Dr Yen Dang delivers an international workshop demonstrating the impact of research on language education practice

Dr Yen Dang was invited to deliver a hybrid workshop as part of the Transforming Research into Teaching Practice (TRIP) series hosted by Manchester Metropolitan University.

Funded by the European Second Language Association (EuroSLA) on 14 March 2026, this prestigious international series aims to develop collaborative pathways for transforming second‑language research findings into impactful teaching resources and classroom practices.

Dr Dang’s workshop, titled ‘How to use corpus tools to evaluate and adapt vocabulary in reading and listening materials’, demonstrated how corpus linguistics research can be translated into evidence‑based decision‑making in language teaching and materials development.

Research underpinning the workshop

The workshop was grounded in Dr Dang’s recent co‑authored publication with Professor Stuart Webb. 

This article highlights that although corpus‑based word lists have well‑established value for language learning and teaching, they remain underused in classroom contexts. One key reason is teachers’ limited awareness of available word lists and research‑informed principles for using corpus tools to set learning goals, assess learner progress, and design instructional materials and activities.

Building directly on these findings, Dr Dang designed a hands‑on, practice‑oriented workshop that enabled participants to apply research insights to real teaching materials.

Participants were supported to:

• Explore the concept of lexical coverage, its role in comprehension, and the pedagogical value of corpus‑based word lists
• Gain practical experience using corpus tools to analyse texts, evaluate vocabulary profiles, and identify different types of lexical items
• Discuss how research findings can inform material adaptation and activity design to support second‑language vocabulary development

Examples focused on academic spoken vocabulary for listening, while the analytical procedures introduced in the workshop were designed to be transferable across a wide range of texts, learner levels, and educational contexts.

Strong international participation

The workshop attracted nearly 200 participants from about 40 countries across Europe (eg, the UK and Ukraine), Asia (eg, China, Afghanistan, and Vietnam), Africa (eg, South Africa, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe), the Middle East (eg, Saudi Arabia and Iraq), North America (eg, the US and Costa Rica), South America (eg, Argentina and Ecuador), and Oceania (eg, Australia and New Zealand).

Participants represented a wide range of professional roles, including language teachers, language researchers, curriculum designers, test developers, policy‑makers, and postgraduate students, reflecting the workshop’s global reach and cross‑sector relevance.

Evidence of impact on professional practice

Post‑workshop feedback demonstrated a high level of satisfaction and clear evidence of impact on participants’ professional thinking and practices. Many respondents highlighted the clarity, practicality, and applicability of the workshop:

Her (Dr Yen Dang’s) explanations were clear, detailed, and highly applicable to both my teaching context and my future research.

Participants also reported a strengthened understanding of how second‑language research can directly inform classroom decision‑making:

The workshop helped me see more clearly the connection between second language research and teaching practice.

One participant explicitly highlighted how the workshop bridged a longstanding gap between research and professional realities:

Yes! Most of the time we read research articles but do not connect them to our reality. Bridging the gap through hands‑on experience feels more authentic.

Others emphasised how the research‑informed use of corpus tools led to more confident and systematic teaching decisions:

It was fascinating to see how we can use data to scientifically evaluate the difficulty of reading and listening materials rather than just relying on intuition.

Several respondents noted reduced barriers to adopting research‑based approaches in their own practice:

Less anxiety to incorporate corpus work into my teaching.

Early‑career researchers also reported sustained academic impact beyond the workshop itself:

This session has had a strong influence on the way I think about integrating corpus methods into my own research projects.

Overall, the feedback demonstrates the educational and societal impact of Dr Dang’s research by supporting practitioners and researchers worldwide to adopt research‑informed, data‑driven approaches to language teaching. The workshop exemplifies how second‑language research can be effectively translated into practice, strengthening the link between academic research and real‑world language education.

About the researcher

Dr Yen Dang is an Associate Professor in Language Education at the School of Education, University of Leeds and a member of the Centre for Language and Education Research (CLER). Her research focuses on vocabulary studies and corpus linguistics, with particular attention to academic and specialised vocabulary, especially vocabulary in academic spoken English.

Her work has been published in leading international journals (eg, Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching, Language Learning, Language Teaching Research, and TESOL Quarterly). Dr Dang is particularly committed to promoting the use of corpus linguistics as a research‑informed method for vocabulary research, learning, teaching, and assessment, and to strengthening the link between second‑language research and educational practice.