A Diachronic Study of Software Tools in Corpus-Based Studies in Applied Linguistics

One of the central characteristics of corpus-based studies is utilizing computer software and programs for storing and analyzing data. Due to their crucial roles in corpus-based research, the study of used software tools can enhance the quality of corpus studies. However, despite their importance, software tools are rarely studied in research articles. The present study aimed at analyzing the different kinds of software in ۲۳۲۸ quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method corpus-based studies in ۲۲ applied linguistics journals over three decades (from ۱۹۸۶ to ۲۰۱۶) to gain new knowledge about their types, frequency, and uses in the applied linguistics domain. Using descriptive analysis, this study found that there was a dearth of software use in corpus-based studies. In other words, software was only applied in ۱۷% of the studies. Moreover, the results showed that software was more frequent in quantitative data. The most frequent software in all research designs was WordSmith. The implications of the present study can prove beneficial for authors of the research study, researchers, as well as scholars in the domain of applied linguistics in general and corpus linguistics in particular.