• Title/Summary/Keyword: Learners Corpus

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Identifying Key Grammatical Errors of Japanese English as a Foreign Language Learners in a Learner Corpus: Toward Focused Grammar Instruction with Data-Driven Learning

  • Atsushi Mizumoto;Yoichi Watari
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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    • v.4 no.1
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    • pp.25-42
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    • 2023
  • The number of studies on data-driven learning (DDL) has increased in recent years, and DDL's overall effectiveness as an L2 (second language) teaching methodology has been reported to be high. However, the degree of its effectiveness in grammar instruction, particularly for the goal of correcting errors in L2 writing, is still unclear. To provide guidelines for focused grammar instruction with DDL in the Japanese classroom setting, we aimed to identify the typical grammatical errors made by Japanese learners in the Cambridge Learner Corpus First Certificate in English (CLC FCE) dataset. The results revealed that three error types (nouns, articles, and prepositions) should be addressed in DDL grammar instruction for Japanese English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. In light of the findings, pedagogical implications and suggestions for future DDL research and practice are discussed.

A Study on the Use of Genitive Particle '의': Focusing on the analysis of Korean Learners Corpus (한국어 학습자의 관형격 조사 '의' 사용 양상 연구: 학습자 말뭉치 분석을 중심으로)

  • Ji-Young Sim;Soo-Hyun Lee
    • Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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    • v.26 no.3
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    • pp.433-442
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    • 2023
  • The purpose of this study is to reveal the Korean learners' usage pattern of '의', the genitive particle, according to semantic classification, so that it can be referred to in determining the contents and methods of related education. The method of this study adopts a quantitative analysis using learners corpus established by National Institute of Korean Language. As a result of the analysis, as proficiency increases, the overall frequency of '의' increases and the number of meaning senses used increases. However, the frequency of errors also increases with it. As for the usage pattern of each sense, the meaning of 'ownership, belonging' is the most frequent, and followed by 'acting entity', 'kinship, social relations', and 'relationship(area)'. In conclusion, the meanings of 'acting subjects' and 'relationships(area) need to be supplemented with explicit education. Other meanings need to be discussed, and decisions should be made in consideration of learning purpose and proficiency.

Formulaic Language Development in Asian Learners of English: A Comparative Study of Phrase-frames in Written and Oral Production

  • Yoon Namkung;Ute Romer
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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    • v.4 no.2
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    • pp.1-39
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    • 2023
  • Recent research in usage-based Second Language Acquisition has provided new insights into second language (L2) learners' development of formulaic language (Wulff, 2019). The current study examines the use of phrase-frames, which are recurring sequences of words including one or more variable slots (e.g., it is * that), in written and oral production data from Asian learners of English across four proficiency levels (beginner, low-intermediate, high-intermediate, advanced) and native English speakers. The variability, predictability, and discourse functions of the most frequent 4-word phrase-frames from the written essay and spoken dialogue sub-corpora of the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE) were analyzed and then compared across groups and modes. The results revealed that while learners' phrase-frames in writing became more variable and unpredictable as proficiency increased, no clear developmental patterns were found in speaking, although all groups used more fixed and predictable phrase-frames than the reference group. Further, no developmental trajectories in the functions of the most frequent phrase-frames were found in both modes. Additionally, lower-level learners and the reference group used more variable phrase-frames in speaking, whereas advanced-level learners showed more variability in writing. This study contributes to a better understanding of the development of L2 phraseological competence.

Modal Auxiliary Verbs in Japanese EFL Learners' Conversation: A Corpus-based Study

  • Nakayama, Shusaku
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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    • v.2 no.1
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    • pp.23-34
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    • 2021
  • This research examines Japanese non-native speakers' (JNNS) modal auxiliary verb use from two different perspectives: frequency of use and preferences for modalities. Additionally, error analysis is carried out to identify errors in modal use common among JNNSs. Their modal use is compared to that of English native speakers within a spoken dialogue corpus which is part of the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners' English. Research findings show at a statistically significant level that when compared to native speakers, JNNSs underuse past forms of modals and infrequently convey epistemic modality, indicating the possibility that JNNSs fail to express their opinions or thoughts indirectly when needed or to convey politeness appropriately. Error analysis identifies the following three types of common errors: (1) the use of incorrect tenses of modal verb phrases, (2) the use of inflected verb forms after modals, and (3) the non-use of main verbs after modals. The first type of error is largely because JNNSs do not master how to express past meanings of modals. The second and third types of errors seem to be due to first language transfer into second language acquisition and JNNSs' overgeneralization of the subject-verb agreement rules to modals respectively.

Compilation of the Yonsei English Learner Corpus (YELC) 2011 and Its Use for Understanding Current Usage of English by Korean Pre-university Students (한국 예비 대학생의 영어 사용 특성 파악을 위한 대규모 공개 영어 학습자 코퍼스 구축 및 분석)

  • Rhee, Seok-Chae;Jung, Chae Kwan
    • The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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    • v.14 no.11
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    • pp.1019-1029
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    • 2014
  • In recent years, researchers have become increasingly interested in the creation and pedagogical use of English learner corpora. Many studies have shown that learner corpora can not only make a significant contribution to second language acquisition research but also contribute to the construction and evaluation of language tests by advancing our understanding of English learners. So far, however, little attention has been paid to the Korean EFL (English as a foreign language) learners' corpus. The Yonsei English Learner Corpus (YELC 2011) is a specialized, monolingual, and synchronic Korean EFL learner corpus that was developed by Yonsei University from 2011 to 2012. Over 3,000 Korean high school graduates (or equivalents) who were accepted by Yonsei University for their further studies participated in this project. It consists of 6,572 written texts (1,085,828 words) at nine different English proficiency levels. In this paper, we describe its compilation, and more specifically, how we have corpusized from a text archive to a corpus. After introducing the process of corpusization, we report arresting insights into the specific linguistic features that different proficiency levels of Korean learners of English have. This study also discusses the potential use of the YELC 2011 which is now freely available for research purposes.

A Corpus-Based Analysis of Crosslinguistic Influence on the Acquisition of Concessive Conditionals in L2 English

  • Newbery-Payton, Laurence
    • Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research
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    • v.3 no.1
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    • pp.35-49
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    • 2022
  • This study examines crosslinguistic influence on the use of concessive conditionals by Japanese EFL learners. Contrastive analysis suggests that Japanese native speakers may overuse the concessive conditional even if due to partial similarities to Japanese concessive conditionals, whose formal and semantic restrictions are fewer than those of English concessive conditionals. This hypothesis is tested using data from the written module of the International Corpus Network of Asian Learners of English (ICNALE). Comparison of Japanese native speakers with English native speakers and Chinese native speakers reveals the following trends. First, Japanese native speakers tend to overuse concessive conditionals compared to native speakers, while similar overuse is not observed in Chinese native speaker data. Second, non-nativelike uses of even if appear in contexts allowing the use of concessive conditionals in Japanese. Third, while overuse and infelicitous use of even if is observed at all proficiency levels, formal errors are restricted to learners at lower proficiency levels. These findings suggest that crosslinguistic influence does occur in the use of concessive conditionals, and that its particular realization is affected by L2 proficiency, with formal crosslinguistic influence mediated at an earlier stage than semantic cross-linguistic influence.

The effects of corpus-based vocabulary tasks on high school students' English vocabulary learning and attitude (코퍼스를 기반으로 한 어휘 과제가 고등학생의 영어 어휘 학습과 태도에 미치는 영향)

  • Lee, Hyun Jin;Lee, Eun-Joo
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.16 no.4
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    • pp.239-265
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    • 2010
  • This study investigates the effects of corpus-based vocabulary tasks on the acquisition of English vocabulary in an attempt to explore the influence of corpus use on EFL pedagogy. For this to be realized, a total of 40 Korean high school students participated in the study over a 4-week period. An experimental group used a set of corpus-based tasks for vocabulary learning, whereas a control group carried out a traditional task (i.e., the L1-L2 translation) for vocabulary learning. To assess learning gains, the students were asked to complete the pre- and post-treatment tests measuring the word form, meaning, and use aspects of target lexical items. Results of the study indicate that in the experimental group the corpus-based vocabulary tasks were beneficial for the learning of word forms and use. In particular, corpus-based benefits were greatest in the low-proficiency EFL learners' collocational aspects of vocabulary use. On the other hand, in the control group, the traditional vocabulary tasks benefited the meaning aspects of target vocabulary items the most. In addition, survey results revealed that most students were positive about the corpus-based learning experience although some expressed reservations about the heavy cognitive load and the time-consuming nature of the analysis of corpus data primarily due to learners' lack of language proficiency.

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A Corpus-based Lexical Analysis of the Speech Texts: A Collocational Approach

  • Kim, Nahk-Bohk
    • English Language & Literature Teaching
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    • v.15 no.3
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    • pp.151-170
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    • 2009
  • Recently speech texts have been increasingly used for English education because of their various advantages as language teaching and learning materials. The purpose of this paper is to analyze speech texts in a corpus-based lexical approach, and suggest some productive methods which utilize English speaking or writing as the main resource for the course, along with introducing the actual classroom adaptations. First, this study shows that a speech corpus has some unique features such as different selections of pronouns, nouns, and lexical chunks in comparison to a general corpus. Next, from a collocational perspective, the study demonstrates that the speech corpus consists of a wide variety of collocations and lexical chunks which a number of linguists describe (Lewis, 1997; McCarthy, 1990; Willis, 1990). In other words, the speech corpus suggests that speech texts not only have considerable lexical potential that could be exploited to facilitate chunk-learning, but also that learners are not very likely to unlock this potential autonomously. Based on this result, teachers can develop a learners' corpus and use it by chunking the speech text. This new approach of adapting speech samples as important materials for college students' speaking or writing ability should be implemented as shown in samplers. Finally, to foster learner's productive skills more communicatively, a few practical suggestions are made such as chunking and windowing chunks of speech and presentation, and the pedagogical implications are discussed.

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Speech Corpus for Korean as a Foreign Language and the Aspects of the Foreign Learners' Acquisition of the Phonetic and Phonological Systems in the Korean Language (외국어로서의 한국어 음성 코퍼스 구축과 이를 통한 외국인의 한국어 음성${\cdot}$음운체계 습득 양상 연구)

  • Rhee, Seok-Chae;Kim, Jeong-Ah;Chang, Chae-Woong
    • Proceedings of the KSPS conference
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    • 2005.04a
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    • pp.29-33
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    • 2005
  • This study aims to establish a speech corpus for Korean as a foreign language (L2 Korean Speech Corpus, L2KSC) and to examine the aspects of the foreign learners acquisition of the phonetic and phonological systems in the Korean Language. In the first year of this project, L2KSC will be established through the process of reading list organizing, recording, and slicing, and the second year includes an in-depth study of the aspects of foreign learners Korean acquisition and a contrastive analysis of phonetic and phonological systems. The expectation is that this project will provide significant bases for a variety of fields such as Korean education, academic research, and technological development of phonetic information.

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Studying the frequencies of sentence pattern for a entence patterns dictionary (문형 사전을 위한 문형 빈도 조사)

  • Kim Yu-Mi
    • Korean Journal of Cognitive Science
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    • v.16 no.2
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    • pp.123-140
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    • 2005
  • The purpose of this paper is to examine the frequency and usage of sentence patterns appearing in electronic dictionaries used in Korean language education in order to design an automatic sentence patterns checking. First, the concept of sentence patterns is defined and it is classified into sentence structure patterns and sentencial expression patterns. Sentence structure patterns and sentencial expression patterns are analyzed how they are expressed in the Korean Learner's Corpus. learner's Corpus is built into the Standard Corpus, which all Korean Learners must learn, and the Errors Corpus made by learners. From these research, we will find out how frequently the Sentential Patterns are being used in the Standard Corpus which has been made of Korean Texts and how the Sentential Pattern are being used in the Errors Corpus which were constructed from Korean learner's writings. Finally, having described the Sentential Patterns on the Sentential Electric Dictionary, we determine the optimum speed in the search for the Sentential Pattern.

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