| Asia Pacific Journal of Corpus Research Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 1-39 |
| Abbreviation: APJCR |
| e-ISSN: 2733-8096 |
| Publication date: 31 December 2023 |
| Received: 15 October 2023 / Received in Revised Form: 16 November 2023 / Accepted: 8 December 2023 |
| DOI: https://doi.org/10.22925/apjcr.2023.4.2.1
|
Formulaic language development in Asian learners of English: A comparative study of phrase-frames in written and oral production |
| Yoon Namkung (Georgia State University), USA; Ute Römer (Georgia State University), USA |
| Copyright 2023 APJCR
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Abstract |
| 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. |
Keywords |
| Usage-based SLA, Phraseological Competence, Phrase-frames, Learner Corpora, English as a Foreign/Second Language |
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The Authors |
| Yoon Namkung is a PhD student in the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State University. Her primary research interests include the role of technology in second language development, task-based language teaching (TBLT), phraseology, and second language pragmatics.
Ute Römer is a Professor in the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State University. Her primary research areas include corpus linguistics, phraseology, usage-based second language acquisition, academic discourse analysis, and the application of corpora in language learning and teaching. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of academic journals (including the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, and Corpora) and is General Editor of the book series Studies in Corpus Linguistics (John Benjamins). |
The Authors’ Addresses |
| First and Corresponding Author Yoon Namkung PhD Student Department of Applied Linguistics & ESL Georgia State University 25 Park Place NE, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA E-mail: ynamkung1@gsu.edu Co-author
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