A development of corpus-based reading material for the English Pali Canon through a multi-perspective approach

This study investigated the suttas in the English translation of the Pali Canon. The purposes of this study are fourfold: (1) to specify readers' problems and needs in reading the English Pali Canon; (2) to find the discourse structures of suttas in Digha Nikaya; (3) to investigate the most frequent words and keywords in Digha Nikaya; and (4) to explore users’ perceptions of the developed material. To address the first purpose, needs analysis was performed using a questionnaire, following documentary research and participatory observation. Thirty participants were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted. The results were that while reading the Pali Canon, most participants experienced lexical and structural problems. The needs for materials to alleviate the problems were identified, leading to the second phase of the study. To reduce the structural problems, the discourse structures of suttas in Digha Nikaya were analyzed. Two versions of English suttas were compiled as the node corpora for corpus-based analyses. Move analysis was performed. The results show that there are seven moves in suttas: Move 1 Titling, Move 2 Providing reference, Move 3 Describing background information, Move 4 Praising the Buddha, Move 5 Narrating preaching, Move 6 Demonstrating reflection, and Move 7 Ending the narration. Steps were identified within Move 3 and Move 6. The four steps under Move 3 are: Step 1 Describing characters, Step 2 Describing places, Step 3 Indicating the cause of the preaching, and Step 4 Indicating the topic of the preaching. The five steps under Move 6 are: Step 1 Showing the audience’s reaction, Step 2 Showing the application of the preaching, Step 3 Showing the preacher’s action, Step 4 Showing supernatural event, and Step 5 Showing the audience’s attainment of enlightenment. In addition, the move pattern of suttas was drawn based on the arrangements of these moves. A straightforward pattern progresses from Move 1 to Move 7. However, there are various patterns that include reoccurrences of Move 3, Move 5, and Move 7 as well as early endings at Move 5 and Move 6. Regarding the lexical unit, the two node corpora were analyzed to identify frequently occurring words and keywords. The top 100 most frequent words and keywords from each translated version are presented, for example, exalted, Venerable, and Brahmans. These lists included Pali words and proper nouns referring to people, such as Gotama, Ânanda, and Kassapa as suttas were preserved in a narrative format in which character names were repeated for continuity. The sub-corpora of Move 3, Move 4, Move 5, and Move 6 were compiled to identify the top frequent words and keywords of these moves, illustrating their characteristic and content. For the final product of the study, the results from previous analyses were adapted to create reading lessons. The developed material was needs-based and corpus-based, exemplifying the application of results from multi-perspective analyses. To explore users’ perceptions of the material, it was evaluated by three experts and 10 participants. Overall, the users expressed moderate satisfaction with the material. These findings may benefit both researchers and practitioners as well as contribute to the fields of English for Religious Purposes (ERP) and religious studies.