“I’m putting some salt in my sandwich”.
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Elen Le Foll
Abstract
Previous studies have claimed that the progressive is frequently over- and misrepresented in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks (e.g. Römer 2005). This paper compares the representation of progressives in the dialogues of nine series of secondary school EFL textbooks (43 volumes) to the Spoken BNC2014. The frequencies, morphosyntactic and functional aspects of progressive constructions, such as contraction, negation, framing and time reference, are investigated. Collostructional analysis is used to explore the lexical associations of the progressive. A number of idiosyncratic uses of the progressive in textbook conversation are highlighted and pedagogical implications discussed. In particular, key conversational discourse-structuring phrasemes in the progressive are found to be critically underrepresented.
Abstract
Previous studies have claimed that the progressive is frequently over- and misrepresented in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) textbooks (e.g. Römer 2005). This paper compares the representation of progressives in the dialogues of nine series of secondary school EFL textbooks (43 volumes) to the Spoken BNC2014. The frequencies, morphosyntactic and functional aspects of progressive constructions, such as contraction, negation, framing and time reference, are investigated. Collostructional analysis is used to explore the lexical associations of the progressive. A number of idiosyncratic uses of the progressive in textbook conversation are highlighted and pedagogical implications discussed. In particular, key conversational discourse-structuring phrasemes in the progressive are found to be critically underrepresented.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
New perspectives
- Competing future constructions and the Complexity Principle 9
- Diachronic learner corpus research 41
- Rhoticity in Southern New Zealand English 69
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Revisiting old debates
- “I’m putting some salt in my sandwich”. 93
- Determinants of exaptation in Verb-Object predicates in the transition from Late Middle English to Early Modern English 133
- Recent changes in spoken British English in verbal and nominal constructions 173
- “Oh yeah, one more thing: It’s gonna be huge.” 197
-
Refinements & innovations
- Retrieving Twitter argumentation with corpus queries and discourse analysis 229
- MuPDAR for corpus-based learner and variety studies 257
- A data-driven approach to finding significant changes in language use through time series analysis 285
- Index 319
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
New perspectives
- Competing future constructions and the Complexity Principle 9
- Diachronic learner corpus research 41
- Rhoticity in Southern New Zealand English 69
-
Revisiting old debates
- “I’m putting some salt in my sandwich”. 93
- Determinants of exaptation in Verb-Object predicates in the transition from Late Middle English to Early Modern English 133
- Recent changes in spoken British English in verbal and nominal constructions 173
- “Oh yeah, one more thing: It’s gonna be huge.” 197
-
Refinements & innovations
- Retrieving Twitter argumentation with corpus queries and discourse analysis 229
- MuPDAR for corpus-based learner and variety studies 257
- A data-driven approach to finding significant changes in language use through time series analysis 285
- Index 319
