scholarly journals PHRASEOLOGY IN LEARNER ACADEMIC ENGLISH: CORPUS-DRIVEN APPROACHES

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-88
Author(s):  
Markéta Malá
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Lexical Bundles ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Comprehensive Picture

The paper combines learner corpus research with contrastive analysis to test the applicability of corpus-driven methods to the study of phraseology in learner academic English. It explores phraseological patterns in English L2 academic texts written by Czech university students in comparison with English L1 novice and expert writing. Three corpus-driven approaches are employed: frequency lists, keywords and lexical bundles. The results indicate that a combination of corpus-driven methods can indeed serve as an effective starting point for the contrastive study of phraseology, highlighting potentialareas of under- and overuse of multi-word patterns in English L2 novice academic texts. However, in order to give a more comprehensive picture of learner academic English, quantitative methods have to be combined with qualitative contrastive analysis.

scholarly journals Reflexive metadiscourse in a corpus of Spanish bachelor dissertations in EFL

2018 ◽  
pp. 29-49
Author(s):  
Noelia Navarro Gil
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Research Articles ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Writing Culture ◽  
The One ◽  
High Degree ◽  
And Linguistics

Academic English has often been described as a reader-oriented discourse, in which the structure, objectives and claims are made explicit and carefully framed. Metadiscourse markers help to build coherence and cohesion, and allow writers to guide their readership through their texts. Spanish EFL learners often transfer part of their L1 writing culture into their L2 texts. This is problematic because academic Spanish tends to show a slightly more reader-responsible style, and academic texts call for a high degree of disciplinarity: learners not only have to be aware of the conventions of the L2 regarding metadiscourse, but also of their own discipline. This article explores the use of reflexive metadiscourse in a learner corpus of bachelor dissertations written in English by Spanish undergraduates in medicine and linguistics, and compares the results with an expert corpus of research articles. The results show that overall both corpora contain similar frequencies of textual metadiscourse, but this is only true when we look at the results according to discipline. In spite of this quantitative similarity, there are cases of overuse and underuse in the learner corpus that highlight features of the bachelor dissertations genre, on the one hand, and EFL Spanish writing, on the other hand.

scholarly journals Authentic Materials – A Natural Resource for Developing Academic English

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Jana Bére-ová
Keyword(s):  
University Students ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Target Language ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Authentic Materials ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
Target Culture

The approach to language learning as a way of coming to understand target culture and its impact on target language is reflected in the concept of teaching and learning languages through the integration of intercultural capabilities. The concept will be supported by a number of examples taken from authentic materials language learners have encountered in target language contexts, predominantly gaining experience through reading authentic materials. The paper presents the ideas of university students who carried out their own projects within and after research run by Trnava University, the representatives of which actively participated in a three-year project, supported by the VEGA funding scheme under number 1/0106/15. Twenty-two students who participated in our experiment were asked to analyze formal English in its written mode, searching for characteristic features of formal writing, used in contemporary English. After the completion of the first task related to the selection of appropriate samples, the students were expected to compare the quality of authentic materials received through technologies and that achieved from reading contemporary literary prose, newspapers and academic texts. The idea behind this task was to help university students to be able to critically assess other people’s ideas and arguments, to apply critical thinking when reading, to evaluate authentic materials and to achieve the ability to construct effective arguments in formal writing.

The Word Class Adjective in English Business Magazines Online

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-115
Author(s):  
Borislav Marušić ◽  
Sanda Katavić-Čaušić
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Study ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Word Formation ◽  
Word Class ◽  
Business English ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
English Syntax ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Insight Into

Abstract The aim of this paper is to research the word class adjective in one sequence of the ESP: Business English, more precisely English business magazines online. It is an empirical study on the corpus taken from a variety of business magazines online. The empirical analysis allows a comprehensive insight into the word class adjective in this variety of Business English and makes its contribution to English syntax, semantics and word formation. The syntactic part analyses the adjective position in the sentence. The semantic part of the study identifies the most common adjectives that appear in English business magazines online. Most of the analysis is devoted to the word formation of the adjectives found in the corpus. The corpus is analysed in such a way that it enables its division into compounds, derivatives and conversions. The results obtained in this way will give a comprehensive picture of the word class adjective in this type of Business English and can act as a starting point for further research of the word class adjective.

scholarly journals Negotiating Quality for Social Work: A Participatory Research Project in South Tyrol

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 505-514
Author(s):  
Walter A. Lorenz ◽  
Silvia Fargion ◽  
Urban Nothdurfter ◽  
Andrea Nagy ◽  
Elisabeth Berger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Social Services ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Work Practice ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Social Work Practice ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
South Tyrol ◽  
Starting Point

Purpose: The measurement of quality in social work practice has become an area of growing interest and relevance in the social services field. Our starting point is that quality in interventions with human beings has to be defined in ways that incorporate the multiple perspectives of all the subjects involved. Methods: The study, adopting qualitative and quantitative methods, explored issues of quality in social services provision in South Tyrol in Italy from the point of view of the main stakeholders. Results: It was possible to identify four dimensions of quality that stakeholders considered important: the political role of practitioners, the ability to take an active role in the organization, the capacity to connect with other professionals, and the quality of direct relationships with users. Conclusions: Results provide an understanding of the common and differing expectations evident in stakeholders’ perspectives and ideas for better quality systems

scholarly journals Applying Corpus Data to Define Needs in Web Localization Training

2012 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 998-1021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel ángel Jiménez-Crespo ◽  
Maribel Tercedor
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
The Other ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Learner Corpus ◽  
Text Types ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
University Level ◽  
The One ◽  
Insight Into

Localization is increasingly making its way into translation training programs at university level. However, there is still a scarce amount of empirical research addressing issues such as defining localization in relation to translation, what localization competence entails or how to best incorporate intercultural differences between digital genres, text types and conventions, among other aspects. In this paper, we propose a foundation for the study of localization competence based upon previous research on translation competence. This project was developed following an empirical corpus-based contrastive study of student translations (learner corpus), combined with data from a comparable corpus made up of an original Spanish corpus and a Spanish localized corpus. The objective of the study is to identify differences in production between digital texts localized by students and professionals on the one hand, and original texts on the other. This contrastive study allows us to gain insight into how localization competence interrelates with the superordinate concept of translation competence, thus shedding light on which aspects need to be addressed during localization training in university translation programs.

scholarly journals Morpho-syntactic variations in English and Spanish clipped words: a contrastive study

2018 ◽  
Vol 134 (3) ◽  
pp. 734-760
Author(s):  
Félix Rodríguez González ◽  
José A. Sánchez Fajardo
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Contrastive Analysis ◽  
Contrastive Study ◽  
Syntactic Features ◽  
Functional Motivations

Abstract Clipping and linguistic variation are inexorably interconnected. Shortened or elliptical words reflect a great deal of variability of the language, especially in the morphological and phonological levels. The object of this study is precisely to explore the phono-graphemic and grammatical variations occurred in the visible changes undergone by clipped words in Spanish and English. A contrastive analysis of this type reveals both expectedly different correspondences in terms of gender and number, and surprisingly parallel lexico-syntactic features. This suggests that clipped or elliptical units are not only necessarily dependent on intrinsic morpho-grammatical and phonological traits, but they are also characterized by regularities and universal patterns that might show disruptive or “corrupted” constructs. This analysis confirms the peculiarities of clipping and linguistic variations in both languages, in an attempt to comprehend the interconnection between functional motivations, and morphological and phonological changes.

scholarly journals Academic English as a Component of Curriculum For ESL Students (Foreign Experience)

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
Olesia Sadovets
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Active Listening ◽  
Academic English ◽  
Esl Students ◽  
Work Requirements ◽  
Academic Texts ◽  
The Usa

AbstractIt has been substantiated that Academic English must be an integral component of ESL students’ study at foreign languages departments to achieve success as professionals and be ready to realize themselves in a demanding world of today. We have defined the main problem on the way to it, namely the insufficient provision of the Academic English discipline in curricula of foreign language departments or its absence. The necessity to elaborate a syllabus for Academic English discipline being taught throughout all the course of study has been substantiated. Educational programs of Academic English in a number of foreign educational establishments of Great Britain, the USA, Canada and Australia have been analyzed and their defining features have been outlined. Strategies and conditions for effective teaching of Academic English have been characterized. It has been defined that in general, in spite of slight differences in the topics covered by different EAP programs, all of them are aimed at: developing strategies and vocabulary for reading and understanding academic texts; finding, understanding, describing and evaluating information for academic purposes; developing active listening and effective note-taking skills; building on language skills to describe problems and cause-and-effect; gathering a range of information, using the skills learned, to integrate it into a written report; engaging in peer-to-peer feedback before finalising one’s piece of academic work. Requirements for students’ achievements at the end of the course have been determined. As a basis for Academic English syllabus elaboration has been chosen a course by M. Hewings and C. Thaine (upper-intermediate and advanced levels). On its basis we have defined units to be covered by the course as well as skills to be developed. Recommendations as to better and more efficient teaching of the discipline have been outlined.

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