· What are the characteristics of contemporary academic speech—its grammar, its vocabulary, its functions and purposes, its fluencies and dysfluencies?

· Are these characteristics different for different academic disciplines and for different classes of speakers?

In late 1997, the English Language Institute (ELI) at the University of Michigan started a major research project to answer these and other questions. The goal of the first phase of the project was to record and transcribe close to 200 hours (approximately 1.8 million words) of academic speech from across the university. In June 2001, we finished the recording goal, with over 190 total hours recorded. In April 2002, we completed transcribing and proofreading all the transcripts. (The digital sound recordings were transcribed with the help of a computer program called SoundScriber, developed by former research assistant Eric Breck.)

Analysis is supported by a customized search engine developed for us by the University of Michigan Digital Library and database consultant Alan Pagliere. The entire corpus is available on this website at micase.umdl.umich.edu. This search engine is notable for the large number of speaker and speech-event categories that can be selected. The search engine has increased in popularity each year since its launch, approaching as many as 140,000 hits in 2006.

The ELI committed resources to MICASE for a series of interlocking reasons. First, there was originally no database of this kind available. Second, we strongly suspected that once we examined the corpus for recurrent grammatical and phraseological patterns, we would find many divergences from those described in current grammar and vocabulary books, which have largely relied on introspection or on features of written texts. MICASE will thus provide authentic material in sufficient quantity to redefine our concepts of academic speech. Third, we eventually hope to be able to track generalized changes in speech patterns as people gain experience of university culture.  (Although we know quite a lot about how academic writing evolves as students progress, our current perceptions of speech changes within academic cultures are largely anecdotal.) Fourth, with all this new information, we -- and others elsewhere -- will be in a better position to develop more appropriate ESL and English for Academic Purpose teaching and testing materials, and to evaluate how best to incorporate corpus work into EAP programs.

MICASE was planned as an easily available “open” project. Conference presentations in Europe, Asia, and North America have generated significant interest in the project among the international applied linguistics community. In May 1999, the ELI and MICASE hosted the first North American Symposium on Corpora in Linguistics and Language Teaching, and this has subsequently become an annual event. MICASE was also involved in the organization of the joint ICAME/AAACL conference in May 2005.

The project was originally managed by Dr Rita Simpson, with Professor John Swales  and Dr Sarah Briggs acting as faculty and testing advisors respectively. Professor Anna Mauranen of Tampere University, Finland, served as an external consultant from 1998 to 2001. The current project manager is Dr Ute Römer. Dr Stefanie Wulff supports her as a post-doctoral research fellow. Current research assistants are Yung-Hui Chien and Jesse Sielaff. In all, more than 30 research assistants have worked on the project over the years.

MICASE is located in the ELI's new offices on 500 East Washington Street (phone number: 734-763-7133). Expressions of general interest should be addressed to micase@umich.edu.

John Swales Sarah Briggs Janine Ovens Rita Simpson MICASE Team:  May 2001

Yung-Hui Chien Jesse Sielaff Stefanie Wulff Sheryl Leicher Annelie Adel John Swales MICASE Team:  June 2007

Stefanie Wulff John Swales Ute Römer Nick Ellis Jesse Sielaff Yung-Hui Chien Merche Querol (visiting scholar from Spain) MICASE Team:  November 2007