scholarly journals Methodological Considerations on the Design and Compilation of a Spanish Learner Corpus

10.29007/7vb1 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
An Vande Casteele ◽  
Kim Collewaert
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Data Collection ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Valid Data ◽  
Spanish Language Learners ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Selection Of

As a corpus is a representation of the linguistic reality, it is important to have homogeneous, quantifiable and valid data. This article aims at discussing the issue of elaborating a corpus of oral data from language learners of Spanish. We hereby do not merely focus on the data collection, but also on the difficulties that arise regarding the experimental design, the selection of the participants, the elaboration of a transcription model and the analysis of the data. The discussion will be based upon our own research project, for which oral samples from Spanish language learners of different proficiency levels have been collected in order to be analysed cross-sectionally. Furthermore, this article focuses on the oral experiment specifically designed for this project, similar to those of previous studies on similar subjects. Next to this, we will also discuss the procedure used for the transcription of the data and finally, a codification system will be elaborated.

Expanding lindsei to spoken learner English from several L1s across cefr levels

Corpora ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 271-285
Author(s):  
Lan-fen Huang ◽  
Tomáš Gráf
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
First Language ◽  
International Database ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Corpus Studies

Learner corpus studies typically investigate the language of second-language learners with a different first language (L1) or with proficiency levels inferred from external criteria (e.g., the Louvain International Database of Spoken English Interlanguage, lindsei; Gilquin et al., 2010 ). This paper reports the process of expanding the original Czech ( Gráf, 2017 ) and Taiwanese ( Huang, 2014 ) sub-corpora (predominantly at B2 and C1; Huang et al., 2018 ) with samples from learners of other L1s across cefr levels. In addition to sixty interviews by the German, Finnish and Norwegian lindsei teams, another eighty-three interviews with university students in Taiwan and Finland were held. The data collection and transcription procedures were adapted from lindsei guidelines to ensure comparability. Each fourteen-minute interview was anonymised using Audacity, and orthographically transcribed and aligned by means of exmaralda. The levels of speaking proficiency in the supplemented data were assessed by two expert raters. The expanded learner corpus, containing 243 interviews, will be of considerable value for studying the development of learner English.

Querying a Static and Dynamic Learner Corpus

2018 ◽  
pp. 494-511
Author(s):  
Trude Heift ◽  
Catherine Caws
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
User Group ◽  
Proficiency Levels ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Call System ◽  
L2 Learners ◽  
Activity Types ◽  
Cyclical Process

This chapter discusses the cyclical process of collecting and recycling learner data within the E-Tutor CALL system and presents a study on student usage of its data-driven learning (DDL) tool. E-Tutor consists of a static and dynamic learner corpus for L2 learners of German. The static learner corpus has been constructed from approximately 5000 learners who used the system over a period of five years. These learners provided millions of submissions from a variety of activity types. In addition, all concurrent E-Tutor users contribute data to a dynamic corpus, which allows them to compare and examine their ongoing system submissions to those contained in the static corpus. The authors conducted a study with 84 learners and recorded their interaction with the DDL tool of E-Tutor over one semester. Study results on student usage suggest that investigating sample input of a large, unknown user group might be less informative and of less interest to language learners than their own data. For the DDL tool to be useful for all proficiency levels, training and scaffolding must also be provided.

scholarly journals Grammatical predictions in Spanish–English bilinguals and Spanish-language learners.

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 907-925
Author(s):  
Guadalupe de los Santos ◽  
Julie E. Boland ◽  
Richard L. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Spanish Language Learners

scholarly journals Assessing the effectiveness of a web-based tutorial for interlanguage pragmatic development prior to studying abroad

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 69-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Russell ◽  
Camilla Vásquez
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
First Language ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Pragmatic Development ◽  
Studying Abroad ◽  
Development Data ◽  
Spanish Language Learners

This manuscript reports the results of a research study that investigated the effect of a web-based tutorial (WBT) on 13 Spanish language learners’ pragmatic development during the semester prior to studying abroad in Spain. Students who anticipate living abroad with a host family may be particularly motivated to acquire pragmatic competence in order to better assimilate into the target language culture. The WBT was designed to teach the speech acts of complaints and requests to Spanish language learners whose first language is English. The content in the WBT is based upon available empirical evidence at the time of development. Data were collected at pretest and posttest and the analysis employed a mixed methods approach. The results revealed that the WBT was more effective with intermediate- than with novice-level learners of Spanish. In addition, learners’ comprehension gains were greater than their production gains. In other words, learners improved in their ability to recognize appropriate pragmatic strategy use; however, they still had difficulty producing pragmatically appropriate features after completing the WBT. It is possible that pragmatic awareness may precede learners’ ability to use appropriate pragmatic strategies in their linguistic output.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Social Identity and Foreign Language Learning Motivation: The Sustainability of Heritage Language Learners

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 13102
Author(s):  
Luis Miguel Dos Santos
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
University Environment ◽  
Spanish Language Learners ◽  
The Relationship

This study aimed to explore the relationship between social identity and language learning motivations of a group of heritage Spanish language learners in a university environment in the United States. Based on the qualitative research inquiry with semi-structured interview and focus group activity tools, a group of 78 Spanish language learners in one university environment in the United States were surveyed. Under the open-coding and axial-coding techniques, the finding of this study indicated that the three main motivations were Latinx Americans with dual identities, interests in career development, and surrounding environments and individuals. Department heads, non-profit organisation managers, and researchers may use this study as the blueprint to reform and polish the current foreign language teaching and learning programmes, courses, and policies to meet the expectations of multilingualism.

scholarly journals Transitioning to emergency online teaching: The experience of Spanish language learners in a US university

System ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 102684
Author(s):  
Ana Ruiz-Alonso-Bartol ◽  
Diane Querrien ◽  
Shelley Dykstra ◽  
Paloma Fernández-Mira ◽  
Claudia Sánchez-Gutiérrez
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Spanish Language ◽  
Spanish Language Learners ◽  
Us University
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document