Phraseological complexity in EFL learners’ spoken production across proficiency levels

This study explores phraseological complexity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners’ spoken production across proficiency levels in the Trinity Lancaster Corpus. Phraseological diversity and sophistication are operationalized as root type-token ratios and median mutual information scores of verb + object co-occurrences respectively. Results draw a complex picture of phraseological complexity in EFL learners’ oral performance, with phraseological diversity increasing on the whole and phraseological sophistication decreasing significantly from B1 to B2. These findings can at least partly be explained by the fact that, unlike EFL learners at B1, EFL learners at B2 and above repeat fewer combinations, try more and use more specific vocabulary, which sometimes leads to less idiomatic combinations that should nevertheless be considered as traces of qualitative development

Collocation Graphs and Networks:Selected Applications

This chapter discusses the notion of collocation graphs and networks, which not only represent visualisation of the collocational relationship traditionally displayed in a tabular form but also constitute a novel analytical technique. This technique, although originally proposed by Philips in 1985, has only recently gained prominence with the introduction of the #LancsBox tool (Brezina et al., Int J Corpus Linguist 20:139–173, 2015), which can, among other things, build collocation graphs and networks on the fly. Simple collocation graphs and collocation networks show association and cross-association between words in language and discourse and can thus be used in a range of areas of linguistic and social research. This chapter demonstrates the use of the collocation network technique in (i) discourse analysis, (ii) language learning research and (iii) lexicography, providing three case studies that focus not only on the variety of applications but also on different methodological choices involved in using the technique

Issues in the assessment of bilingually educated students:expressing subject knowledge through L1 and L2

This article discusses issues related to oral assessment of school knowledge of L2-educated students. In particular, it examines benefits and disadvantages of students being tested in their L1 (their dominant language) and in their L2 (their language of instruction). The study draws on the data from 37 high school students studying in a content and language integrated learning (CLIL) setting in Slovakia. They were tested both in their L1 (Slovak) and their L2 (English) on material which they read in English. Their ability to verbally express content knowledge was assessed in terms of linguistic accuracy, fluency, academic format appropriateness and lexical appropriateness. The results from these 37 students were compared with the performance of 35 students who read the same material in their L1 and were tested in L1. The study shows how the choice of either L1 or L2 can to some extent constrain students' ability to express the knowledge they have

Question Asking During Reading Comprehension Instruction:A Corpus Study of How Question Type Influences the Linguistic Complexity of Primary School Students’ Responses

The authors examined teachers’ (N = 19) use of different question types during small‐group comprehension instruction for 6–11‐year‐olds (N = 115). The authors tagged the corpus of 40 hours of guided reading sessions to enable computer‐based searches for syntactic forms of questions. Teachers frequently asked high‐challenge wh‐ word questions (e.g., “How does that fit in with what you just read?”), and this was more pronounced in schools located in regions of low socioeconomic status, a finding associated with recency of completion of teacher training. Students’ responses were more linguistically complex when teacher questions comprised a high frequency of high‐challenge questions, particularly wh‐ word adverb questions (predominantly why and how). These findings applied across the wide age and ability range of the sample, indicating that high‐challenge questions are effective in small‐group comprehension instruction for students in different age groups and at various levels of reading ability. The authors conclude that teachers benefit from being informed about the effect of various syntactic forms of questions, particularly the nuances of wh‐ word questions. The findings also highlight the advantages of using corpus search methods to examine the influence of teacher question‐asking strategies during classroom interactions