International Journal of Learner Corpus Research - Volume 10, Issue 2, 2024

Abstract

The aim of this article is to survey the field of learner corpus research from its origins to the present day and to provide some future perspectives. Key aspects of the field — learner corpus design and collection, learner corpus methodology, statistical analysis, research focus and links with related fields, in particular SLA, FLT and NLP — are compared in first-generation LCR, which extends from the late 1980s to 2000, and second-generation LCR, which covers the period from the early 2000s until today. The survey shows that the field has undergone major theoretical and methodological changes and considerably extended its range of applications. Future developments that are likely to gain ground are grouped into three categories: increased diversity, increased interdisciplinarity and increased automation.

Abstract

Metadata is critical throughout the research process, from study design to corpus selection/compilation, result interpretability and cumulative research. To date, however, learner corpus research has not developed community standards or best practices for metadata collection and sharing. In this article, we present the results of a collaborative project aimed at addressing this issue by developing a standardised metadata schema for learner corpora. We first describe the procedure implemented to design the schema, including the ways in which we continuously involved learner corpus researchers in this initiative. We then introduce the Core Metadata Schema for Learner Corpora (LC-meta, Version 2), which consists in a set of obligatory and optional variables that encapsulate crucial information about L2 data (administrative details, corpus design, text-related variables, learner-related variables, annotations, annotators, or transcribers). Finally, we discuss future developments and emphasise the importance of continued maintenance and further refinement of this schema by the research community.

Abstract

Few studies have considered the multitude of factors that influence learners’ accuracy of past tense-aspect use in L2 Spanish. The present study fills this gap by examining course-level, task-modality, obligatory tense-aspect, and verb frequency and regularity as predictors of English-dominant learners’ accuracy in contexts that require the Spanish preterit or imperfect. Learner narrations from the COWS-L2H and CEDEL2 corpora were analyzed. Generalized mixed-effects models reveal that obligatory tense-aspect and task-modality are significant predictors of accuracy and that frequency is only a significant predictor in imperfect-obligatory contexts for students from the same Spanish program. Data from one Spanish program is interpreted as providing partial support for the Default Past Tense Hypothesis (DPTH). The findings add complexity to our understanding of the route of preterit-imperfect acquisition, showcasing plateauing effects and highlighting students’ use of the present as a default form.

Abstract

Larsson et al. (2020) emphasize the importance of taking linguistic variables (e.g., verb type) into consideration in studies of adverb placement. This study looks at the positional distribution of 15 epistemic adverbs from texts written by L1 Turkish, German, and English students, with the aim of testing whether the findings from Larsson et al. can be generalized to a different register (argumentative writing) and a typologically more distant language (Turkish). We also revisit the question of whether there is L1 transfer. The results confirm Larsson et al.’s finding that the main predictors of adverb placement are linguistic, although some register differences were noted, such as higher frequencies of adverbs in the argumentative texts. Furthermore, the L1 Turkish students made especially frequent use of the clause-initial position (e.g., probably she is here).

This article reviews Perspectives on the L2 Phrasicon: The view from learner corpora978-1-78892-485-6

This article reviews Complexity, Accuracy and Fluency in Learner Corpus Research9789027212580

This article reviews The ICNALE Guide: An Introduction to a Learner Corpus Study on Asian Learners’ L2 English9781032172590