexplored layers of the vibrant fin-de-siecle salon cultures in Paris and related literary and artistic networks. As a transnational and interdisciplinary collaboration, the essay maps a process of archival discovery in the National Library of Greece, Athens: a significant cache of letters from Hannah Lynch, Irish New Woman, Ladies' Land League activist, author of a truly international and diverse body of travel writing, cultural commentary and fiction, to Dimitrios Vikelas, iconic figure of nineteenth-century Greece. The discovery of Lynch's significant textual and photographic presence in the archive amassed by Vikelas, man of letters and scholar, translator, novelist, philanthropist and founding President of the International Olympic Committee, is significant for several reasons: Lynch's correspondence reveals further details that flesh out the biography of this marginalised writer; the letters also offer insights into the struggles of a "woman of letters" in the late nineteenth-century literary and publishing landscape, documenting where articles are published and sometimes the remuneration; finally, letters in the Vikelas archive from Lynch and those who were part of their shared Paris-centred intellectual networks foreground patronage, collaboration, friendship and underpinning salon culture.
Principled pattern curation to guide data-driven learning design
(Elsevier, 2022-08-06) O'Keeffe, Anne; Mark, Geraldine
Insights from corpus linguistics (CL) have informed language learning and materials design, among many other areas. An important nexus between CL and language learning is the use of Data-Driven Learning (DDL), which draws on the use of corpus data in the classroom and which brings opportunities for inductive language discovery. Within the ethos of DDL, learners are encouraged to discover patterns of language and, in so doing, foster more complex cognitive processes such as making inferences. While many studies on DDL concur on the success of this approach, it is still perceived as a marginal practice. Its success so far has been largely limited to intermediate to advanced level learners in higher education settings (Boulton and Cobb 2017). This paper aims to offer guiding principles for how DDL might have wider application across all levels (not just at Intermediate and above) and to set out exemplars for their application at different levels of proficiency. Based on insights from second language acquisition (SLA) and learner corpus research (LCR), the focus of this paper will be on identifying principles for the curation of language patterns that are differentiated for stage of learning. In particular, we are keen to build on recent and important work which looks at SLA through the lens of the usage-based (UB) models (that is, models that view language as being acquired through the use of and exposure to language).
Holding on to ‘rites, rhythms and rituals’: Mike McCormack’s homage to small town Irish life and death (Pre published)
(Springer Nature, 2018-07-31) Flynn, Deirdre
The Goldsmith Award-winning Solar Bones is a novel focused on, and dedicated to, loss. As Marcus Conway comes to terms with his own death, he pays homage to the “rites, rhythms and rituals” that were part of his life in small town rural Ireland. The book begins with the bell ringing on All Souls Day, the day of the dead, as Marcus recounts elements of his life in one unbroken sentence. This unpunctuated account is littered with loss: the loss of blood, bodily fluids, family members, life, the Celtic Tiger, youth, and memories. In fact, author Mike McCormack told The Irish Times, “I have no memories of writing Solar Bones,” yet the whole novel is a random collection of memories of life. It becomes a celebration of life, of the simple domestic events that make up a life, that are now lost to memories. This rural existence is something that is slipping away, and McCormack wants to commemorate that life before it is too late, even if it is already dead. As The Guardian tells us, “Marcus is a man gripped by ‘a crying sense of loneliness for my family’. We don’t quite know why until the very end of the novel, which comes both as a surprise and a confirmation of all that’s gone before.” As readers, we too are at a loss, as it is not until the final pages that we realise Marcus is already dead, and this book is his account of the life he has lost. This stream of memory and re-telling of his life is how Marcus comes to terms with the trauma of his greatest loss: his own death.
Data-driven learning, theories of learning and second language acquisition: in search of intersections (Pre published)
(2021-11) O'Keeffe, Anne
This chapter focuses on the need to address both theories of learning and theories of language acquisition in data-driven learning (DDL) research. While it recognises that there has been so much worthwhile research work on DDL which has shed so much light on the value of DDL, it is still not a mainstream methodology. The chapter argues that by understanding better the variations in pedagogical underpinnings and ontologies, DDL research can better pinpoint what works within specified variables. Additionally, the paper argues strongly for engagement with ongoing research in second language acquisition (SLA), especially from a usage-based perspective because there are so many resonances for DDL in terms of the centrality of the role of frequently experienced syntactic regularities in learning.
C.S. Lewis: An Irish Writer (Pre-published version)
(Routledge, 2010-02-10) Clare, David
This article examines the effect of C.S. Lewis's Irish background on his work. It attempts to contradict the assumption that this Belfast-born writer should be included in the English and not the Irish canon. It emphasises that Lewis saw himself as Irish, was seen by others as Irish, and that his Irish background, contrary to what some have written, was important to him throughout his lifetime. It goes on to demonstrate the ways in which his work was influenced by his youth in Ireland and by the Irish mythology that he loved. Furthermore, this article maintains that, as a child of pre-partition Ireland with roots throughout the island, Lewis was influenced by the country as a whole, not just his native Ulster. Finally, it attempts to understand why Lewis, a proud Irishman, did not do more to promote himself as an Irish writer.
‘You’ve a daughter yourself?’: a corpus-based look at lexico-grammatical choices and pragmatic effects in question forms in an Irish radio phone-in (Pre-published version)
(Mouton de Gruyter, 2005) O'Keeffe, Anne
Questions are widely studied especially in institutional contexts where a pervasion of questions is characteristic of such genres, for example political interviews, doctor-patient exchanges, courtroom interactions, and teacherpupil exchanges. The speaker who has professional/occupational status normally controls the development of the discourse through questioning (see Coulthard and Ashby 1975; Sinclair and Coulthard 1975; Blum-Kulka 1983; Drew 1985; Fisher and Groce 1990; Heritage and Greatbatch 1991 among many others). In other words, the doctor, the barrister, the interviewer and the teacher, respectively, decide whether to initiate an exchange, when to initiate it and with whom. Atkinson and Drew (1979) coined the term ‘turn-type pre-allocation’, which means that participants in institutional discourse, on entering an institutional setting, are normatively constrained in the types of turns they may take according to their particular institutional roles. As Hutchby and Wooffitt (1998) tell us, this format typically involves chains of question-answer sequences, in which the institutional figure asks the questions and the witness, pupil or interviewee is expected to provide the answers. This format is pre-established and formative rules operate which means that participants can be constrained to stay within the boundaries of the question-answer framework. This is in contrast to casual conversation where roles are not restricted to those of questioner and answerer, and where the type and order of turns in a given interaction may vary freely (Hutchby and Wooffitt 1998).
Applying CA to a modes analysis of third-level spoken academic discourse (Pre-published version)
(Peter Lang, 2007) O'Keeffe, Anne; Walsh, Steve
Given the dominance of English as the main language of academia (and we acknowledge the political implications of this statement), an accurate pedagogical description of it is important for those of us who are attempting to prepare international students for the challenge of this Language for Specific Purposes. Major work is emerging in its description using corpus linguistics (for example, Biber et al. 2002; Mauranen 2002; Poos/Simpson 2002; Swales 2002; Biber 2003, 2006). Here we wish to add another dimension to this work by 1) illustrating how Conversation Analysis offers many synergies as a complementary tool to corpus linguistics, 2) approaching the data itself not in terms of discipline, but at the more localized level of mode of interaction (see below), and 3) investigating the pedagogical implications that our modes-based analysis provide. In this chapter, we offer an approach to characterizing the interaction of LSP classrooms, using an ESP context as an example.
Corpora and Media Studies (Pre-published version)
(Continuum, 2012) O'Keeffe, Anne
Traditionally, studies in media discourse have been divided into those that focus on spoken media (mostly radio genres) and those that focus on written media (mostly newspapers). Studies into spoken media discourse were largely covered by conversation analysts (Conversation Analysis, see Hutchby 1991, 1996) and written media discourse was more likely to be explored within a critical framework (Critical Discourse Analysis, see Fairclough 1995a, 1995b, 2000). Considering the prevalence of media discourse in everyday life, the number of studies based on it as a whole over the years is less than one would expect. Reasons for this probably lie in the difficulty of gathering data. In the case of spoken data, it has to be recorded and transcribed, a time-consuming and laborious task. In the case of written discourse, previous to the advent of the internet, the data needed to be scanned (and checked) or keyed into a computer. It is not a coincidence therefore that most studies of media discourse up until the year 2000 or so, whether spoken or written, focused on small amounts of data that did not need much recording, transcription or scanning time.
Exploring indices of national identity in a corpus of radio phone-in data from Irish radio (Pre-published version)
(University of Valencia Press, 2002) O'Keeffe, Anne
Radio phone-in has a reflexive function in bringing the voices of a community to a community. For those who telephone the programme, it provides interpersonal communication even if they do not ‘go on air’. For those who listen in, a radio phone-in programme offers a vicarious form of interpersonal interaction. Listeners can feel close to the familiarity of the presenter and they are brought into other ordinary people’s problems and come into contact with other people’s opinions. Armstrong and Rubin (1989: 89) comment that talk radio is one of the few media that allows spontaneous interaction, and their quantitative research shows that it functions as an alternative to interpersonal interaction. According to Moss and Higgins (1979: 285), radio phone-in dialogues are easier than face-toface interaction for members of the audience because they come in recognisable formats and because the presenter has a finite range of speech strategies.
Exploring television as an exponent of pragmatic and sociocultural information in foreign language learning (Pre-published version)
(CILT Publications, 2000) O'Keeffe, Anne
It is increasingly recognised that being both fluent and accurate in a foreign language will not always guarantee successful communication between speakers. According to Hyde (1998: 10), in his discussion on intercultural competence in English language education, even if someone has perfected standard grammar and pronunciation, “there is no guarantee that they will be effective intercultural communicators… Successful communication is not simply about acquiring a linguistic code: it is about dealing with different cultural values reflected in language use”. Communication is coded differently across languages and cultures, and unfortunately this dimension is not often explored in language learning. This paper will focus on the potential of using television material in language learning within the context of English as a Foreign Language (EFL), for the purpose of raising students’ awareness of how certain aspects of communicating in their first language might differ in their target language. Crystal (2000: 3) tells us that over the past one hundred years, English has become spoken by more people in more places than ever before and that current estimates suggest that 1.5 billion use it as a first, or second foreign language – one in four of the world’s population. This statistic is indicative of socio-economic change amid vast development in the way we communicate on a global scale. Communicating across cultures brings new challenges for foreign language teaching and learning; language course designers and textbook writers increasingly have to grapple with the cultural diversity of their ‘customers’. In appealing to a global audience, course materials published internationally can easily become culturally diluted.
Corpora and the study of spoken language (Pre-published version)
(Mouton de Gruyter, 2008) O'Keeffe, Anne; McCarthy, Michael
Spoken corpora have evolved over the 40 last four decades from early attempts at corpus-building for the purposes of better understanding such phenomena as first-language acquisition, social variation and conversational structure, 45 to the large, general spoken corpora of today, which have found applications in a variety of contexts from speech recognition, lexicography, sociolinguistics and first and second 50 language acquisition. In this article we focus on spoken corpora and their applications in linguistics and applied linguistics, rather than on ‘speech corpora’, which are typically collected 55 for the purposes of improving technology, a distinction discussed at greater length by Wichmann in article 15; see also article 32.
Second language speaking (Pre-published version)
(Elsevier, 2006) O'Keeffe, Anne; McCarthy, Michael
Approaches to spoken language description have contributed to the understanding of second language speaking. Three theoretical frameworks have also provided insight. Language Identity looks at the impact an additional language on an individual’s identity. Language Socialization sees language as the symbolic means by which humans appropriate norms of verbal and nonverbal behaviour. Sociocultural Theory draws on Vygotsky’s view of language acquisition as a sociocultural process linking the social/interactional with the cognitive. Speech acts research has also been important, but has generally used elicited data. Spoken corpora provide real data but raises issues concerning native and non-native speaker status as models.
Using corpus approaches in English language teacher education (Pre-published version)
(Routledge, 2019) O'Keeffe, Anne; Farr, Fiona
The aim of this chapter is to explore the ways in which corpus linguistics (CL) can facilitate teacher development in terms of content, pedagogy, technology, and research. Based on our own and other reported experiences of using CL in ELTE, we demonstrate the ways in which this approach is one of the ways teacher educators can more easily align their espoused theories (what they say they believe) with their theories in practice (what can be reasonably understood to be their beliefs based on direct observation of their practice) (Schön 1987). In other words, so that they can practise what they preach in terms of supporting novice teachers to become independent, aware, critical, inquiring, reflective practitioners. We have long argued (e.g. O'Keeffe and Farr 2003, Farr 2010) that corpora continue to play a minor part in much teacher education but are a resource with much potential (see also Römer 2006). This chapter is based on very recent advances in our corpus-based understandings of both language and educational processes and relies on a range of sources of evidence as presented in published research findings.
At the hands of the Brothers: a corpus-based lexico-grammatical analysis of stance in newspaper reporting of child sexual abuse (Pre-published version)
(Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007) O'Keeffe, Anne; Breen, Michael J.
Over the last twenty years, the Irish people were confronted with a series of scandalous revelations about clergy and religious in Ireland; starting with the discovery that Eamonn Casey, while Bishop of Kerry, had fathered a child, through the scandals of child sexual abuse by priests and brothers to the present day investigation into religious-run industrial schools. All of these events have been covered in great detail by the Irish media. This article examines one specific dimension of media coverage of those events – the representation of the Industrial Schools run by the Irish Christian Brothers, and the Brothers themselves.
Reading and writing at university – raising genre awareness as initiation into a discourse community (Pre-published version)
(Reading Association of Ireland, 2003) O'Keeffe, Anne; Binchy, James
The theoretical concepts of 'genre' and 'discourse community' will be drawn on in this paper to evolve a theoretical model that we hope to apply to the context of academic writing and to attainment at third level. Genre is a much talked about and less frequently used notion across a wide range of research and it has been criticised for offering a model that is not easy to operationalise (cf. Hasan 1992; McCarthy 2000). Latterly, the work of Swales has looked at genre in the context of 'discourse communities' offering a more socially-constructed basis for genre (see Swales 1988; 1990 and Askehave and Swales, 2001). For our purposes, the synthesis of the notions of genre and discourse communities offers a useful theoretical framework for our empirical research into the linguistic barriers posed by the academic institutional norms of the genre of writing required at university level. Essentially, we attempt to explore the discourse community of 'academia' within which, we propose, a certain linguistic level of competence is required in order to achieve high grades in essays and exams. We investigate the hypothesis that successful students are those who have intuited and mastered the generic norms of academic discourse and conversely, those who underachieve at third level are those who have not assimilated the norms in this discourse community. In this paper we will detail some of these 'norms' and, using student essay samples, we will explore the connection between essay grades and conformity to these norms.
Introduction: Language Awareness (Pre-published version)
(Taylor & Francis [Routledge], 2007) O'Keeffe, Anne; Walsh, Steve
Analyzing spoken corpora (Pre-published version)
(Wiley-Blackwell, 2012) O'Keeffe, Anne; McCarthy, Michael
Spoken grammar (Pre-published version)
(National Geographic / Cenage, 2014) O'Keeffe, Anne; McCarthy, Michael
Introduction: International Journal of Corpus Linguistics (Pre-published version)
(John Bejamins, 2011) O'Keeffe, Anne; Farr, Fiona

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