- Home
- e-Journals
- International Journal of Learner Corpus Research
- Previous Issues
- Volume 5, Issue 1, 2019
International Journal of Learner Corpus Research - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2019
Volume 5, Issue 1, 2019
-
That’s hard
Author(s): Nicholas A. Lesterpp.: 1–32 (32)More LessAbstractLanguage learners are highly sensitive to statistical patterns in the input. When a target language provides the option to include or omit a grammatical form, learners have been shown to make decisions quite similar to native speakers. For example, learners opt to include or omit the complementizer that (as in I know (that) Steffi likes hot tea). This phenomenon has been explained in terms of a universal suite of cognitive mechanisms which support native and learner performance alike. Both learners and native speakers choose to include the complementizer when they are producing more complex or unexpected structures. The present study attempts to generalize these findings to another domain of “optional” grammatical markers, namely, relativizers (as in the hot tea (that) Steffi likes). I analyze all instances of optional relativizer use in a corpus of spontaneous learner speech produced by Spanish and German learners of English. Both of these languages have obligatory relativizers. A two-step generalized additive regression modeling technique (MuPDAR) that predicts learner choices based on native-speaker choices demonstrates that native speakers use greater shares of the relativizer in complex and disfluent environments, while learners show the exact opposite tendency: they prefer to drop the relativizer in complex and disfluent environments. These findings are discussed based on differences between complementizers and relativizers, and in terms of the limited universality of optional grammatical marking in learner speech.
-
Extraposition in learner and expert writing
Author(s): Tove Larsson and Henrik Kaataripp.: 33–62 (30)More LessAbstractSubject extraposition (e.g. it is important to remember) is generally considered to be a formal construction that learners, whose writing is often said to be overly informal, have been found to struggle with. This study investigates to what extent register and text type can be used to explore learners’ reportedly “informal” use of this construction. Learner writing is compared to expert writing from several different registers and to native-speaker student writing. The results show that there are important differences across both registers and text types. Furthermore, while the learners’ use is most like that of the experts’ academic writing, certain similarities to the non-academic registers were also noted. The results additionally suggest that earlier claims about the informal status of learner writing seem mainly to have been influenced by the text types included in the corpora previously investigated.
-
Intensifying constructions in French-speaking L2 learners of English and Dutch
Author(s): Isa Hendrikx, Kristel Van Goethem and Stefanie Wulffpp.: 63–103 (41)More LessAbstractWe investigate the cross-linguistic influence and the (longitudinal) impact of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) on the acquisition of intensifying constructions, using corpora of written French, Dutch, and English productions by L1 speakers, and L2 English and L2 Dutch produced by French-speaking learners in CLIL and traditional foreign language education. We hypothesize that learners will benefit from similarities between the L1 and target language (TL) intensifying constructions, and secondly, that more input and use (through CLIL) will lead to a more target-like use of intensifying constructions. The analyses include quantitative measures of frequency and productivity, and covarying analyses (Gries, 2007). Our findings suggest that, as expected, CLIL students produce intensifying constructions in a more target-like manner. The effect of the duration of TL learning, however, is more apparent in English than in Dutch.
-
Sandra Deshors, Multidimensional Perspectives on Interlanguage. Exploring may and can across Learner Corpora
Author(s): John Osbornepp.: 104–108 (5)More LessThis article reviews Multidimensional Perspectives on Interlanguage. Exploring may and can across Learner Corpora
-
Margarita Alonso-Ramos (Ed.), Spanish Learner Corpus Research: Current Trends and Future Perspectives
Author(s): Aarnes Gudmestadpp.: 109–112 (4)More LessThis article reviews Spanish Learner Corpus Research: Current Trends and Future Perspectives
-
Erik Castello, Katherine Ackerley and Francesca Coccetta (Eds.), Studies in Learner Corpus Linguistics Research and Applications for Foreign Language Teaching and Assessment
Author(s): Vaclav Brezina and Raffaella Bottinipp.: 113–117 (5)More LessThis article reviews Studies in Learner Corpus Linguistics. Research and Applications for Foreign Language Teaching and Assessment
Most Read This Month

-
-
The Trinity Lancaster Corpus
Author(s): Dana Gablasova, Vaclav Brezina and Tony McEnery
-
- More Less