Published 18 July 2014

The 2014 FIFA World Cup™ has had everything – great goals, classic matches, drama, controversy and even a linguistic study from the team here at Cambridge University Press.

We used the World Cup to showcase the power of the Cambridge English Corpus, a multi-billion-word database of written and spoken English language taken from a huge range of media sources. Throughout the tournament, our language research team analysed this database to discover the media’s sentiment towards the competition and participating countries.

The less said about the words associated with England (‘exciting’, ‘disappointing’, ‘inexperienced’) the better, but with the curtain coming down on proceedings over the weekend, it comes as no surprise the ‘powerful’, ‘focussed’ and ‘committed’ Germans ended up victorious in their pursuit of a fourth World Cup title, defeating the Argentinians who played with ‘confidence’ and ‘flair’ but were often seen as ‘unconvincing’ on their way to the final.

Speaking about the study, Dr Claire Dembry from our language research team said, ‘The breadth of sources we’ve analysed over the course of the tournament means we’re able to give a unique insight into the mood surrounding each team. Examining the Cambridge English Corpus and seeing how the media portray the various competing nations has given us an interesting insight into how national identity and stereotypes have been played out in the media.’

The Corpus helps us to understand more about the English language and how people use it when they speak and write. This informs our authors and editors as they develop their learning materials, making them more authentic and useful – illustrating the English language as it is really used.

Rupert Daniels, Global Marketing Director (ELT), Cambridge University Press said, ‘The World Cup stirs up passion, emotion, excitement and dedication for football fans around the world. With the competition now finished, we will seek opportunities to use our analysis from this World Cup to enhance the teaching materials we produce. The depth and reach of our Corpus means that the Press is in a unique position to provide expert insight into the language of sport. By analysing the language used during the competition we are now able to create engaging ELT materials for learners that are true to how English is actually used.’

Why not ask your classes to describe this year’s World Cup and see if their words match the media’s? You can download the Words of the World Cup here.

Alternatively, you can see the words used for each individual team here.