The papers brought together in this volume explore, through corpus data, the link between contrastive and interlanguage analysis. Learner corpora are approached from a contrastive perspective, by comparing them with native corpora or corpus data produced by learners from other mother tongue backgrounds, or by combining them with contrastive data from multilingual (translation or comparable) corpora. The integration of these two frameworks, contrastive and learner corpus research, makes it possible to highlight crucial aspects of learner production, such as features of non-nativeness (errors, over- and underuse, unidiomatic expressions), including universal features of interlanguage, or more general issues like the question of transfer. The ten papers of this volume cover topics ranging from methodology to syntax (e.g. adverb placement, postverbal subjects), through lexis (collocations) and discourse (e.g. information packaging, thematic choice). The languages examined include English, Chinese, Dutch, French and Spanish. The book will be of interest to a wide array of readers, especially researchers in second language acquisition and contrastive linguistics, but also professionals working in foreign language teaching, such as language teachers, materials writers and language testers.

The origins of learner corpus research go back to the late 1980s when large electronic collections of written or spoken data started to be collected from foreign/second language learners, with a view to advancing our understanding of the mechanisms of second language acquisition and developing tailor-made pedagogical tools. Engaging with the interdisciplinary nature of this fast-growing field, The Cambridge Handbook of Learner Corpus Research explores the diverse and extensive applications of learner corpora, with 27 chapters written by internationally renowned experts. This comprehensive work is a vital resource for students, teachers and researchers, offering fresh perspectives and a unique overview of the field. With representative studies in each chapter which provide an essential guide on how to conduct learner corpus research in a wide range of areas, this work is a cutting-edge account of learner corpus collection, annotation, methodology, theory, analysis and applications.

This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of current research and developments on the use of learner corpora perceived from developmental and crosslinguistic perspectives. The book is divided into two parts. The eleven contributions of Part I investigate the development of English language skills of young learners across seven countries/regions on the basis of a new corpus resource called the International Corpus of Crosslinguistic Interlanguage (ICCI). Part II contains seven papers devoted to other varieties of learner corpora, especially spoken learner corpora and learner corpora of languages other than English. Presenting original research in corpus linguistics, this book will be of interest to researchers and postgraduates in the fields of learner corpus research and second language acquisition and those who wish to apply corpus methodology in teaching and learning. For sale in all countries except Japan. For customers in Japan: please contact Yushodo Co.

The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Corpora is a state-of-the-art collection of cutting-edge scholarship at the intersection of second language acquisition and learner corpus research. It draws on data-driven, statistical analysis to outline the background, methods, and outcomes of language learning, with a range of global experts providing detailed guidelines and findings. The volume is organized into five sections: Methodological and theoretical contributions to the study of learner language using corpora – setting the scene Key aspects in corpus design, annotation, and analysis for SLA Corpora in SLA theory and practice SLA constructs and corpora Future directions This is a ground-breaking collection of essays offering incisive and essential reading for anyone with an interest in second language acquisition, learner corpus research, and applied linguistics.

This volume brings together concrete ideas on identifying and measuring second language (L2) proficiency from different branches of SLA. The chapters introduce a range of tools for the evaluation of learners' language level with respect to both productive and receptive skills and provide a variety of answers to the question of how to assess L2 proficiency in a valid, reliable and practical manner.

Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition “With its cornucopia of information, both thorough and practical, this book is a must for our methodology shelves. Its study questions and project suggestions will be a boon for many research methods courses.” Robert M. DeKeysevr, University of Maryland “This guide to collecting, coding and analyzing second language acquisition data will be an essential reference for novice and experienced researchers alike.” Peter Robinson, Aoyama Gakuin University “Comprehensive and technically up-to-date, yet accessible and cogent! This remarkable textbook is sure to become a premier choice for the research training of many future SLA generations.” Lourdes Ortega, University of Hawaii “Alison Mackey and Susan Gass’ valuable new book offers hands-on methodological guidance from established experts on all kinds of second language research.” Michael H. Long, University of Maryland Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition: A Practical Guide is an informative guide to research design and methodology in this growing and vibrant field. Utilizing research methods and tools from varied fields of study including education, linguistics, psychology, and sociology, this collection offers complete coverage of the techniques of second language acquisition research. This guide covers a variety of topics, such as second language writing and reading, meta-analyses, research replication, qualitative data collection and analysis, and more. Each chapter of this volume offers background, step-by-step guidance, and relevant studies to create comprehensive coverage of each method. This carefully selected and edited volume will be a useful text for graduate students and scholars looking to keep pace with the latest research projects and methodologies in second language acquisition.

The aim of this volume is to highlight the benefits and potential of using learner corpora for the testing and assessment of L2 proficiency in both speaking and writing, reflecting the growing importance of learner corpora in applied linguistics and second language acquisition research. Identifying several desiderata for future research and practice, the volume presents a selection of original studies, covering a variety of different languages. It features studies that present very thoroughly compiled new corpus resources which are tailor-made and ready for analysis in LTA, new tools for the automatic assessment of proficiency levels, and new methods of (self-)assessment with the help of learner corpora. Other studies suggest innovative research methodologies of how proficiency can be operationalized through learner corpus data. The volume is of particular interest to researchers in (applied) corpus linguistics, learner corpus research, language testing and assessment, as well as for materials developers and language teachers.

This book examines delexical verb + noun collocations such as make a decision, give rise to and take care of in Swedish and Chinese learner English. Using a methodological framework that combines learner corpus research with a contrastive perspective, the study is one of the very few in the field to incorporate corpora of the learner’s L1 to investigate the effects of L1 influence. The book provides a highly detailed and multi-faceted analysis of delexical verb + noun collocations in terms of frequency of occurrence, lexical preferences and morphosyntactic patterns. Quantitative and qualitative results on overuse, underuse and errors are presented with linguistically and pedagogically relevant interpretations that include cultural and discourse aspects. More importantly, the book throws light on how L2 learners may alternate between the open-choice principle and the idiom principle as well as the extent and nature of L1 influence on their collocational use.

Corpora and Language Education critically examines key concepts and issues in corpus linguistics, with a particular focus on the expanding interdisciplinary nature of the field and the role that written and spoken corpora now play in the fields of professional communication, teacher education, translation studies, lexicography, literature, critical discourse analysis, and forensic linguistics. The book also presents a series of corpus-based case studies illustrating central themes and best practices in the field.

This book is a critical appraisal of recent developments in corpus linguistics for the analysis of written and spoken learner data. The twelve papers cover an introductory critical appraisal of learner corpus data compilation and development (section 1); issues in data compilation, annotation and exchangeability (section 2); automatic approaches to data identification and analysis (section 3); and analysis of learner corpus data in the light of recent models of data analysis and interpretation, especially recent automatic approaches for the identification of learner language features (section 4). This collection is aimed at students and researchers of corpus linguistics, second language acquisition studies and quantitative linguistics. It will significantly advance learner corpus research in terms of methodological innovation and will fill in an important gap in the development of multidisciplinary approaches (for learner corpus studies).