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- Volume 4, Issue, 2018
International Journal of Learner Corpus Research - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2018
Volume 4, Issue 1, 2018
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Epicene pronouns in intermediate to advanced EFL writing
Author(s): Charlotte Stormbompp.: 1–22 (22)More LessSince the second wave of feminism, non-sexist language use has become an increasingly important topic. A key issue in English is the choice of epicene pronouns, i.e. pronouns that refer to both sexes. Despite the global nature of English, little research has addressed this topic in EFL contexts. This study examines the use of the epicene pronouns he, he or she, and they in two L1 and L2 corpora of student writing. The corpus analyses show that, overall, the L2 English speakers use he significantly more than the L1 speakers, whereas the L1 speakers use they more. Variation found in the L2 subcorpora seems to be partly related to L1 influence: The writers who use he the most are speakers of gendered L1s with a traditional practice of masculine generics. The study also shows that both L1 and L2 writers are affected by the antecedent type in their pronoun choice.
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Does the passé composé influence L2 learners’ use of English past tenses?
Author(s): Sandra C. Deshorspp.: 23–53 (31)More LessThis study explores the uses of the present perfect (PP) and simple past (SP) by French learners of English and assesses how those uses differ from those in native English and those of the passé composé (PC) in native French which, semantically, overlaps with PP and SP. Methodologically, the study is based on over 3,000 contextualized occurrences of PP, SP and PC, and includes cluster and collostructional analyses. Overall, relatively native-like form-function mappings in interlanguage emerge from the analyses, suggesting that, semantically, advanced learners have integrated the uses of past tenses and that the influence of the PC is relatively weak. Further, at an upper-intermediate to advanced proficiency level, learners have integrated the fine-grained contextual information characteristic of the use of English past tenses. Ultimately, the study shows how different methodological designs can lead to varying conclusions on the (non-)nativelike usage patterns of PP in interlanguage.
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Shell noun use in English argumentative essays by native speakers of Japanese, Turkish, and English
Author(s): Brian Schanding and Hye K. Paepp.: 54–81 (28)More LessShell noun (SN) use in learner writing has been studied in terms of SN choices and SN pattern choices, but less so in terms of SN-pattern co-selection (i.e. which patterns are used with which SNs). This study examined English SN choices and their preferred lexicogrammatical patterns in argumentative essays by speakers of Turkish and Japanese in order to find SN-pattern attraction in learner writing, compared to SN use in writing of native English speakers. Results indicate that learners understand SN functions, given pattern frequencies comparable to those of native speakers. However, there were differences among groups in which SNs were most strongly attracted to or repelled by the SN patterns. This prompted a qualitative investigation. Findings of non-native SN use are discussed with respect to word-sense categories and clause marking. Suggestions are made for further research.
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The development of phrasal complexity in German intermediate learners of English
Author(s): Rolf Kreyer and Steffen Schaubpp.: 82–111 (30)More LessOn the basis of a longitudinal corpus of English produced by German intermediate learners, the present paper explores how noun phrase (NP) complexity develops in terms of global measures of complexity (length, number of modifiers per 1,000 words) in learner data on an intermediate level of competence and describes how the use of individual NP-modification structures changes as learners progress through their three final years of secondary school. An additional objective is to test Biber et al.’s (2011) hypothesized stages of acquisition against our data of intermediate learner English, complementing the data of advanced learner English provided by Parkinson & Musgrave (2014) . Our results show that global measures of NP complexity remain stable as learners progress from grades 10 to 12. Zooming in on individual learners and features, the results lend tentative support to Biber et al.’s (2011) stages of acquisition. However, individual variation influences the frequency of noun-phrasal modifiers.
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Building a local learner corpus
Author(s): Monica H. Kwon, R. Scott Partridge and Shelley Staplespp.: 112–127 (16)More LessThis paper describes the construction process involved in creating a robust local learner corpus of texts produced by international students in a first-year writing course at a large public, mid-western university in the U.S. We show how involving faculty members and graduate students of our local writing program in the process of learner corpus analysis provides them with opportunities to develop their skills and knowledge as writing instructors, course designers, and, ultimately, knowledge producers. An additional benefit of such an undertaking is that the corpus can become part of the infrastructure of a research community that allows continued contributions by others individually and collaboratively. We also illustrate the usefulness of our local learner corpus for research, teaching, mentoring, and collaboration within our writing program with examples of the research projects and teaching interventions we have developed.
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The Trinity Lancaster Corpus
Author(s): Dana Gablasova, Vaclav Brezina and Tony McEnery
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