John Benjamins Publishing Company
Researching learner language through POS keyword and syntactic complexity analyses
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Abstract
In this paper, we explore the affordances of two different research methods that may be instrumental in analysing learner language complexity: standard corpus linguistics methodology and automatic syntactic complexity analysers. Our results suggest that POS keyword analysis and automatic syntactic analysis are both effective for the identification of linguistic features at different levels of development in instructed SLA. In particular, countable nouns, prepositional phrases, verbs and general adverbs are criterial features that define the transition from lower to higher secondary school language learning in the Spanish component of the ICCI corpus. We suggest that the analysis of complexity in noun phrases is of great interest for researchers and teachers in terms of identifying development milestones in language acquisition.
Abstract
In this paper, we explore the affordances of two different research methods that may be instrumental in analysing learner language complexity: standard corpus linguistics methodology and automatic syntactic complexity analysers. Our results suggest that POS keyword analysis and automatic syntactic analysis are both effective for the identification of linguistic features at different levels of development in instructed SLA. In particular, countable nouns, prepositional phrases, verbs and general adverbs are criterial features that define the transition from lower to higher secondary school language learning in the Spanish component of the ICCI corpus. We suggest that the analysis of complexity in noun phrases is of great interest for researchers and teachers in terms of identifying development milestones in language acquisition.
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
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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
