The development of formulaic sequences in first and second language writing

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Brook O'Donnell ◽  
Ute Römer ◽  
Nick C. Ellis

Formulaic sequences are recognised as having important roles in language acquisition, processing, fluency, idiomaticity, and instruction. But there is little agreement over their definition and measurement, or on methods of corpus comparison. We argue that replicable research must be grounded upon operational definitions in statistical terms. We adopt an experimental design and apply four different corpus-analytic measures, variously based upon n-gram frequency (Frequency-grams), association (MI-grams), phrase-frames (P-frames), and native norm (items in the Academic Formulas List – AFL-grams), to samples of first and second language writing in order to examine and compare knowledge of formulas in first and second language acquisition as a function of proficiency and language background. We find that these different operationalizations produce different patterns of effect of expertise and L1/L2 status. We consider the implications for corpus design and methods of analysis.

Author(s):  
Hanna Sundari ◽  
Rina Husnaini Febriyanti

Development of child language is tremendously complex, remarkable and wondrous. In a second language acquisition context, a child can acquire his second language in either acquiring both languages at the same time or learning the second language after mastering the first one. This present research is concerned to describe the syntactical development particularly for second language writing of an eight-year old child who has experienced immersion abroad for one year in L2-speaking country. The participant is an eight-year old child from Jakarta Indonesia who has experienced immersion environment in Australia for one year. The research will be carried out qualitative naturalistic research design. Not less than 38 documents of participant’s paperwork during her school year were then collected, grouped and analysed. From the findings, it is known that morphological processes on L2 such as affixes and verb changes have emerged. Meanwhile, the findings also show the development on morphemic, phrasal and sentential level on acquiring L2. Some morphemes have been acquired such as the suffix, the changing of verb, the -ing form. Moreover, post-noun prepositional phrases are the most emerged phrases. On sentential level, active declarative sentences are the most frequently appeared. However, some errors and inconsistency also occur indicating the development of her second language.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-139
Author(s):  
Ehsan Abbaspour

Whether corrective feedback is effective in L2 writing has always been a controversial issue among Second Language Acquisition (SLA) scholars despite a vast body of research investigating the issue. This conflict is rooted in the fact that different researchers subscribe to different theories of SLA which are at times contradictory in nature. The present article reviews and investigates major SLA theories with respect to their views and stance toward the efficacy of Written Corrective Feedback (WCF) and error correction in second language writing. Many of these theories do not address the role of corrective feedback explicitly or merely focus on the role of oral feedback. Polio (2012) and Bitchener and Ferris (2012) have partially investigated the issue at stake reviewing a number of SLA theories. In this study, however, attempt is made to shed light on the role of WCF especially in the theories which are not directly concerned with L2 writing.


Author(s):  
Sarah DeCapua

In this quantitative inquiry, instead of gathering data to answer a research question, the author developed a research question based on the data she gathered. As the author explored the answers the Chinese international students in her first-year writing seminar course provided on a second language background skills assessment, she became curious about what their answers revealed about their identities. Data collected consisted of 165 English skills assessments completed by her second language writing students over four semesters, from Fall 2018 to Spring 2020. The skills assessed were speaking, listening, reading, writing, and grammar. Partial results indicated that the students assessed their speaking, listening, reading, and grammar skills as average; they assessed their writing skills as poor. The author explored the possible reasons behind the students' self-assessments and how the students' identities were expressed through their answers.


1997 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 499-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlene Polio ◽  
Susan Gass

In this paper we address the need for replication studies in the field of second language acquisition and discuss the problems surrounding standards of reporting research. A particular focus is on the level of detail necessary for replication to take place. The lack of uniform standards is noted with specific examples of problematic reporting taken from descriptions of second language learners' proficiency levels and measures of linguistic accuracy in second language writing research. We propose ways that we believe will lead to more thorough reporting of research and that will therefore allow others to engage in replication.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fiona Hyland

This article provides an overview of the contributions made to this special issue on feedback by the seven papers, examining how they reflect both the growing interest in different areas of research into feedback on writing and the continuing search by teachers for more effective feedback practices. Focusing first on the papers by Van Beuningen, Storch, Evans, Hartshorn and Allen, it discusses how these papers situate written corrective feedback research in the wider area of second language acquisition research and contribute to the debate in feedback research on research design issues. This is followed by an examination of the major findings of the four situated empirical studies by Bitchener, Ma, El-ebyary and Windeatt, and Martinez and Roca, which make up the second section. Echoing the authors of these papers, this article argues that we need more longitudinal naturalistic studies, adopting both cognitive and socio-cultural SLA frameworks to investigate the role of feedback and its impact on individual learners in more depth. Finally some pedagogic implications are discussed, including the need for feedback practices which facilitate students’ abilities to self regulate and evaluate their performance, and the need to raise teachers’ awareness of the different feedback sources and modes of delivery available to them.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Abbas Mustafa Abbas ◽  
Hogar Mohammed Tawfeeq

The effectiveness of providing Corrective Feedback (CF) on L2 writing has long been a matter of considerable debate. A growing body of research has been conducted to investigate the value of various types of CF on improving grammatical accuracy in the writing of English as a second or foreign language. This article is mainly concerned with the role of Corrective Feedback (CF) in developing the L2 writers’ ability to produce an accurate text, and argues that CF is considered to be one of the fundamental techniques in teaching second language (L2) writing. Bearing this in mind, it attempts to maintain the effectiveness of CF on the L2 students’ abilities to develop the accuracy of their written output. This topic has recently produced a significant interest among both teachers and researchers in the areas of L2 writing and second language acquisition. A key issue to be addressed is the degree to which CF effectively helps the second language writers obtain long-term accuracy. Currently, the author of this paper has been conducting a PhD study on the effect of direct and indirect corrective feedback on the academic writing accuracy of Kurdish EFL university students, and the data was collected from writing testing samples (pre-test, post-test and delayed post-test) produced by105 undergraduate students of English department from two public universities. The results could be obtained from the study should have important implications for L2 writing practitioners and researchers.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document