Complexity and qualitative lexical knowledge
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Albert Biel
Abstract
This paper presents research that investigates differences in the use of the high-frequency verb TAKE between German learners of English and American English native speakers. This study examined 724 instances of TAKE and their respective lexical-syntactic structures in the German part of the ICLE and a comparable American English speaker corpus (LOCNESS). The sentences are classified according to a framework of complexity of lexical-syntactic structures adopted from Liu and Shaw (2001). The results of this research suggest that there are no significant differences in usage between both groups. The general conception that non-native speakers overuse simple verbs due to restricted vocabulary does not hold true for TAKE in the German learner data in this study.
Abstract
This paper presents research that investigates differences in the use of the high-frequency verb TAKE between German learners of English and American English native speakers. This study examined 724 instances of TAKE and their respective lexical-syntactic structures in the German part of the ICLE and a comparable American English speaker corpus (LOCNESS). The sentences are classified according to a framework of complexity of lexical-syntactic structures adopted from Liu and Shaw (2001). The results of this research suggest that there are no significant differences in usage between both groups. The general conception that non-native speakers overuse simple verbs due to restricted vocabulary does not hold true for TAKE in the German learner data in this study.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
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Section I. New learner corpora and tools
- The Trinity Lancaster Corpus 7
- To automated generation of test questions on the basis of error annotations in EFL essays 29
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Section II. Written learner corpora and language teaching
- Complexity and qualitative lexical knowledge 51
- Cohesion or coesione ? 75
- Researching learner language through POS keyword and syntactic complexity analyses 101
- Direct quotation in second language writing 129
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Section III. Spoken learner corpora and language teaching
- Comparing errors across an L2 spoken and written error-tagged Japanese EFL learner corpus 157
- Speech rate revisited 175
- English intonation of advanced learners 191
- The use of smallwords in the speech of German learners of English 219
-
Section IV. Learner corpora and language teacher education
- Integrating corpus literacy into language teacher education 245
- Subject index 265
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Section I. New learner corpora and tools
- The Trinity Lancaster Corpus 7
- To automated generation of test questions on the basis of error annotations in EFL essays 29
-
Section II. Written learner corpora and language teaching
- Complexity and qualitative lexical knowledge 51
- Cohesion or coesione ? 75
- Researching learner language through POS keyword and syntactic complexity analyses 101
- Direct quotation in second language writing 129
-
Section III. Spoken learner corpora and language teaching
- Comparing errors across an L2 spoken and written error-tagged Japanese EFL learner corpus 157
- Speech rate revisited 175
- English intonation of advanced learners 191
- The use of smallwords in the speech of German learners of English 219
-
Section IV. Learner corpora and language teacher education
- Integrating corpus literacy into language teacher education 245
- Subject index 265
